So, what is a Christmas song? My definition can be found at the start of the entries I wrote on Christmas Singles of the 1970s and 1980s for h2g2 The 70s entry is here and links to the 80s entry. Happy reading!
You can find every detail you ever wanted about Christmas hits, but for this entry I am simply going to concentrate on five Christmas songs ranging from the instantly familiar to the much more obscure. I hope you will take a listen to the tracks, especially if you don’t know one or two of them. These aren’t necessarily the best five Christmas songs in my extremely wide collection, but they are five songs that I really enjoy for a variety of reasons.
A 70s classic that stands the test of time
To be honest I could have chosen any number of songs from the first heyday of the Christmas record. However, as I have mentioned (on more than one occasion!) I am a die-hard Wombles fan. For that reason, much as I like Slade, Wizzard and Mud, it is to Mike Batt’s furry phenomenon that I look for my first song. It is a song that has as uplifting a chorus as any Christmas classic, a fantastic sax solo and lyrics that are shot through with an air of longing. This is not a hastily thrown together kids song, but a lovingly crafted homage to the season that epitomises Mike Batt’s brilliance.
https://youtu.be/AcQ-2CX4w1Y?si=doqFUVQ_Cug21EAo
A Christmas song full of meaning
The same year as The Wombles reached the Top 5, there was a song that captivated me as a nine year old and continues to capture my heart every year. It is called The Christmas Song, but perhaps is better known by its lyrics, ‘I’m not dreaming of a white Christmas’. Gilbert O’Sullivan had already had two number ones and a number of other Top 10 hits, so when this beautiful record came out, it looked like a certain contender for the Christmas Number 1. Bafflingly, the public decided to consign it to the mid-teens in the Christmas chart and a very undeserved obscurity. If you take a listen you will realise this is a song that has an almost ethereal quality and which speaks to the listener anew, particularly this Christmas.
An all time classic of love and loss from the 80s
My third choice is another beauty from the prolific Mike Batt. I had always thought that A Winter’s Tale was a hit at Christmas rather than a fully fledged Christmas song. However, when I went to the Mike Batt concert at the Bush Hall he mentioned that this massive David Essex hit was always a Christmas song despite never mentioning Christmas. You can’t get a more authoritative statement than that, so it is a Christmas song and earns its place in this list rather than tomorrow’s list. As always, the tune has a melancholy beauty that few other composers can match. The lyrics are achingly beautiful and David Essex’s performance is simply sublime. When I hear it every year its beauty and poignancy affect me anew. It is an amazing track that is 40 years old but sounds as fresh as ever.
A cover version that surpasses the original
In the 1980s, one of my favourite groups were the Welsh rock band The Alarm. They were one of the most unlikely bands to venture into the Christmas market, but for their fantastic greatest hits collection, Standards (a must listen by the way, especially if you don’t know how brilliant they are) they re-recorded Happy Christmas (War is Over) originally released by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band. Mike Peters made a great job of lead vocals, but what lifted this version way above the original was the Welsh Male Voice Choir to replace the discordant children on Lennon’s version. It gives the whole song a huge touch of class. Take a listen and I pretty much guarantee you that it will become your new favourite version.
A modern favourite with that 70s twist
Cats in Space are one of the best rock bands in the UK at the moment, not that you would know about them unless you are a die hard rock fan. They are a six piece band who bring Queen, ELO, Sweet, Slade and a whole host of other bands together in their songs but they do it in a way that makes their own sound. They have released two Christmas songs, a cover of I Believe in Father Christmas in 2021 and their self penned My Kind of Christmas the year before. My Kind of Christmas is an absolute joy, full of 70s references and the spirit of Christmas in abundance. Listen to it 2 or 3 times and you are bound to be singing along with the chorus!
I hope you enjoy at least a couple of these tracks and that you have a Christmas full of fun and music.
I mentioned Christmas traditions yesterday, and deliberately left one out. Every year, from my childhood I waited for the arrival of the Radio Times in the house. Armed with pens or highlighters I would go through the 2 weeks of television goodies – and baddies! – and decide what I wanted to watch. One year, I decided it wasn’t worth buying it and it was a decision I regretted throughout Christmas week! It is the cornerstone of our viewing plans as it goes from one person in the family to another to highlight in different colours. Now, the method was not exactly fool proof as you had to remember to look at the Radio Times every morning to plan your day ahead, but generally it worked. So, what programmes were likely to be highlighted? Well, I have chosen five of my all-time favourite Christmas programmes that will, undoubtedly, be available on some channel or package somewhere – or YouTube if you are really desperate!
The Good Life (1977)
This is a programme that I thoroughly enjoyed anyway, but the Christmas episode is an absolute classic. In this Boxing Day treat from 45 years ago, Margo is unhappy because her Christmas, which she has delivered in a van, does not measure up. After an argument with the delivery man, Margo sends the whole lot back but finds out that re-delivery before Christmas Day is impossible. Faced without Christmas, the Leadbeatters accept Tom and Barbara’s invite to their own, very different, Christmas. The four regulars are on top form, clearly enjoying themselves enormously, and the frisson of sexual tension between Barbara and Jerry always there as an undercurrent was brought to the surface extremely cleverly. It is also the funniest episode of the entire run in my opinion, with the self-sufficient Christmas of the Goods taking Margo well out of her comfort zone. The Christmas crackers – homemade by Barbara and filled by Tom – are revealed to have some jokes that are not entirely clean. Margo takes exception to a party hat for a very Margo reason, and Tom gives her a good talking to that leaves her open-mouthed!
Morecambe and Wise (1977)
Eric and Ernie were Christmas gold at this time of the year, but for many people watching in 1977, and for those who have discovered it since, this was perhaps their absolute pinnacle. Two musical numbers that have stood the test of time, and gone down in the annals of television history, were first seen in this show. First of all, Angela Rippon, then a newsreader, got out from behind her desk in a way that left viewers astonished. Then, the assembled cast of newsreaders, presenters and commentators gave Eric and Ernie sterling support in a rendition of There Is Nothing Like a Dame from South Pacific. Both songs were the subject of discussions in homes and pubs for days afterwards. With nearly half the UK population tuning in, you could guarantee that in any setting there would be others who had watched it. The rest of the show, since overshadowed, was also superb with Penelope Keith being an excellent comic foil in Cyrano De Bergerac, a play wot Ernie wrote! For those of us of a certain age Eric and Ernie will never be matched, and there’s no answer to that!
The Snowman (1982)
OK, I admit that this was not a programme I watched at the time. I was 17, and the idea of watching a cartoon on Boxing Day was the furthest thing from my teenage mind! I didn’t settle down to watch it until many years later when I had children of my own. They, and I, were immediately captivated by the story with its hand drawn animation and lack of dialogue. It was those two elements that gave it an indefinable magic that no-one has ever been able to replicate. When my younger son discovered it, he became obsessed with it. We had the video, the original book, the Ladybird book version and a much-loved Snowman soft toy. I spotted something new every time I watched it, and it has become a family favourite. 40 years on it still casts its spell on everyone who sees it, young or old.
One Foot in the Grave (1990)
The Christmas special of this increasingly well-regarded programme was tucked away on December 27 in 1990, in a clear indication of its place in the comedy pecking order, with Only Fools and Horses in the Christmas Day slot as befitted a ratings juggernaut. Boxing Day saw Back to the Future precede the ever-popular Bergerac. None of these shows or films contained a moment to compare with the hysterical scene where Victor Meldrew finds out that he has a problem with a delivery due to a mistake when he filled out the form. I won’t spoil it but suffice to say I could barely breathe for about 5 minutes as I laughed as hard as I’ve ever done at any comedy moment. The genius of David Renwick’s writing was his ability to switch from comedy to tragedy to philosophy in one programme. Who’s Listening is the best example of this writing genius and remains one of my favourite shows of any series in any genre. If you haven’t seen it before, do yourself a favour and seek it out. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Top of the Pops Christmas Special (Annual)
For decades, the Christmas Top of the Pops has been one of the two mainstays of BBC1’s Christmas Day afternoon. Usually shown at 2pm with the Queen’s Speech at 3pm (more about that on Christmas Eve in my Blogmas post that day) it meant that I always scheduled lunch for about 1.15pm so that we had finished in time. The appeal was simple. It had acts in the studio who were responsible for the biggest hits of the year, and it gave us song after song that we knew. Even if we didn’t like one or two of the songs, we knew that there were others on their way that we loved. Despite the parent programme being axed, the Christmas TOTP has survived, but this year I see it has been moved to BBC2. I fear that spells the beginning of the end as streaming makes the charts ever more remote from many people and makes the Number 1 at Christmas ever more unimportant, especially when it has been ruined by 4 of the worst songs to ever take the Christmas top spot in the last four years. Sadly, I doubt I will watch it this year, but at least the repeats are still around to remind me of the days when I loved it!
Although our Christmas seasons share many common features, what makes a Christmas ‘our Christmas’ is the family traditions that we build up over many years. Some of us may decide to keep many of our parents’ traditions, whilst others may decide to create an entirely new Christmas for themselves as they move away and set up their own lives. I am very much in the latter camp, so let me introduce you to our family traditions.
Christmas music and films
An interesting question, because different aspects start at different times. Christmas music starts on December 1 and goes through to December 31. I have a ton of music on various formats and never enough time to play it all, but that’s OK as I look forward to the Christmas tunes and never get bored of them. My own Christmas DVDs and Blu-rays also get their first outings around December 1. There are certain films we watch most years, but only one that has become a true family tradition. The film is Love Actually, and this year will be the 19th year in a row my wife and I will have watched it. The children started watching it when they were still young enough to be appalled by the naughty scenes! Once we get them together, on goes Love Actually and we laugh at the same scenes, cry at one scene in particular and feel thoroughly festive. It wouldn’t be December without it. Other films that get regular plays include at least 2 or 3 versions of my favourite story, (See Day 2 of Blogmas, A Christmas Carol and Me) and invariably The Polar Express, a particular favourite of my wife and daughters.
Christmas Decorations
In this category, we have the carefully treated decorations that have come back from school over the years from all of our children. They never fail to give me a warm glow, although the glow they give the children is sometimes mixed with a helping of embarrassment! Still, I know they appreciate the fact that their creativity still means a lot to us. Our nativity scene is housed in a stable made by my two daughters one year when they were much younger, and it makes me smile every time I look at it. Many of the decorations are now 15 years old or more, but they will continue to be put on the tree for many, many years yet.
Advent and cake toppers
OK, odd category, but they are a reminder of harder times, financially, that led to two of my favourite bargains. Probably 15 years ago, I walked into our local Sense charity shop and saw an Advent calendar of Santa coming down the chimney and I bought it on the spot for £2. It’s a very simple idea. Under Santa are a series of 24 numbered rods that are removed one at a time. At various stages, Santa will move down the chimney, reaching the bottom on Christmas Eve itself. We always made sure that each of the children moved Santa down the chimney twice each Advent, and it was a highlight of the season. 16 years later, it is still our main family Advent calendar, and we still love watching his journey down the chimney! The other bargain was a pack of 3 Christmas Cake toppers which I picked up in our local supermarket for 13p in January one year. As they will be on the Christmas cake for the 16th or 17th year in a row soon, I think I can say I got my money’s worth out of them! When I see those reminders of the poorer times that many still face, I reflect on the fact that I should be grateful for what I now have and never forget those who still struggle more than we once did.
Stockings and Presents
When did we stop putting out stockings for the children? The answer is that we didn’t! Our youngest daughter will be 22 this year, and she still has her stocking to wake up to every Christmas morning! Even our children who no longer live with us find their stockings when they come over for Christmas lunch, due to a mix up that caused Santa Claus to leave their gifts with us! Even now, if they ask about stocking presents, I remind them that it’s not up to me, it’s up to Santa what they get! To make it even more special, the children still have their original stockings – from 1998 for the oldest 3, and 2001 for our youngest. One year, one of the stockings went AWOL and we had to buy a replacement, something that upset our younger son more than he would let on. Luckily, we found it in the wrong box, and he still has his original stocking 24 years later! One thing that always amused me and made my heart grow three sizes was the insistence by our youngest daughter that her beloved teddy bear, Barnaby, have his own Christmas stocking. Well Santa couldn’t disappoint her, could he?
Presents are not put in a pile and opened before Christmas Day is a few minutes old! One thing we were very strict on from the start, was making sure that the children finished breakfast before opening their first present. After that they opened one present each at regular intervals until Boxing Day, or even the 27th depending on how many presents they had. That remains the rule to this day for the children. My wife and I realised after our first few Christmas Days with a growing family that our presents for each other were not being appreciated enough, so we moved our own present opening, first to the very start of Christmas Day once we had seen Santa delivering the stockings, and then to Christmas Day night after the children had gone to bed. It’s still our time together to appreciate the gifts we have given to each other
What does it all add up to?
As I said before, every family has their own traditions, and I am sure that yours are different to ours in many respects. What all these traditions add up to is the feeling that December 25th is more than a simple date on a calendar. It is everything that makes us a family, however near or far from each other we may be. I know that our children will have their own traditions when they settle down in homes of their own, but they will know that it’s a special day, because for our family it always has been.
From the ever-fertile imagination of Terry Pratchett comes his Discworld take on Christmas, but with our familiar seasonal traditions seen through a distinctly unusual lens. Now, for those of you who have never come across Discworld, I had better give you an introduction to a world quite like our own, but at the same time very different.
Discworld
Floating through space, supported by four elephants perched on top of the turtle, the great A’Tuin is Discworld, a flat planet with a variety of species co-existing, albeit uneasily. There are wizards, dwarves, trolls, vampires, zombies and, for want of a better word, human beings. As well as all of these there are supernatural beings who keep a not always benevolent eye on the goings on in the world. By far the most benevolent of these beings is Death who has become very fond of people. He and his Granddaughter are central to what happens in this novel.
The Plot
The story starts with a visit from a group of shadowy beings called Auditors. They are much like all managers in that they cannot deal with anything that diverges from their plans. One of the things that diverges from their idea of a smooth-running universe is superstition. They appear in the Assassins Guild one night and ask to have the Hogfather removed from existence. Like Father Christmas, the Hogfather travels to every child in Discworld dispensing presents in a sleigh pulled by four massive hogs. Children write to the Hogfather and leave out pork pies and sherry as well as root vegetables for the pigs. Like Father Christmas, the Hogfather depends on belief, without which he is unable to function. When the Hogfather disappears, it is up to Death to stand in for him to make sure that belief does not vanish. Whilst Death is delivering presents, his granddaughter Susan is given the task of finding the Hogfather. It turns out that his disappearance has something to do with the Tooth Fairy so Susan has to visit the Tooth Fairy’s realm. While all this is happening there is extra belief floating about in the world that leads to the creation of other supernatural beings like Bilius, the Oh God of Hangovers!
A commentary on our own world
In amongst the very strange cast of characters and the even stranger plot, there is a satirical eye cast over the behaviour of human beings here on Earth. Christmas is clearly the main target with its commercialism, excess and mash-up of traditions under fire from the occasionally sharp pen of Pratchett. There are superb set-pieces with the different gods, many of whom seem to be as bemused as the inhabitants of Discworld by their roles and their places in the scheme of things. Death delivering presents is utilised brilliantly as a vehicle for examining the logic, or otherwise, of Christmas. In one particularly funny scene, which riffs on Miracle on 34th Street, Death takes over as a department store Hogfather, and things start getting quite confusing for everyone. You see, Death assumes that the Hogfather will give children the presents they ask for, no matter how dangerous or impractical they are. There is a computer created by one of the wizards run using the power of an anthill leading to an ‘Anthill Inside’ joke that will mean more to those of us who remember early laptops than those who have grown up with the newer versions! In the final pages (no spoilers from me I promise), there is a quite scathing view of the nature of belief outlined by Death that never fails to hit home.
Why should I read The Hogfather?
Even if you are not a fan of fantasy, I really urge you to give this book a try. The use of Christmas as the basis for Pratchett’s humour makes this the most accessible place to start in my opinion. He will make you think, and he may make you question your ideas on a range of topics, especially if you read other Discworld books. Above all, however, he will make you laugh, often out loud and in today’s world who can pass up a chance for laughter?
I have been a fan of Lindsey Kelk since I first picked up I Heart Christmas, the sixth of her I Heart series featuring the character of Angela Clark. It was clear that Lindsey was a Christmas fanatic like me, and I smiled and laughed throughout as Angela’s Christmas mania reflected my own but exaggerated of course! I went back through the series, not always in order, and absolutely loved them. Once I saw that her new book was called The Christmas Wish I instantly ordered it and waited impatiently for publication day. Was it worth the wait? Well, read on!
The Plot
The book features Gwen Baker, a lawyer at a crossroads, whose professional and personal lives seem to be heading in one direction only, downwards. As usual, she is heading for her childhood home in Derbyshire to spend Christmas with her parents. The family know that she has finished with her boyfriend, a dentist who has, rather unimaginatively as the family point out, finished with Gwen and moved in with his receptionist! What they don’t know is that she is faced with losing her job at a prestigious law firm after attacking a client. It is a job she hates, but she has never told her family, especially her father whose dream it was for her to become a top lawyer. Gwen is hoping to get through the visit without admitting to this, but unfortunately her boorish brother-in-law has found out about the situation and told Cerys, Gwen’s sister. It’s like a ticking time bomb, and when it goes off, on Christmas Day itself, there are literal and metaphorical fireworks. Gwen goes to sleep that night, wondering how to fix things with her dad. The following day, however, isn’t the following day, it’s Christmas Day again. In an inversion of Wizzard’s classic song, Gwen must find a way to make sure that she escapes whatever is causing this, because she really wishes it wouldn’t be Christmas every day!
The story, the characters and the feelings
One of the cleverest things that Lindsey Kelk does is to get Groundhog Day out of the way very early on, when her adoptive brother and best friend, Manny, mentions it. Obviously, Groundhog Day itself is in a long line of events repeating themselves, but it is definitely the cultural touchstone that would otherwise remain in the back of our minds. Next, the spectre of repetition is also dealt with early on as Gwen decides that to get out of this situation, she must need to solve the problems of someone in the family. Once the idea of repeated Christmas Days is out of the way, every Christmas Day is different to the extent that common events are only mentioned in passing as the story takes hold.
Gwen is a thoroughly sympathetic heroine, albeit one with significant faults and failings which have put her in this position. She is grounded in reality but has that clear air of a Hallmark movie protagonist! Her increasingly desperate attempts to find the key to her problem show up a number of less positive elements of her character, but these are more than outweighed by the positive. Her family are very well drawn, moving from the surface characters we see in that first Christmas Day to complex individuals whose behaviour is often grounded in fear, regret and social expectations. Cerys in particular becomes far more understandable as we dig beneath the surface of her behaviour, and by the end she is a person I really warmed to. The central trio are Gwen, Manny and childhood friend Dev, now a very successful surgeon. Gwen learns more about them as every Christmas Day goes past, but they of course don’t remember the previous meetings and conversations. Interestingly, Gwen uses the things she’s learnt sparingly and, generally, as carefully as possible. She learns that Dev, who she always had a massive crush on, reciprocated that crush but neither of them admitted it to each other. The way that their relationship fizzled out over e-mail is true to life and will cause some people to think of their own failed friendships. The walk to Chatsworth House is one of the comic high points of the novel as the two friends revert to daredevil teenagers without really intending to. One more Christmas Day that was really well handled was the one where she tries to talk to Michael, her former boyfriend. It cleverly dissects a relationship break up that is not as clear cut as it seems.
This book just fills you with Christmas spirit when you read it. However, that Christmas spirit doesn’t have the overpowering, cloying sweetness of Bailey’s, more the sometimes-bitter edge of a mulled wine. It reflects family Christmases as they are with all their frustrations and irritations, but also with all the warmth, friendliness and togetherness that they contain. This is such a skilfully written book with brilliant comic set pieces, warmth and sympathy for all the characters and steeped in the traditions and feelings of Christmas. I loved every minute of the book and raced through it. Very unusually I am intending to read it again during December this year. It is the Last Christmas or Merry Christmas Everybody of Christmas novels – an instant classic!
