red and green are finally an acceptable color pair. terrible sweaters get to come out of the drawer. there’s sugary special drinks and claymation and family you don’t want to see and family you do want to see and bad movies with arnold schwarzenegger and great movies with peter billingsley and fireplaces or fake fireplaces and heaters and music. lots of music.
it’s hard to weed through the massive amounts of remakes and random singles, but each year, i seem to find one new album that blows me away and defines that december for me.

in 2006, sufjan stevens came out with his 5-disc christmas compilation. apparently, he stole my family’s idea of making a christmas cd for friends each year. but then he made his better. he put 5 of them together for this folky/lo-fi/brilliant/fun release.

highlights:
\\since it’s christmas let’s be glad: banjo. beautifully off harmonies, sleigh bells, “since it’s christmas let’s be glad/even if the year’s been bad/there are presents to be had/a promotion for your dad/don’t be angry don’t be sad” one of the few times that glaringly obvious rhyme works wonders.
\\put the lights on the tree: the “hit” of the compilation. there’s a video here __. rhodes. syncopated rhythms and a slew of wind instruments. “call your grandma on the phone/if she’s living all alone/tell her Jesus Christ is here/tell her there is none to fear” we sang it with our choir las year in church. it was great.
\\come on! let’s boogey to the elf dance!: “k-mart is closed/so is the bakery/everyone’s home/watching tv/santa claus is coming/hear the banjo strumming” pulsing/building piano. banjo strums. on this one the lyrics are the focus. making you laugh and smile the whole way through.
\\the little drummer boy: my favourite thing to do to standard christmas songs is jack up the chords underneath the melody. and sufjan does it to perfection here. what once was F C F is now F Am Eb F.
\\sister winter: the best original of the bunch. a well written and constructed song with swooping strings and build in the middle that exlodes into [Ab Eb Fm Bb repeat many times with the look of Christmas Joy on your face] (that’s from the chord book that comes with the cds)

so there’s one highlight from each disc.
grab the album on itunes or at the record label’s website: http://asthmatickitty.com/songs-for-christmas
it’s fantastic