drummers drumming

Merry Christmas, still. Today is the feast of the Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas. I once interviewed the Armenian Comedian on this day. He wore a grungy Santa suit to celebrate Armenian Christmas. If you never saw him on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," please watch the clip on YouTube.

A few years back I was traveling on Epiphany weekend and went to Mass at St. Mark Catholic Church in Vienna, Virginia. After Mass everyone went over to the parish hall to see a display of nativity scenes brought in by parishioners. Their creche exhibit is an annual event worth copying at local churches. I think they may have served cookies too.

The other day I heard somebody on ABC News mention a USA Today story about retailers promoting Three Kings Day as a way of extending the holiday shopping season. Stores such as Wal-Mart are using the holiday to appeal to Latino customers.

Since we're still celebrating Christmas, here are a couple of pictures I took last week in the West Hills neighborhood. Both of these were winners in a mailbox decorating contest.

reason for the season

The North Pole defeated the South Pole in a surprising come-from-behind victory yesterday at the Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The South Pole team took an early lead in several equestrian events. The North Pole team finally scored some points in the pig and ostrich races. Ultimately it was audience participation that made the difference. A North Pole fan tied the overall competition by decisively winning the toilet seat toss. With the game on the line, North Pole fans were able to pass several toy candy canes from person to person faster than their South Pole counterparts. The cane-passing standout Murphy family of Knoxville helped cinch the victory for the North.

Prior to the competition, the audience witnessed a short nativity play. Actors portraying Mary and Joseph were lowered from the ceiling on a small square ice rink. Once the platform touched down on the surface of the horse arena, a herd of goats and a few donkeys were shepherded around it. Three camels carrying three wise men completed the scene as a trained dove flew the length of the arena into the hands of a live angel suspended from the rafters.

as people make merry

Merry Christmas! Today is the day we celebrate even though Jesus was probably born on April 17. Here are some random holiday thoughts.

My friends Bean and Rich posted their responses to the Christmas meme they got tagged with by me. They're funny. Don't miss numbers 13, 16 and 21.

Had I known that yesterday was National Egg Nog Day, I wouldn't have waited until today for my first sip of the season. I would say the first sip of the year but I had some on August 17.

I thought of some additions to my list of favorite Christmas songs. I can't believe that I forgot "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." I like almost any version, especially the Darlene Love original and the U2 cover. Another favorite is "For Unto Us a Child Is Born," which we heard on the PBS broadcast of "Christmas at St. Olaf." The piece is from Handel's "Messiah." The lyrics are taken from the same Bible passage that I proclaimed at the 8:00 p.m. Mass last night.

heard him explain

When Frank Jr. was three years old, he couldn't go to sleep at night without listening to a cassette tape of Wilford "Diabeetis" Brimley reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas." It was a read-along tape, that came with a companion pop-up book and an audible signal to turn the page. Frank Jr. unintentionally memorized the story by hearing it every night for almost a year. Two years ago I wrote about how we brought young Frank to the KROQ studios and recorded his rendition of the story. Audio production people far more skilled than me did some editing and brought in a talented keyboard player named nicknamed "Iceman" to provide background music.

I have played the old tape on the air here in Knoxville for the past couple of Christmases. About ten days ago, Marc Anthony suggested that we take the tape of three-year-old Frank and mix in his current voice. My son is now in high school and has a deeper voice than me. I didn't know if it would be possible without it sounding terrible since I don't have the master tapes or separate audio tracks from the recording session. The only version I have is the final mixdown with voice, reverb and music combined onto one track. I would need to find somebody who could replicate the music track, allowing us to cross fade between the old and the new. My friend Mike Greiner was willing to do it even though his schedule was filled with his day job in the Knoxville Symphony office, his performances as a singer with the Knoxville Choral Society and his excellent piano and organ playing at All Saints Church. I put my wife's Casio keyboard in the car and met Mike at the radio station during his lunch hour. As expected, he nailed it. The next day, Frank Jr. had enough of a break in his midterm exam schedule that he could lay down the voice track.

I still needed an audio production wizard to put all the pieces together and make it sound seamless. Fortunately Gene Wooten has chosen to make his home in East Tennessee after years of working at WPLJ in New York City. He pushed an outdated version of Pro Tools to its limit as he synchronized the music and voices. He added reverb and ended up with the finished product that you can hear by clicking on the play button below. Merry Christmas Eve!

stamp act

It's always popular this time of year to come out against holiday newsletters. Many newspaper columnists have filled lots of column inches berating the annual synopsis that usually comes tucked into a Christmas card.

MSNBC asked readers to submit examples of outrageous Christmas letters. A writer from Glendale, California, wrote a book full of them. In his AllAccess.com Talk Topics column, Perry Simon pointed out that even the governor of South Carolina sends a Christmas letter.

No matter how corny the newsletters may be, I love them. For the few minutes it takes me to read the missives, it's as if my friends and relatives had blogs of their own. One married couple I know always includes a section about their successful radio show. Another couple who went to school with my wife let their children each write a paragraph about themselves:

T-----, 13, is in eighth grade. I like to play goalie in soccer. I still swim in the summer and winter. I also went to King's Dominion with my friend around Halloween (Fright Night). It was awesome.

S-------, 17, can see the light at the end of the dark, dank IB (International Baccalaureate Diploma) tunnel. He has continued his advance up the ranks of the quiz bowl team, and is now a steady member of the near-lossless A team. He still maintains his distaste for writing about himself in the third person.

phone home

"Nightline" had a feature on Paul Potts the other night. He was the winner of "Britain's Got Talent." Potts likes his new found fame but hasn't quit his day job, just in case it all goes away. He is on a leave of absence from Carphone Warehouse. I just saw that store on the series finale of "Extras" when a character loses his showbiz job and goes back to work at Carphone Warehouse.

The same edition of "Nightline" also had a short piece on Josh Groban. Josh talked about how he and David Foster "broke down the rhythm" of "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear." My wife liked their arrangement of that song but didn't care for what they did to "Ave Maria." She heard both songs after receiving Groban's top selling Christmas CD "Noel" as as gift. Oprah chose the disc as one of her favorite things, don't you know. If I correctly understand what my wife said, Josh dropped the Latin word "et" in one of the lyrics and then moved the subsequent syllables onto the wrong notes. She also didn't like the way he omitted the second verse and repeated the first instead. Maybe Josh didn't want to ask Mary to pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

We found an unexpected Christmas music treat while flipping around the dial last night. Our PBS HD station was running a Christmas concert by an a capella group called Tonic Sol-fa. They did a great version of "Ay, Ay, Ay It's Christmas," a song which I had previously only heard by Ricky Martin. The Tonic Sol-fa special is worth watching if they repeat it even though they spent a little too much time on filler between some of the songs.

Who knew that "Ay, Ay, Ay It's Christmas" is another one of those songs that people lip sync on YouTube for comedic effect?

the meme team

The Christmas meme I got the other day is being proliferated throughout the local blogosphere. Stacy McCloud and Barry Wallace have posted their memes after being tagged by me. I need to officially meet Barry. Apparently I've seen his band but we haven't been properly introduced. Les Jones and Doug McCaughan emailed me to say they are working on their Christmas memes. MissyB got tagged by someone else but referenced my frozen egg nog stash in question number five on her meme. Some bloggers got tagged more than once.

In response to question 14, I said that I would write more about my favorite Christmas songs. Every year hearing Leroy Anderson's "A Christmas Festival" overture gets me in the holiday spirit. Thinking about that medley made me realize that "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" should top my list of seasonal favorites. The choir at our church has added a choral version of an Amy Grant song to their repertoire this year. I liked it enough to find the original song in my CD collection and listen to it in my car. As a result, I will add "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)" to my list.

I think I've mentioned my secular favorites before. "Sleigh Ride" is another Leroy Anderson composition that I must hear for it to feel like Christmas. "Last Christmas" could almost be described as a guilty pleasure. "All I Want for Christmas Is You" also deserves inclusion. The last few bars of "Happy Holiday" continue to grow on me. At some point in the next few days I will listen to my Andy Williams CD and watch my Andy Williams DVD too.

long answers to short questions

Here's the Christmas meme I got from Jack Lail of the News Sentinel. Rules for the game include:

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share Christmas facts about yourself.
3. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Welcome to the Christmas edition of "Getting to Know Your Friends."

1. Wrapping or gift bags? If I can't get my daughter to do the wrapping for me, I will resort to gift bags.

2. Real or artificial tree? It used to be real until we moved to Tennessee and made the switch to artificial. We wanted to put the tree up earlier and were afraid of it drying out by the time we finally took it down in January.

3. When do you put up the tree? I don't. My wife does, God bless her, in late November or more likely in early December.

4. When do you take the tree down? It stays up until after the Epiphany.

5. Do you like egg nog? Yes, Weigel's brand with nutmeg on top.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Probably my magic set or my hand puppets but I also loved getting Hot Wheels cars and accessories.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. We have a simple ceramic set made by my mother's second husband. My mother has a classic Anri carved wood set that I have always admired.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I got some horrible "adult" gifts from coworkers at WAVA and Comedy World.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? I like sending email cards but receiving paper cards.

10. Favorite Christmas Movie? "Miracle on 34th Street" is a strong contender.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? My wife does the bulk of the shopping. This year she went to a 4:00 a.m. sale on Black Friday. I bought a gift for her about two weeks ago and a gift for a friend of mine on the West Coast last week. It seems to get a little earlier each year.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Some pfeffernusse and a glass of egg nog.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Currently clear but we are discussing adding colored lights next year.

14. Favorite Christmas song? After this weekend's Knoxville Symphony concert, I would have to say Leroy Anderson's "Christmas Festival Overture". That choice is a little bit of a cop out since it's a medley. I need to make a whole list of my favorites and turn it into its own blog entry later this week.

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. I have a rule that we wake up in our own beds on Christmas morning. That may change once our kids move out.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Sure, can't you?

17. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither. We have a big red bow. On our first Christmas together, my wife and I couldn't afford a tree topper. We happened to go to a department store called Hecht's on Christmas Eve just as they were dismantling their decorations. We asked how much they were charging for the treetop bows. They said they were going to throw them away and gave us one for free. When that bow wore out, my wife made a new one with different design but the same sentiment.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning? Christmas morning. When I was a kid, we would get up early and open all the presents in our pajamas. Then we would have to stop playing with our toys to get dressed and go to church. When my wife and I became parents, we decided to teach our kids that presents didn't get opened until after church.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Repetitious airplay of the same old secular holiday songs.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? We collect ornaments from all the places we visit. We also have all the official White House ornaments.

21. What do you leave for Santa? Homemade Christmas cookies and store bought egg nog.

22. Least favorite holiday song? There are several including "The Christmas Shoes." Quickly moving up (or is it down?) the list is the Crazy Frog version of "Jingle Bells." Stresiand's version of "Jingle Bells" is horrible too. I don't like "Wonderful Christmastime" either but it's not as bad as the other songs I've already mentioned.

23. Favorite ornament? Most of our ornaments are souvenirs of places we've been. I'm especially fond of the St. Louis Cathedral ornament that I got in New Orleans. It has a hole in the back for a light to be inserted.

The questionnaire I received ends here. No self-respecting Christmas survey should end at question number 23. I will add two questions to make it 25.

24. Family tradition? Whoever finds the pickle ornament on the tree gets to open the first present.

25. Ever been to Midnight Mass? Yes, but only once or twice. When our kids were very young, we went to church on Christmas morning. As they got old enough to participate in the children's choir, we started going to the late afternoon Mass on Christmas Eve. Now we go to the 8:00 or 10:30 p.m. Mass on Christmas Eve. Our parish doesn't have a Midnight service.

Now I get to tag some other bloggers. This meme calls for seven tags, which seems like a lot. But I'll do it. Merry Christmas to Bean, Rich, Les, Kimmy, Doug, Barry and Stacy. Once you've posted your answers, leave a comment here so my readers can find your responses.

too many nogs, not enough time

They were offering samples of egg nog in tiny Dixie cups at Sam's Club today. It was not thick enough or sweet enough for my taste. Instead I stopped off at Weigel's on the way home and bought two small containers of their egg nog, which went directly into my freezer.

This past August, I finally drank the Weigel's egg nog I had frozen in 2005. At four ounces per serving, it took me four days to finish the pint. It still tasted great, which is why I decided to freeze two pints this year. Like two years ago, I wanted to find bottles with an expiration date of 12-25. They only had 12-20, 12-22 and 12-29. I almost didn't buy any. Fortunately I got over my little obsessive moment and bought the 12-29 since it would be freshest.

I know that I will have to watch my calories for the rest of my life. It's tough this time of year because of the abundance of treats to tempt my sweet tooth. I would love to have a scoop of egg nog ice cream at Baskin-Robbins but I'm not sure if I'll get around to it. My starchy dance card has been filled lately with things like the slice of pie I had at the company Christmas party tonight, the piece of cake I had after Tuesday's improv show or the Christmas cookies our family will bake in the week ahead.

Another treat I'm curious to try but probably won't is boiled custard. I'm not exactly sure what it would taste like, although I did find a recipe on a blog that described it as egg nog without the nog. Does that mean it tastes like just egg? I saw some boiled custard at Kroger the other day, alongside some pumpkin egg nog. That's something else I would like to try but I won't buy a half gallon container. I might be tempted to drink the whole thing.

joyful and triumphant

The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra presented the first of four Clayton Holiday Concerts tonight. The remaining shows are Saturday at 3:00 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. The concert has become an annual tradition for our family. My wife sings on stage with the Knoxville Choral Society. As usual, the opening number was the "Christmas Festival Overture." I love the feeling I get during it, especially as the music and voices swell at the "O Come All Ye Faithful" part near the end of the medley.

The Choral Society was in fine voice even without the members who are performing in the Holy Land this month. Their second song, "Welcome All Wonders," had that modern dissonant sound that I don't love. My wife says the song takes some getting used to. My son, who has heard her sing along with the practice CD in her car, agrees that it get better after you've heard it a few times.

Perhaps it's because I've been going for several years in a row but the 21st Annual Clayton Holiday Concert had a very comfortable feel to me. Past years' shows felt a bit more ambitious. For example, a few years back they presented parts of a play that Maestro Lucas Richman had written. Those pieces needed more room than is available with a full orchestra and choir already on stage. "A Christmas Wish" deserves its own staging rather than being shoehorned into an annual tradition. Last year and the year before the program included featured soloists, some better than others. In addition to the Choral Society, this year's show had return appearances by the Appalachian Ballet Company and the best singing Santa you'll ever hear. Mr. Claus was featured on "A Holly Jolly Christmas" and "Silent Night." Santa and Maestro Richman always get laughs with their playful banter.

Even the new performers felt familiar to me. Thanks to Katy Wolfe Zahn's affiliation with the Symphony, the members of Sound Company get to perform at bigger events now. My daughter was in the Oak Ridge based children's show choir during her senior year in high school. I recognized their red sequined vests instantly. The kids sang on five songs including "Must Be Santa" and "Grown-up Christmas List."

At the end of the first half, my son asked why we all stood during the "Hallelujah Chorus." He wondered if it was a Southern thing. I told him to look at my blog entry from two years ago.

The second half began with Lucas Richman's Hanukkah Festival Orchestra. I enjoyed the upbeat music, especially the recognizable "Dreidel Song." Am I wrong to have wished he had included a few bars of Adam Sandler's "The Chanukah Song" in the medley too?

A photo montage was shown on two large screens during the Choral Society's excellent performance of "White Christmas." The performers were invited to submit holiday pictures from their families. We saw ourselves thanks to my wife, who emailed them a picture from last Christmas. We all stood again for the Christmas sing along. Overall, the show felt relaxed and the performers made it look easy. At the end of two hours, I was left wanting more.

the spirits up

Whitney Matheson of USA Today doesn't miss an opportunity to point out the lameness of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime." Yesterday she linked to another clever list of the worst Christmas songs ever which ranked "WC" at only number eleven. They put "Do They Know It's Christmas?" as their number one. By the way, Whitney has a Knoxville connection. She graduated from UT.

Meanwhile, my friend Bean seems to be on board too. On his Christmas Music Everyday blog, he posted a cover version of "Wonderful Christmastime" by Jars of Clay. He writes that "the only listenable Paul McCartney songs of the 21st century can not be sung by Paul McCartney." Hey, it looks like Jars of Clay will be performing in Pigeon Forge on January 26 and Gatlinburg on February 1. They probably won't play any of their Christmas songs though.

As I type this, I'm watching "Christmas in Washington" on TNT in HD. Dr. Phil and his wife returned as hosts for the annual event. Robin McGraw's reading of the teleprompter was very stiff and almost too uncomfortable to watch. Both Katherine McPhee and Ne-Yo sounded good. Colbie Caillat looked nervous in what they said was her national TV debut. Vanessa Hudgens sounded weak, especially when attempting the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" part of "Angels We Have Heard on High." Then Heather Headley came on to show them how it's done.

north polarizing

The most loved Christmas song on Edison Media Research's 2007 survey is "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole. I believe it, based on the number of times I have heard its first few notes and changed the station. I don't hate the song but it is burned out to me, like chestnuts left on an open fire for 50 years.

The Edison results are reported by Sean Ross, who I think might be the same Sean Ross I knew at my first radio job at WVBK in Herndon, Virginia. Sean points out that the newest song on the most loved list is 36 years old. I know I've covered this topic before but it's still something that interests me.

My friend Bean has some insight about why we still hear the same old Christmas songs over and over. He picks Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" as a song that will stand the test of time.

I'm thinking that Wham's "Last Christmas" is becoming a classic, especially now that there are more cover versions of it. In the past few years I have heard covers of it by Dexter Frebish, Jimmy Eat World, Ashley Tisdale and Taylor Swift. Even the Wham original is easier to find than it was about six or seven years ago when I tried to catalog my collection of Christmas music. As I made a spreadsheet of the songs on my CDs, I realized that I didn't have a copy of the Wham tune. I searched for it online and in record stores to no avail. My wife finally found it at the Virgin Megastore on an expensive British import compilation two-disc set. It was my favorite gift that year.

The Knoxville Blog Network tipped me to a list of Jim Miller's personal top ten Christmas songs. I like that he picked "Last Christmas" as his number one but I must disagree with his choice of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime." This is not a surprise to longtime readers of mine.

Edison's most hated list contains no surprises. Although I would have liked to see the McCartney song on there, I was pleased to find Barbra Streisand's version of "Jingle Bells" at number 5. I don't remember ever hearing the song until I worked at a local oldies station but I do remember instantly disliking it. While I still loathe the song, I had to laugh at the guys who lip sync it on YouTube, whether in their bedroom or in a drag club.

green evergreen

The annual "Christmas in Rockefeller Center" special was on NBC last night. The show counts down to the lighting of the Christmas tree outside 30 Rock. Yet somehow they missed the shot of the lights going on. At the key moment, the camera was still on the people pushing the button. It would have been better to see the dark tree become illuminated, especially in HD. Poor Nick Lachey. He co-hosted the show alongside Ashley Tisdale and the perennial Al Roker. After Al said that the "High School Musical" DVDs would be on many Christmas wish lists this year, Nick suggested that 98 Degrees CDs would make excellent stocking stuffers. Yeah, if it were 1999.

Josh Groban sang "O Come All Ye Faithful," Carrie Underwood sang "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and Tony Bennett sang "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town." Ashley Tisdale did a fine job with "Last Christmas" but Taylor Swift did some damage to "Silent Night" with her twang. They put Celine Dion up in the Rainbow Room, perhaps as a way to disguise that her performance was probably pre-recorded. I thought she made weird facial expressions toward the camera while singing. I wanted to look away but couldn't. It was as if she was attempting to make sexy faces while singing "The Christmas Song." Ewww. New York audiences got to see an extra hour of the show starting at 7:00 p.m. They heard an additional song from many of the performers who were on the network show at 8 o'clock. The hour included Natasha Bedingfield singing "O Holy Night" and Josh Groban singing "Little Drummer Boy."

Al Roker was trying to sound eco-friendly when he actually said the words, "the owner of Rockefeller Center announced the first-ever green Christmas tree." Huh? Of course he meant that the lights are powered by solar energy panels on the roof and that the tree was cut with a hand-held saw. Maybe union writers could have phrased it better.

weary world rejoices

In an effort to catch a five minute appearance by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, I recorded all four hours of the "Today" show yesterday. Ann Curry flubbed her line and said that Brian "Seltzer" would be on the show. She joked about it later by saying Setzer was bringing some seltzer to their morning. Although the set was decorated for Christmas, the band played "One More Night With You" from their "Wolfgang's Big Night Out" CD instead of a holiday tune. The BSO will return to "Today" on Christmas Day. Since the equipment was all set up, they must have recorded the Christmas segment before this morning's live performance. In fact, they might have shown part of it. As they came back from a local news break, I saw the Orchestra finishing up "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus." Ann Curry tried to explain that away by saying it was a rehearsal for the live segment that was still coming up.

Gifted tenor Carl Tanner was on the "Today" show a couple of years ago. A friend of mine knows Carl pretty well and has been doing what she can to help his career. She called me this afternoon to ask if I had any suggestions for getting Carl an appearance on WASH-FM, the all-Christmas station in his hometown. I think Carl could be a good guest on my friend Loo Katz's morning show. Meanwhile, I asked if I could get one of Carl's holiday CDs for myself and one for my friend Bean, who loves Christmas music even more than I do.

Mere weeks after launching his new blog, Bean has another new website called Christmas Music Everyday. Each day he will post a song from his extensive Christmas music collection. Bean's site promises to be even better than the enjoyable "Last Christmas" blog I heard about, uh, last Christmas.

use the Brannock Device

Knoxville has two all-Christmas music radio stations. The first one flips just after Halloween. The second station doesn't rate a button on my car radio until they make the switch to holiday music right after Thanksgiving. I hit the scan button to search for it on Friday around 10:40 a.m. Sure enough, they were playing the treacly song that I most associate with their station: "The Christmas Shoes." Ugh.

I have added three Christmas CDs to my collection so far this year. Publicist Alan Rommelfanger of Daybreak Entertainment once again sent out a promo disc with tracks from his various clients. Most of the tracks seem to be novelty songs rather than cover versions this year. It includes titles such as "Santa Has a Mullet" and "I'm Down to My Christmas Underwear."

Last Sunday night at West Town Mall's Evening of Giving, the Select Comfort store gave away free CDs to anyone willing to lay down and find out their sleep number. Naturally, I rushed right in. The music is a predictably sleep-inducing assortment of instrumental tunes.

Earlier that day, the Ladies of Charity had a mini rummage sale set up on a table in the parish hall. This was the same event as the parish bake sale I've told you about. I bought an unopened copy of last year's two-disc Bath & Body Works Christmas compilation for only $2.50. It was worth it just for the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy cover of "Mr. Heatmiser." Somebody took that version of the song, mashed it up with the animation from the original "The Year Without a Santa Claus" and put it on YouTube.

peace on earth, goodwill toward men

Merry Christmas! This past December I saw a guy on the National Geographic Channel who said that Jesus was born on April 17 in the year 6 BC. He used astronomical calculations to determine that the Star of Bethlehem (a/k/a Jupiter) would have been visible 2,012 years ago today. After yesterday's events we could use some of that Christmas spirit.

Earlier today, my wife spoke with her sister who went to Virginia Tech. Through her we heard about a friend of a friend of a friend who survived the shootings by falling down and playing dead. Meanwhile we learned that the shooter grew up in Centreville, near where another of my wife's sisters used to live.

come on down

It's the fifth day of Christmas and I'm still catching up on some holiday viewing. I probably would have gotten to this sooner if I had been able to take some vacation time this week like I did at previous jobs. The week after Christmas doesn't quite feel the same to me when I still have to wake up for work in the morning. Anyway, on Christmas Eve, I recorded a show called "Santa Salutes the Stars," without knowing what it was. It turned out to be an incredibly cheesy Christmas parade in Orlando. I knew it would be spectacular as soon as "The Price Is Right's" Rich Fields read the following script to start the show:

From the family entertainment capital of the world, Orlando, Florida, the Real Yellow Pages from BellSouth presents "Santa Salutes the Stars" starring Hollywood entertainer and TV funnyman Alan Thicke; from TV's "Days of Our Lives," Patrika Darbo; with performances by "American Idol" sensation Kevin Covais; country performing artist Brian McComas; TV personality and singer Shawn King; The Gemz; CMA female vocalist of the year Janie Fricke; country great John Conlee; and featuring the one and only Gloria Gaynor; plus a special appearance by radio and TV talk legend Larry King; American Idol's Melissa McGhee; and Santa Claus!

The parade was telecast on Superstation WGN. I doubt it will ever be shown again but a paradegoer did post some home video on YouTube.

Larry King's special appearance consisted of standing next to his wife on a parade float as she sang about something in the oven and the whole "fandamily" comin' and how she's "Gotta Love the Holidays." Covais warbled his way through "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" but the worst thing might have been the stilted, almost remedial way Patrika Darbo read from her script. Or maybe it was the middle school aged dancers lip syncing to TLC's version of "Sleigh Ride." Or the superstar appearance by the guy who played Paulie Gatto in "The Godfather." I can't decide.

happy holy days

Merry Christmas! I hope you've had a good one. My family and I went to church last night at 10:00 p.m. Today we exchanged gifts and ate some delicious food including the Oreo Truffles you've been reading about. There was another sweet treat for me under the tree. I am now all about the Pomegranate Fruit Slices from Nancy Adams Confections. Each year my wife loves to get the annual White House Christmas Ornament from her mother. This year was no exception.

One day last week, right after school, I took my son to do his Christmas shopping. He wanted to buy gifts for each member of the family with some of the money he had earned over the summer. However, his money was in the bank and we didn't have time to go there first. I offered to use my credit card and let him pay me back later. I helped him pick out presents for his mother and his sister. He already knew exactly what he wanted to get me. As we walked to the cash register, he kept my gift hidden in his pocket. I was a little stressed that it would look like we were trying to shoplift but it worked out fine when the checkout clerk was able to ring up the sale without me seeing what Frank Jr. had chosen for me. This morning I was surprised and delighted to find that he had given me a DVD of "My Super Ex-Girlfriend." I was especially happy because I would finally get to see the first 15 minutes of the movie. The deleted scenes are pretty entertaining too.

Today was the first day of Christmas. The twelve days of Christmas run through the feast of the Epiphany on January 6th. An editorial in the Buffalo News accurately describes my feelings that Christmas music on the radio starts too early and ends too soon. Most of us are still celebrating Christmas through New Year's Day at least. If you are planning on hauling your tree to the curb tomorrow morning, you might have a little bit of the Grinch in you.

the stars are brightly shining

On Christmas Eve, it's appropriate to do some of the same things we do every year on this night. In that regard, I invite you to revisit my blog post from December 24, 2005. Please enjoy the story (and the audio) of my son's version of "A Visit from St. Nicholas."

Speaking of the famous poem by Clement C. Moore, did you see that a handwritten copy of it sold for $280,000? While you're listening to Frank Jr., feel free to browse through the December, 2005 archives for stories about Christmas music, presents, ornaments and food.

Blog reader Keith suggested I check out a site called "Jesus of the Week." This week they are featuring an inflatable nativity scene like the one I saw in a supermarket two weeks ago.

The other day I mentioned that I don't get the INHD channel, which will be showing a yule log tomorrow morning. The famous WPIX yule log will be shown on Superstation WGN but it's on tonight/tomorrow morning from 3:30 to 5:30 a.m. As I flipped through the channels on my new plasma screen, I discovered that Knoxville has its own hi-def yule log on WMAK. It's on from 4:00 p.m. today until 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. I know it's local because I heard "Tennessee Christmas," as nicely sung by my former radio partner Ashley Adams. While I'm talking about other stations in the market, I'll go ahead and say that the little-known Earl FM has been playing a pretty good selection of Christmas music today with several cool artists you'll never hear on Bland 97.5.

atta boy Clarence!

Why do we hear the same Christmas songs on the radio every year? An interesting article in the Arizona Republic says it's because stations prefer to play songs that remind listeners of their childhood. Perhaps this explains why "Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives has eclipsed Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" as the Christmas song receiving the most airplay. "Holly Jolly Christmas" is from the 1964 television special "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." Adults in their 40s have grown up with it. "White Christmas" comes from the 1942 film "Holiday Inn," meaning an older generation grew up with the classic Crosby tune. What about the next generation? Is there a song from the 1980s that was enormously popular? Please don't tell me that "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" is destined to replace "Holly Jolly Christmas" as the most played holiday song.

"Last Christmas" and "All I Want for Christmas Is You" are two of the many secular holiday songs I got to play on the radio this afternoon between current top hits. But I still had the Christmas spirit no matter what song I was playing. Take a listen to my intro of the Hinder song "Lips of an Angel."

unanimous decision

Paul McCartney is having a rough year. His lame song "Wonderful Christmastime" has been chosen as the worst Christmas song of all time by retroCRUSH and as the most annoying Christmas song of all time by Giant Magazine. Longtime readers of this blog know that I'm on this bandwagon. Earlier this month I quoted from a Daily Beacon editorial that called "Wonderful Christmastime" the "most mediocre excuse for a pop song ever." A St. Petersburg Times writer is especially passionate about his disdain. Pop Candy's Whitney Matheson hates it too. Over a year ago I made a vague reference to my dislike for the song. Now I wish I had been more blunt. Meanwhile, Father Guido Sarducci is trying to deliberately write the worst Christmas song ever.

Giant Magazine is balancing their list of the most annoying songs with a list of the most underrated Christmas songs. The Chicago Sun-Times asked its readers to vote for the best Christmas song.

I've been soaking up some Christmas music in high definition. I think my new favorite channel might be PBS Digital. I like that I get it over the free airwaves (on channel 15-1). Tonight I watched two Christmas concerts, one from Concordia College and one from the Mormon Tabernacle. This evening they showed the 2003 concert with guest soloist Frederica von Stade. A couple of nights ago I saw the 2005 concert with guest soloist Renee Fleming.

My satellite provider doesn't offer the particular HD channel which will show a hi-def yule log with a Christmas music soundtrack on the 25th. Even though it's not in HD, I may still want to watch a little bit of the old school yule log on WGN. It's the same one that used to befuddle me as a child growing up in New York. We lived in a house that had its own fireplace, so we didn't need to watch the famous televised Yule Log. I am happy that he won on "Survivor" though.