REAL Holiday Spirit(s)

If anyone up on the roof of the liquor store needs a little something to keep warm, it's just below them.

In 1958 my brother came home with a 45RPM of Stan Freberg's "Green Chri$tma$", a satirical and gently cynical poke at the commercial maelstrom that is the holiday season. In my opinion, it's never been equaled:



Now, I'm a lover of novelty records; I have cases of vinyl to attest to it, but Freberg's nearly seven minute saga still reigns supreme when it come to Christmas records for me. The public loved it, and the radio stations took the heat from Coke, Viceroy cigarettes and the other products that were speared.

The religious story of Christmas is still a central point of the holidays for many followers of the Christian faith around the globe, but once it became a means of making money l-o-n-g ago, all bets were off as far as the world of commerce was concerned.  If I were a deeply religious person that might offend me, but I'm not, so it doesn't. The whole idea of "peace on earth, good will towards men" is a sound one that I do my best to honor, but it shouldn't be restricted to the month of December, in my opinion.

This isn't intended to be a rant of any kind, but I thought I'd share Freberg's superb holiday cheer with you today.  As I said, there are many other Christmas novelty recordings; Freberg himself tried a follow up - "Christmas Dragnet" - which has its moments, but "Green Chri$tma$" still reigns supreme, and is just as relevant today as it was 53 years ago.

"Christmas Dragnet" is below.  I hope you enjoy both of them.