:smack: Didn’t think that looked right. Turns out that it was the B side to one of the “Silent Night” singles and I wasn’t paying attention.
Robertson Davies, one of North America’s finest Authors, wrote High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories. High Spirits is a collection of short stories by the Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist and professor. Robertson Davies was Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario from 1963 until 1981. Shortly after founding the College, he decided that he would tell a ghost story at the College’s annual Christmas party — its Gaudy Night — as an entertainment. The telling of a ghost story became a tradition, and for eighteen years Davies wrote a new story, which he read out at the Gaudy Night celebration.
Christmas Carl? Isn’t he a character in Love Actually?
Yes, the enigmatic chief designer Karl! He’s cute. 
That song is stupid from start to finish. Another verse goes something like:
And what was on those ships all three
On Christmas Day in the morning?
Our Savior Christ and his lady
On Christmas Day in the morning.
Jesus had not yet been born on Christmas Day in the morning. And he sure wasn’t on some damned ship, much less three ships.
And imagine the ruckus if all the bells on earth rang and all the angels in heaven and all the souls on earth sang on Christmas Day in the morning. I’m pretty sure that would wake up all the babes on earth.
If it helps, think of it as "Outside the snow is falling, and friends are calling you “Who?”
Don’t forget about the “whip that cracks”!!!
Another nice gift for a kid!
I think the usual assumption is that he was born at some time during the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So by Christmas Day in the morning, he would have already been born.
I won’t dispute about the ship, though.
Absolutely HATE this song, for these EXACT lyrics. That’s some rhyming desperation there! :eek:
(Shrug.) Don’t know if that one actually works, but the one that I had as a kid when Indiana Jones was new sure did. (That was also the time period for the Great Ninja Fad of the 1980s, so I also had real swords, butterfly knives, blowguns, nunchucks, throwing stars, and throwing knives as a kid.)
(Didn’t read whole thread; don’t know if this has been addressed…)
That 20-foot bust of Santa is looooooooong gone from its hallowed roost on that rooftop in Carpinteria. But last time I drove down that way (admittedly 12+ years ago) it was sitting in a car dealership parking lot or some such place alongside the freeway in or near Ventura. If you’re driving north on 101 (“The 101” as the southlandish say it), watch for it on the right.
An obscure one: A Flemish Carol, which I think I’ve only heard on a Mormon Tabernacle Choir album from my youth. It has this interesting lyric:
A little Child on the earth has been born
He came to earth for the sake of us all
And wishes us all a happy new year
Those crazy Flems…conflating Baby Jesus and Baby New Year. I picture Jesus in the manger, wearing a diaper, top hat and a sash (with a “1” on it)
The interesting thing about Do You Hear What I Hear? is that it’s not really about Christmas. It’s a veiled reference to the Cuban Missle Crisis.
Do you hear what I hear?
A star, a star, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
Seriously.
As for me, my absolute favorite Christmas song is the Little Drummer Boy. I know, but hear me out. A miracle has just occurred, this little impoverished boy makes the journey to welcome the King, realizes he has nothing to offer in celebration, and gives the only thing he can give - his music, the truest expression of his soul. He thinks it’s a paltry offering, but it’s the best gift of all. I’m tearing up just thinking about it.
That said, those low pitched “huuuums” in the background of that song set me on edge.
Oh, I like “The Little Drummer Boy”, too, and for the same reasons. But you still have to admit that it’s kind of ridiculous, and that there’s some fun to be had with that ridiculousness.
Oh yes, that comment about, “You had one job!” cracked me up.
Hey, if “jingle-belling” can be a verb, so can “mistletoeing”!
Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas is my favorite Holiday CD and I love his voice so it really doesn’t matter WHAT he is saying but I am so confused by The Bells of St. Mary. I finally really listened to the words and checked on line and . . .
The young loves, the true loves,
That come from the sea.
And so my beloved,
When red leaves are falling,
W T F
“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”
“Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again”?
What district did this songwriter live in? Because it looks a hella lot like Christmas in the stores on November 1. The rest of the world starts celebrating Christmas on Black Friday, with municipalities and homeowners putting up lights, and every radio station playing Christmas music. Meanwhile, every district that I ever worked in has school right up until the last possible minute.
November 1? If only. The first store displays around here were up before Labor Day this year.
Back to “We Need a Little Christmas”, one of Mame’s nephews complains it’s too early to put up the decorations because Thanksgiving was only a week ago.
Wow, even I won’t complain about Christmas decorations going up right after Thanksgiving. My family happens to wait a little longer, but it’s still perfectly reasonable.