I am inspired to share a photo I took today of our Winter Wonderland. We are currently situated inside an "ice sandwich" - packed snow on the ground covered in a tasty solid layer of ice from last night's ice storm, topped off with a fresh dusting of today's snow. I am so moved by the weather in fact, that I am finally going to put the finishing touches on the following Holiday post and share it already!
There are several subjects I won't broach here on Upside Down Cats, namely, religion, politics and sports. Simply stated I have nothing good to say about any of them and Mom always told me" If you can't say something nice..." and well, you know the rest. I do believe, however, that a person's Christmas song preferences are every bit as personally subjective as her opinions on the aforementioned subjects. Yet in the spirit of the season I am perfectly willing to divulge my favorites, knowing full well that they are likely to spark as much controversy as my opinions on those other highly-charged topics of discussion.
Sadly, an appreciation of Christmas songs is not a memory Scott and I can share. Not having been raised celebrating Christmas is a bulletproof excuse though, so I really can't fault him for not waxing nostalgic when it comes to the seasonal tunes. Recently Scott has posted an awesome list of his favorite Non-Traditional Christmas songs on his blog. Although he has developed an appreciation throughout the years for songs about Christmas, Scott would be the first to note that it is different than the songs being ingrained in one's psyche since day one.
It's OK, though...fear not for our shared cultural reference quotient. We'll always have Trilogy of Terror and Caddyshack, so we've got that going for us...
My house, on the other hand, was Christmas freakin' Central! My brother and I would break out Bing Crosby's Merry Christmas album the day after Thanksgiving and listen incessantly. Once in a while we'd throw on some Perry Como or Nat King Cole for good measure. Those songs provided the soundtrack for my family's Christmastime preparation and celebration. Even today as a radically different-thinking person than the wide-eyed little Catholic girl who awaited the arrival of both Baby Jesus and Santa Claus, I still feel tugs at my heartstrings when I hear certain versions of certain songs...My Christmas Songs.
