How To Do Christmas Music
Some people are amazed that anyone could start listening to Christmas music a whole month out from the actual day, let alone for 8 or more weeks. It is actually done—sometimes exclusively—for the last couple months of the year. There are a few tricks to doing it right, and it is the considered opinion of this blog that anyone attempting to achieve this feat must prepare for and work up to it slowly. Otherwise permanent damage can occur that could render the person unable to listen to Christmas music again with any sort of enjoyment.
It used to be that a person had to work hard utilizing multiple CDs and a multi-disk player with a randomizer or, even worse, a cassette recorder to generate the needed randomness and mixture of songs needed for such a long period of time. However, today programs such as iTunes are a tremendous help and have made such musical marathons the sort of thing that nearly everyone can work their way up to.
The serious person wanting to engage in exclusive holiday ambiance for a whole month (or the ambitious, desiring the entire post-Halloween stretch) should really consider working up to the feat over a period of a few to several years. It is recommended that they begin by purchasing one or two albums a year and build up their collection. Early purchases should include classics from ones childhood years and a few newer albums from artists one is currently fond of. After some time and a handful of solid album choices, one should move on to buying several individual tracks a year to beef up the collection. Some 300 tracks should ensure that one can go an entire day on random and only hear each track once.
A few more tips that might be helpful:
Consider having multiple versions and interpretations of the same song. Especially such often recorded classics as “White Christmas” and “Silent Night.”
Try to achieve a good balance between religious songs and more secular “just for fun” songs. Make sure some of your songs are of the simply “winter” variety like: “Sleigh Ride” and “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”
Be sure to have a few of the less popular of songs like “’Zat you, Santa Claus?” and “Christmas Time is Here.”
Start out mixing Christmas and non-Christmas songs together further out and working your way up to just Christmas songs in the last week for the first couple of years.
And, most importantly:
Never listen to a Christmas Song between December 26th and October 31st!
It used to be that a person had to work hard utilizing multiple CDs and a multi-disk player with a randomizer or, even worse, a cassette recorder to generate the needed randomness and mixture of songs needed for such a long period of time. However, today programs such as iTunes are a tremendous help and have made such musical marathons the sort of thing that nearly everyone can work their way up to.
The serious person wanting to engage in exclusive holiday ambiance for a whole month (or the ambitious, desiring the entire post-Halloween stretch) should really consider working up to the feat over a period of a few to several years. It is recommended that they begin by purchasing one or two albums a year and build up their collection. Early purchases should include classics from ones childhood years and a few newer albums from artists one is currently fond of. After some time and a handful of solid album choices, one should move on to buying several individual tracks a year to beef up the collection. Some 300 tracks should ensure that one can go an entire day on random and only hear each track once.
A few more tips that might be helpful:
Consider having multiple versions and interpretations of the same song. Especially such often recorded classics as “White Christmas” and “Silent Night.”
Try to achieve a good balance between religious songs and more secular “just for fun” songs. Make sure some of your songs are of the simply “winter” variety like: “Sleigh Ride” and “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”
Be sure to have a few of the less popular of songs like “’Zat you, Santa Claus?” and “Christmas Time is Here.”
Start out mixing Christmas and non-Christmas songs together further out and working your way up to just Christmas songs in the last week for the first couple of years.
And, most importantly:
Never listen to a Christmas Song between December 26th and October 31st!
Oh Jason, Jason, Jason...we are purist at our house. Only Andy Williams and Bing Crosby---at their finest! And I can handle it a whole month!! Ok...a little Mannheim Steamroller thrown in there.
ReplyDeleteIt IS the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
ReplyDelete