It's December 1 -- time for the annual celebrations, people! Let's start by raising a glass to the unification of Transylvania, birthplace of Sylvania televisions. And transsexuals, duh.
It's also time to find out how the greater metropolitan blog world celebrates some of the other, less well-known December holidays. Behold NYC Bloggers Do the Holidays, a tour of urban goodies in list and link form. The WFMU contribution, courtesy of Otis Fodder, is a playlist packed with 80 tracks that will either make you freak out or keep you from freaking out, depending on your metabolic set point.
Holiday Freak In (2002) and Holiday Freak Out (2006) are compilations Otis pulled together for his special people, and now you're a special person, too. A guy who really likes Christmas music liked them a lot. You can read that guy's interview with Otis and commentary while you download. Cuz that's gonna take a while.
Downloads, track lists, and details on NYC Bloggers Do the Holidays after the jump.
Holiday Freak In (MP3)
01 Roger Roger - Jolly Bells
02 Gordon Thomas - Merry Christmas
03 The Sounds Extraordinare - Take A Ride On Santa's Rocket
04 Northern Telecom - I Want An OC192 For Christmas/The 12 Days Of Christmas
05 Chinese Kids Choir - Hark The Herald Angels Sing
06 Oscar The Grouch - I Hate Christmas
07 Danger Woman - Sleigh Ride
08 Karen Gathercole - Come and Join the Celebration
09 Alain Marcoux - Noël j'ai mal au coeur
10 Red Coffee (Quacky The Singing Duck) - Ducky Christmas
11 Major Bill Smith and Nancy Nolte - Happy Birthday Jesus
12 Inpatient Music Therapy Program, Univ of Michigan Medical Center, Children's Psychiatric Hospital - Jingle Bell Rock
13 Les Poppys - September Noir December Blanc
14 The Greenbergs - Sleepy
15 Bathing Beauty - Christmas Tears
16 Ethel Smith - Jingle Bells
17 Otis Skillings - Love Can Work A Miracle
18 Raymond Scott Quintette - Christmas Night In Harlem
19 Eddie Davis - A Recorded Christmas Message for Reverend W. Simmons
20 Les Intimes - C'est Noel
21
Inpatient Music Therapy Program, University of Michigan Medical Center,
Children's Psychiatric Hospital - Oh Come, All Ye Faithful
22 2 Live Jews - Sabbath Night
23 Mae West - Santa Come Up and See Me Some Time
Featuring
the sequeway talents from Jan & Dean, Marc Bolan, The Cast of
Bonanza, Tabloid Radio, The Seventh Day Adventist Church, Flo Price,
and Susie & Allie possessed by Tammy Faye Bakker.
Contributions
from Miss Amy, Dana Countryman, The Greenbergs, Karl Hoffman, The
Bomarr Monk, Dr. Faustus, Narkspud, Oddio Overplay, Pastor McPurvis,
B.C. Sterrett, Jef Stevens, Mimi La Twisteuse, and April Winchell.
Compiled by Otis Fodder, with love to you and yours this winter season.
Holiday Freak Out -- Disc 1 (MP3)
01 A Visit From Santa Claus!
02 Milton Delugg & The Little Eskimos - Hooray For Santa Claus
03 Sam Ulano - The Story Of Santa Claus
04 Corporal Blossom - White Christmas
05 The Ventures - Snowflakes
06 Fred Lowery - Letter To Virginia
07 Arthur Lyman - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
08 National Lampoon - Kung-Fu Christmas
09 Bobby 'Boris' Pickett - Monsters' Holiday
10 Mae West - From Mae To You
11 Katie's Kitchen - Holiday Ring Mold
12 The Kaisers - Merry Christmas, Loopy Lu
13 Annette & Frankie - The Night Before Christmas
14 Martin Mull - Santafly
15 The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping
16 Stan Freberg - Green Christmas
17 The Caroleer Singers - Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts
18 Toni Stante - Donde Esta Santa Claus
19 Margo Guryan - I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You
20 Kimi & Ritz - Merry Christmas Baby
21 The Misletoe Disco Band - Sleigh Ride
22 Wayne Newton - Jingle Bell Hustle
23 Sy Mann - Jingle Bells
24 The Border Brass - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
25 Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol - All Alone In The World
26 Ferrante and Teicher - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
27 Buchanan & Goodman - Santa and the Satellite (Part 1)
Holiday Freak Out -- Disc 2 (MP3)
01 The Free Design - Now Sound Christmas Introduction
02 Swingerhead - I'll Be Home For Christmas
03 The Blue Hawaiians - Have Yourself A Quiet Little Christmas
04 The Brave Combo - O Holy Night Cha Cha Cha
05 Billy May - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo
06 Tammy Faye Bakker (Susie & Allie) - Jingle Bells
07 Kirsten & Heather Mayne - Silver Bells
08 Little Marcy - Suzy Snowflake
09 Wild Man Fischer - I'm A Christmas Tree
10 Esquivel - Frosty The Snowman
11 Mel Torme - Good King Wenceslas
12 Johnny Cash - The Little Drummer Boy
13 Franklyn MacCormack - I Like Christmas
14 Jimmy Mitchell - Eres Tu
15 Star Wars Christmas - R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas
16 Spike Jones - Christmas Island
17 Robert C. Pritikin - I Sawed Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
18 Buchanan & Goodman - Santa and the Satellite (Part 2)
19 Run-DMC - Christmas In Hollis
20 The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight)
21 Neil Innes - Dear Father Christmas
22 Ricky Segall - All I Want To Ask Santa Claus
23 The Ladmo Trio & The LaChords - Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
24 The Surfaris - A Surfer's Christmas List
25 Jan & Dean - Frosty The Snowman
26 The Grasshoppers - Santa Claus, Rudolph and Us
27 Red Sovine - Here It Is, Christmas
28 The Carpenters - Merry Christmas, Darling (Live 1978)
29 Herman Apple - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
30 A Visit From Santa Claus!
Contributions
from Michelle Boule, Dana Countryman, Decibal Dennis, and B.C.
Sterrett. Compiled by Otis Fodder, with love to you and yours this
winter season.
NYC Bloggers Do the Holidays
Brooklyn Based -
Home for the Holidays
Give and Get NYC -
Tis The Season to Volunteer
the improvised life -
unwrapping the holidays
Manhattan User's Guide -
The Gift Guide
Mommy Poppins -
Offbeat and Multicultural Family Holiday Events
NY Barfly -
It's the Holidays, Time to Drink
NewYorkology - Big-ticket holiday shows: Nutcracker, Rockettes, Wintuk
offManhattan - Ten Holiday Getaways Near NYC
Patell & Waterman's History of New York - A little history with your holidays
the skint -
30 days of skintmas - a cheap (or free!) holidays-in-nyc-treat for every day of the season
The Strong Buzz -
Holiday Eats Old and New
WFMU Beware of the Blog -
Happy Freakin' Holidays Playlist
Walking Off the Big Apple -
The Thin Man Walk: A New York Holiday Adventure with Nick and Nora Charles
P.S. Otis didn't want any credit, so if you see him, act like this never happened.
I hate Mother's Day. Not only is my husband forgetful, but he doesn't really care about holidays the way that I do, and unfortunatly, the golden rule, "treat people the way you want to be treated" doesn't always apply! So my high expectations for how Mother's Day (and all other holidays) should be, combined with my husbands lack of enthusiasm for holidays, equals me hating Mother's Day!
Posted by: r4 dsi | December 01, 2009 at 12:32 AM
NY Barfly link doesn't work - has an 11 where there should be a 12.
Posted by: kris | December 01, 2009 at 09:10 AM
All links should be working now--thanks!
Posted by: Amanda | December 01, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Thank you for posting these!
Posted by: Richard | December 01, 2009 at 01:07 PM
oh nice, i haven't heard that Grasshoppers song in years. hysterious!
Posted by: paul | December 01, 2009 at 08:14 PM
oh. my. god. i love you. really.
Posted by: tilly t | December 03, 2009 at 09:14 AM
I will steal from you and put these songs on my own holiday special at CKRL FM, Quebec City !
This is good stuff that we have to listen to from time to time because cheap christmas music is everywhere and is making me craaaazzy !
L'Homme Scalp
Posted by: Claude Brindamour | December 06, 2009 at 06:20 PM
2 thumbs up for all 3 playlist (especially disc 2).
Song Placements
Posted by: Sixx Deville | December 07, 2009 at 08:48 PM
"...and now you're a special person too." Thank you 'Happy' Harry Cox!
-- Steve Barton
Dunwoody, Georgia
Posted by: Steve Barton | January 03, 2010 at 09:03 PM
Hey, is there any more Bathing Beauty out there? And if so, where can I score some?
Posted by: Matthew Shiver | February 08, 2010 at 02:09 AM
Here's another song on YouTube (one of those songs with a generic cd cover),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arj0lY2zx8w
As far as I know Bathing Beauty is a studio concoction from various musicians affiliated with the Siesta Records label (out of Madrid, Spain).
You can order the highly recommended Christmas CD here,
http://siesta.es/pags/banda_discos.asp?codBanda=160
It's not a normal holiday CD, very sunshine pop oriented and covers of some obscure 80's songs.
Siesta is a great label to support, completely indie, and with a great roster of artists.
Posted by: Some Guy Who Likes Music | February 09, 2010 at 10:39 AM
Ahhh, and after checking further, it seems the Xmas comp on Siesta is out of print. You might try writing Siesta and they may have somewhere where you can buy it from a online store (mp3s) - http://siesta.es/pags/contacto.asp
The release is,
fantasia de navidad - http://siesta.es/pags/disco.asp?codigoSiesta=160
Posted by: Some Guy Who Likes Music | February 09, 2010 at 10:47 AM
I know a hundred people who will love this site!
Posted by: Gheard | July 13, 2010 at 07:31 PM
sounds like you had fun did you get yourHolidays online
great songs list
Posted by: Dean | July 26, 2010 at 05:27 PM