Big Balls of Holly

The Christmas Song - Mel Torme and Judy Garland

For my wife...

Bing Crosby - White Christmas (from Holiday Inn)

Ray Conniff: Here We Come A-Caroling

Ray Conniff and The Singers: Let It Snow! / Count Your Blessings / We Wish You A Merry Christmas

BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE - Bill Jacoby & Lady Sybil Smythe

Baby It's Cold Outside - Doris Day and Bob Hope 1949

Fairy On The Christmas Tree

George Melachrino for your atomic Christmas party.

 

Santa's Too Fat For The Hula Hoop

Christmas in July

I am going to be posting listen links for some of my favorite Chistmas songs. These will just be quick entries without elaboration so that I can get them circulated on my new Blip FM stream. There will be kinks, I will work them out later. The tracks are hosted on rapidshare.  

Santa's Too Fat For The Hula Hoop

R.I.P. Ricardo Montalban

Ricardo Montalban earned his place in Christmas Music History when he sang "Baby It's Cold Outside" in the movie Neptune's Daughter. This marks the first of more than 50 years of recording this beatiful duet. They are being taken down  all of the internet, but here is a link to a site that has the imbed from the original scene.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Sprucing Up The Garden

Today's post is a double dipper. The same post going up on both of my blogs. Decorating the public garden for Christmas is where my passion for horticulture and Christmas come together. Along with the whole horticulture crew I decorated a 30 foot spruce with ornaments. The main thing that made this possible was the availability of large shatter-proof ornaments at a local big box center. Without this I would have needed a lot more money. These 10 dollar ornaments have been 4 to 6 times that online.

The first time I saw that sturdy Spruce I wanted to decorate it for Christmas!

There is an image here of my boss on the ladder that gives you an idea how high up the ornaments had to be placed. What you cannot get a sense of is the difficulty in getting the ladder positioned to keep the climber and safe, not to mention the ferocity of the wind.

 

Christmas At Our House

Here, now, for your listening pleasure, Big Balls of Holly proudly presents Christmas At Our House. Recorded in 1958 this album features the dulcet tones of Martha Tilton as well as the golden digits of George Mather at The Console.What we have here is a classic Christmas recording from some big time and long time Christmas music players. This is the record that was referenced in The Captain's Yuleblog a couple of seasons back, so read that again, please. The great find here is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. This is the original release of the Thurl Ravenscroft version of this song. Mr Ravenscroft is most famous to Christmas music fans for having sung "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch." IF that is news to you, yes you are thinking or the correct version and like all of us you thought that Boris Karloff sang that. Karloff did the narration of the original cartoon and Ravenscroft did the song. I am also adding the beautiful Martha Tilton version of Jingle Bells to my primary Christmas playlist, and straight to my ipod. It is interesting to note a couple of facts here. Ravenscroft and Tilton lived through just about all of Christmas music recording history and died within a year or so of each other in 2005 and 2006. Also, on the Martha Tilton tribute website neither these songs nor this album are listed in her discography. If you know any TIlton fans, make sure they see this share. Finally, I am adding a listening link for another Thurl Ravenscroft song. I do not have the record, but rather, found this at WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

Christmas At Our House

 

Santa's Too Fat For The Hula Hoop

eBay Alert!... Union Blow Mold Christmas Mouse

Wow! This is pretty cool. Lots of people collect blow molds. Usually people are collecting these because they had something similar as a child, or that is to say, their parents did. What we have here is what I call a crossover. An item that moves from personally nostalgic to generally nostalgic. What I mean is that this item makes you feel like displaying it for Christmas even if you have never seen it before today. It's early in the year, but I think this will go for more than 50 dollars. If we were in December this would make $75 easy.

Union Blowmold Christmas Mouse

Final Price $38.50

 

Snowflakes And Sweethearts

Hello Everybody! I have not posted in a while, and now it's time to kick it into high gear. I heard a terrific song today and knew that I had to post the album for share. Leroy Holmes was an American composer, arranger and band leader throughout the 50's, 60's and 70's. What you will find on this record is that quintessential 60's sound that we love in so many great artists of that time.  The song Snowflakes And Sweethearts transported me to Christmastime. Other tracks that are going onto my Christmas playlist are; The Worst Darn Winter In Years, Button Up Your Overcoat and Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.

Snowflakes And Sweethearts

 

 

Western Christmas

Big Balls of Holly proudly presents for your enjoyment, Western Christmas! This is one of the great Christmas records. Here again, as in my most recent share, the best track may be The Night Before Christmas Song.  There are some songs here that are not really Christmas songs but they continue the festive mood just the same. One of the songs is new to me, Wait For The Wagon (On Christmas Day). You will have to let me know what you think of that one. Will it be added to your playlist, downloaded to your iPod, included in your podcast? Speaking of podcasting, BBOH received a comment from HellBound Alleee and she has an interesting podcast. Here is the new share: 

Western Christmas

 

 

Christmas With The Caroleers

This weeks Christmas record share is Christmas With The Caroleers. The King, or Ernie, had posted the album cover on Flikr, but the wrong record was in the sleeve, so I do not believe this has been shared. The Caroleers were a group of talented vocalists who did not normally receive recognition by name on records. They recorded in many different styles and, as such, this isn't really a cohesive album, but it does shine on a few tracks. You will not be downloading the entire record. You are getting all of side A. Side B was too far gone to salvage, and to be frank, the songs on the b side are nothing special. That being said, there is one fantastic track on side B, The Night Before Christmas.I did work at length to clean that one up for you. It's not perfect but, man, that's a great song! Listen to that track now, then download the share.

The Night Before Christmas

Christmas With The Caroleers

Christmas Songs For Young Hearts

Here is a new Christmas share called Christmas Songs For Young Hearts. The singer is listed as Gene Martin and the band as The Arthur Carre Orchestra. Many of the Caroleer Records releases were intended to sound like popular artists on the major labels. This is clearly a Dean Martin and I think it does sound like him. It's a pretty cool record, quite enjoyable. I wish I had been around in those days to try and trick people by using names similar to famous people. I think I would put out a Bang Crosby and maybe a Maryrose Clooney! What fake names would you have used? Please post some ideas.   

Christmas Songs For Young Hearts

The Lundstrom's Wilderness Christmas

Many of you may remember The Lundstrom Family. Headed by the Lowell Lundstrom they traveled around the country on a gospel tour. They traveled 300 days per year for 40 years. No, doesn't ring a bell? Not with me either. They also had a radio show and television specials. Lowell Lundstrom produced more than 60 records. What's relevant here is that they produced a record in support of their Wilderness Christmas television special, and that's what I am sharing. This one is of interest because Lowell and his family speak on the record and even the young children "sing". This isn't really my cup of tea but I have received email from a couple of readers who listen to Christmas music with their grandchildren. This may be just perfect for children to listen along with. In my opinion, this record includes possibly the worst Christmas song that I have ever heard, and I am literally surrounded by bad Christmas music! I will let you judge. Please come back after you listen and let me know what you think. These are not broken into tracks, just sides, this way you can hear the record as intended with all of the family chatter. 

The Lundstrom's Wilderness Christmas

Happy Candlemas!

Did you think I was going to say Happy Groundhog Day? Today is February 2nd, and that means that Punxsutawney Phil comes outside to tell us whether we will have 6 more weeks of winter. Sounds really American doesn't it? Well, it comes from Germany, like much of our Christmas tradition. Candlemas is a Catholic holiday that comes 40 days after Christmas and marks the end of the Christmas season. Why 40 days later, you ask? This is the Feast of the Purification of The Virgin. According to Jewish law the Mother of a "man child" is considered unclean for 7 days, and she remains for 3 and 30 days "in the blood of her purification." Sheesh, no wonder we don't hear much about this. As the name implies, this is also the day that Catholics, and Orthodox Christians, have their candles blessed for use in the home.

More relevant to we American Christmas fans, Candlemas Eve marks the date to remove all greenery. It is said that each remaining piece of greenery after this date represents a goblin you will encounter during the year! If you keep your Christmas tree up throughout January and your friends and neighbors scoff at you, let them no that everything stays up 'till Candlemas Eve!

So, what's up with the Groundhog thing? Well, back in old Germany, Catholics have a tradition of watching for the hedgehogs shadow as a prognosticator of winter's end. They brought that tradition along with Christmas trees and candles and Christmas carols, etc. Just like with those other German traditions the Americans added the fireworks and hoopla.

Christmas Eve Favorites

Hello everybody and special thanks to my wife for getting me the perfect turntable for Christmas. So here we have Christmas Eve Favorites from The Longines Symphonette Society. LSS released a lot of music, often times without much info, and I don't see much being offered for share. I am sharing a good one here. Montovani is credited as the musical director and we can assume that means that he is conducting the orchestra, maybe even his own orchestra? This is a beautiful record and I am particularly interested in who the singers might be. When I heard the second track, Mister Santa, I thought immediately of the Mike Sammes Singers. I know at least one of you out there is wondering, why I think so.

So here goes... the Mike Sammes Chorus, sang background vocals in the U.K. in the 60s. They also recorded with Montovani in the States, including the album for Kismet, and a set of Christmas songs in 1963. The Christmas release was called Christmas Greetings From Montovani And His Orchestra, it was re-released in 1979. Kismet was released in 64. None of the songs from the 63 release, (aside form DTH), appear on the one I am sharing. It makes sense that either they recorded the others at the time or got together at a later date specifically for LSS. So here we may have a record that is not credited to Mike Sammes Singers but sure sounds like them to me. This is certainly not Mike Sammes Singers music, so it is difficult to compare, but if you have heard them over at FaLaLaLaLa let me know what you think of my hypothesis.

Christmas Eve Favorites