And just like that, it’s Christmas Eve. Gifts are wrapped, meals are prepared, the gingerbread house is waiting for our unique brand of mayhem ("Hey, let’s make it a crackhouse this year!" Anne said, because we just can’t do much of anything in a "traditional" way, which is just fine with me.)
I haven’t been into Christmas this year. I’ve been too overwhelmed with work and deadlines to enjoy the few things that I genuinely love about the season. Last night, while my family was out doing Christmas things in the kitchen, I was in my office, struggling to stay on schedule to make my deadline on Friday. I could hear the Christmas music, I could smell the Christmas treats, and I felt sad.
I called my editor, and asked if I could have a few more days on this project, so I can take the 24th and 25th off and give my family a husband and stepdad for Christmas, instead of a bitchy writer who is freaking out on a deadline. He said it would be fine, and I got the greatest Christmas present of all: the gift of time to spend with my family.
For the last 18 hours, I’ve been able to love Christmas. Though my kids are grown, I’ll be watching NORAD track Santa, because it’s silly and magical and reminds me of all the years I sat on dial-up with Ryan and Nolan in my lap (when they could both fit there at once) while we waited for the big guy to get close enough to go to bed. This evening, we’ll be watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and, of course, A Christmas Story.
Yeah, it’s only Christmas Eve, and the Christmas season is only lasting a few days for me this year, but it’s okay. I already got what I wanted.
Right now, Anne and Ryan are out taking a walk, Nolan is at his friend’s house, and my house is empty except for me and the dogs. I’m doing a few Propeller things, so I can close up the laptop and officially put myself on 48 hour family leave. I’m listening to my crowning achievement this holiday season: a collection of holiday music that’s so awesome, it took two CDs to hold it all. I’m proud of it, and I though I can’t actually share the CD, I can at least show it off, so here goes:
The Best Xmas Ever! Volume I
1. Linus And Lucy – Vince Guaraldi Trio
2. Zat You, Santa Claus? – Asylum Street Spankers
3. Little Saint Nick – The Beach Boys
4. Christmas Is – Lou Rawls
5. Mr. Heat Miser – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
6. Christmas Cocktail – Jaymz Bee & the Royal Jelly Orchestra
7. Winter Wonderland – Darlene Love
8. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo – Billy May
9. You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch – Thurl Ravenscroft
10. Chiron Beta Prime – Jonathan Coulton
11. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – Andy Williams
12. Jingle Bells – Singing Dogs
13. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – The World’s Greatest Jazzband
14. Feliz Navidad – Los Straitjackets
15. Cha-Cha All the Way – Capitol Studio Orchestra
16. Winter Wonderland – The Golddiggers
17. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
18. Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms
19. Holiday On Skis – Al Caiola & Riz Ortolani
20. Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) – Vince Guaraldi Trio
21. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Jaymz Bee & the Royal Jelly Orchestra
22. Twelve Gifts Of Christmas – Allan Sherman
23. Deck The Halls – The World’s Greatest Jazzband
24. Christmas in Las Vegas – Los Straitjackets
25. Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid
Best Xmas Ever! Vol II
1. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – The Alarm
2. Space Age Santa – Jaymz Bee & the Royal Jelly Orchestra
3. Please Come Home For Christmas – Charles Brown
4. Mele Kalikimaka – The Surfers
5. Run Rudolph Run – Chuck Berry
6. The Christmas Song – The Raveonettes
7. Donde Esta Santa Claus? – Guster
8. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – Domenico Savino
9. This Christmas – Donny Hathaway
10. Frosty The Snowman – Jimmy Durante
11. Carolina Christmas – Squirrel Nut Zippers
12. Nuttin’ For Christmas – Stan Freberg
13. Sleigh Ride – Johnny Mathis
14. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – George Wright
15. Carol Of The Bells – Hanna Barbera Organs & Chimes
16. (Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With the Bag – Kay Starr
17. Parade of the Wooden Soldiers – Fred Waring
18. Cool Yule – Louis Armstrong
19. What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder
20. Sun Valley Ski Run – Esquivel
21. Do You Hear What I Hear? – Rauder and Hobbs
22. White Christmas – The World’s Greatest Jazzband
23. Baby It’s Cold Outside – Royal Crown Revue
24. Jingle Bells Mambo – Pete Rugolo Orchestra
25.Marshmallow World – Darlene Love
26.Christmas At Ground Zero – Weird Al Yankovic
Peace on Earth, and Happy Xmas, everyone!
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You forgot “Fairytale of New York” 🙂
Great Xmas song collection! 🙂 I have a lot of the same songs (some of them are performed by different artists) on my Xmas playlists. I’m especially happy to see Thurl Ravenscroft mentioned on there… such a shame that he was never given credit for singing that song on the actual Grinch cartoon. If you want to do a third CD, here are a few suggestions:
White Christmas – The Drifters
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – The Pretenders
Thank God It’s Christmas – Queen
Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24) – Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Santa Claus & His Old Lady – Cheech & Chong
Anyhoo, I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🙂
Great list, but you omitted two of the greatest Christmas songs ever:
“12 Days of Christmas” by Bob & Doug MacKenzie
“Dominic the Christmas Donkey” (artist unknown by me)
Have a great Christmas Day with the family. My son is home for Christmas and it brings tears to my eyes to see how grown up and independent he has become. Cherish the little moments!
Merry Christmas!
May I recommend our family’s traditional holiday tune? Gayle Peevy singing “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.”
Here’s a link to someone who synchronized their light show to it. It’s pretty fun to roll down the car windows and sing along.
Now that’s dedication without a lack of Christmas spirit! Merry Christmas!
Fran R Me too. In fact, I teared up while I was writing this, thinking about all the years when the kids were little. Christmas is very different for us, now that they’re grown.
Any compilation with Stan Freberg goes up a couple points in my book. 🙂
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Unka Willy.
~j
Wil, Merry Christmas to your and your family!
I love the Christmas song list! Very good choices!
Man, the time difference is weird. We here in Germany are 9 hours ahead of you in California and in my family, we already got the presents, had our Christmas dinner and are now getting ready to go to church.
I’m going to add to the song suggestions. This song is a favorite around Oklahoma, since it originated here after all.
I Wand A Hippopotamus for Christmas
Have a great Christmas, and forget about your deadlines for a while!
Very Merry Christmas to you Mr. Wheaton and fambly!
Whoa! Another Spankers fan! Cool!
merry christmas to you and yours, Mr. Wheaton. I’m obsessing over My Morning Jacket’s christmas album. Which is probably my favorite non-traditional Christmas album.
Hey, Wil! Thanks for sharing your holiday playlist. When you’re ready to build Volume III, one addition most folks would never think of is Billy Joel’s “She’s Right On Time.” (You know, I don’t think I ever saw that video before! Fun!)
you tease! you’ve told us about the gingerbread crackhouse without posting pictures.
have a very merry christmas. –regis
Merry Christmas!!!!! 😀
And thanks for my Xmas gift 😛
Although I am similarly shocked that there was no TSO on that list!
Just need to add Boney M – Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord to the list…
Merry Christmas!
What? Nothing by Trans-Siberian Orchestra? Your missing out.
Seriously.
(I was at their concert Friday. Im still hyped)
Glad you could get the much needed hours.
Merry Christmas!!
(And for the love of all thats holy, FIND SOME TSO!!! :p 😀 )
You missed out on two of my all-time favourite Christmas songs.
Santa Clause is Pagan Too, by Emerald Rose (I think it’s free to download from their site)
and
Six White Boomers by Rolf Harris.
Otherwise, a kick-ass compilation. Have a wonderful Christmas!!!
Wil Wheaton Saves My Christmas
Wil Wheaton, apparently you were my only hope, and you have saved me from holiday music hell!
Over at WWdN: In Exile, Wil talks about Christmas with his family–glad you got the days off, Wil!–but also shares his holiday music playlist.
I found this link while watching the “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” video and wanted to share it.
It’s a graphics designer in Utah who synched his house lights display with Christmas music: http://www.holdman.com/christmas/video.asp
My favorite is “Carol of the Bells”.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
I’m happy your editor gave you those all important two days. I too have been up to my eyes in a work project for the entire month of December, and it’s a downer when you realize the season will be over, and there wasn’t time for the usual anticipation and enjoyment. But today I’ve managed to just let it go, and will spend today and tomorrow with friends and family (and hopefully blow the month’s worth of dust off my video games!) and what client can deny me that!
Merry Christmas.
Wil,
Mad props (I believe that’s the phrase the damn kids today use) in wrapping up the collection with Weird Al. That is by far one of my favorite all-time Xmas songs.
I should if I still have my “Tales from the Crypt” Christmas album…
Dear Wil: Merry Xmas to you and yours. Great playlist! And I agree with Whistlebinky: why the H hasn’t someone added Thurl Ravenscroft’s name to the credits for *Grinch*? I mean, if the SFX people could figure out how to add Harlan Ellison’s name to *The Terminator* credits in 1991, some CGI guy could probably do it during his lunch hour.
And here’s my adds:
Christmas at Kmart–Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band
Zat You, Santa Claus?–Buster Poindexter
Green Christmas–Stan Freberg (who, BTW, grew up in Pasadena)
A Child’s Christmas in Wales–John Cale
Happy Xmas/War is Over–John Lennon
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)–Ramones
Fairytale of New York–The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl (R.I.P.)
Could go on, but won’t. Merry Seasons Holiday Greetings to all!
Oh…and Space Ghost’s version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” as performed by Metallis, Tansit and Brak. I’ll give away the ending:
On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…LEONARD NIMOY SINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4 quesadillas
3 reruns of “What’s Happening!”
2 + 8 is 10
HI MY NAME IS BRAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!
A Spaceman Came Travelling, Chris de Burgh.
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=GmZg7tvGN9o
Sleep tight Uncle Willy. It’s all right there in your heart my friend. Just have a listen to “Merry Christmas Everybody” by Slade, and you’ll know that EVERYTHING will be OK.
All the best to you, from all of us.
Merry Christmas
Great memories and compilation.
My additions:
“Mr. Heatmiser” by The Swamp Zombies
“Santa’s Back in Town” by The Cadillac Tramps
“Peace on Earth/ Little Drummer Boy” by Bing Crosby/David Bowie
“I’ve got some presents for Santa” by the Jenerators
Merry Christmas, Wil, from my family to yours, and to everyone else who posts here. The comments to Wil’s posts are icing on the cake and I read them all with pleasure.
This year I discovered Wil’s blog and it is a daily must for me.
Cheers
I had a great Chanukah and wish you and yours a Very Joyous Christmas and a Healthy, Peaceful, Prosperous 2008. I have about 20 of my kids stopping by tomorrow so it will be a busy day. Bill Mann
Merry Xmas to all. Now, all I ask of Santa is a photo of this gingerbread crackhouse. I think I have the cookie cutters that go with said house — one dude’s missing a leg, another’s missing an arm and the third lost his head…
Merry Christmas to you and your family, Wil!
Loved your Christmas compilation – it has nearly all of my favorites, and reminded me to pull out one of the Christmas CDs I haven’t listened to this year.
If you want a laugh, though, here’s a link to one of my favorite Christmas songs:
(It’s Robert Earl Keen’s Merry Christmas from the Family.)
Have a wonderful Christmas and a great time with both of the boys home with you!
Glad to hear you could get you deadline moved up! Merry Christmas to you and yours Wil!
I also got a great Christmas gift the other day: #58/300 😀 Awesomesauce!
You just missed one song- If you’re gonna have “Christmas at Ground Zero,” then you gotta add “The Night Santa Went Crazy,” also by Weird Al… personally, I woulda put Sarah McLaughin and Jewel on there, but I’ve noticed that they’re not really Unka Willie style… Merry Christmas to you and your family from me and mine- May you have lots of laughter and happy tears, and make memories to last for many years! 😀
That’s a great list, Wil, and gives me several new things to take a look at. The only glaring omission (from where I sit, at least) is:
Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses
That has to be my favorite holiday song.
Happy Holidays to all.
Dear Wil,
I got “Just a Geek” for Christmas this morning. I love it — and I’m already well into Act II.
Just wanted to say Merry Christmas, and thanks for your writing.
That is a great playlist!
I hope the rest of your Christmas “season” is fun and restful.
You are -such- a geek. 😀 Merry Christmas.
Hey Wil, Merry Christmas!
If you like the Vince Guaraldi Trio, check out Cyrus Chestnut’s “Charlie Brown Christmas”–it’s just as good.
From Lee Gold of LASFiS,
CALIFORNIA WONDERLAND
Trick or treat day just ended
Christmas time has descended
They’re decking the halls
For sales in the malls
In our California wonderland
Garbage kid rotorooters
Barbie doll home computers
In full color ads
What fun to be had
In our California wonderland
On our TVs we can watch it snowing
And be glad that it is not near by
Outside we can hear santanas blowing
All the summer smog out of the sky
Here’s a creche and menorah
Sure and faith and begorrah
They’re a secular show
Cuz our lawyer says so
In our California wonderland
(Repeat refrain and last verse)
And speaking of santanas, we’ve got one down here. Gives us two good reasons to be grumpy and out of sorts. 🙂
A Charlie Brown Christmas is a classic. Just bought the DVD for my grand-nephew. (Is it grand- or great- ?) Anyway, “all I want is my fair share.” Classic line!
Nice list. I’d add:
Slick Nick, You Devil You – Fishbone
How about “Father Christmas,” by the Kinks?
Hope you had a Merry Christmas.
As long as everyone is tossing in their suggestions for Vol III, here’s mine, especially for you: It’s a Fanboy Christmas by Luke Ski. As comprehensive as it is badly sung, nobody gets left out. There’s a whole verse dedicated to the career of Bill Mumy.
OK, I have to add my Xmas favorites from the five volumes (and counting) of music we’ve compiled over the past 10 years:
Barenaked Ladies – “Christmas Medley (live)”
Ben Folds – “Bizarre Christmas Incident”
Big People – “Piece For Christmas”
Bill Lloyd – “Underneath The Christmas Tree”
The Bobs – “Santa’s Got A Brand New Bag”
Brave Combo – “Must Be Santa”
Clockhammer – “Here Comes Santa Claus”
Dan Wilson – “What A Year For A New Year”
Dance Hall Crashers – “I Did It For The Toys”
Dave Edmunds – “Run Run Rudolph”
Deborah Holland – “It Only Comes Once A Year”
Eels – “Christmas Is Going To The Dogs”
Eels – “Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas”
El Vez – “Feliz Navi-Nada”
Ed Haynes – “Holiday Song”
Fishbone – “It’s A Wonderful Life (Gonna Have A Good Time)”
Fountains of Wayne – “The Man In The Santa Suit”
Futurama – “Xmas Song”
Henry Rollins – “Twas The Night Before Christmas”
Hoodoo Gurus – “Little Drummer Boy (Up The Khyber)”
Jethro Tull – “A Christmas Song”
Jill Sobule – “Merry Christmas From The Family”
John Wesley Harding – “Talking Christmas Goodwill Blues”
Kate Bush – “December Will Be Magic Again”
Klark Kent – “Yo Ho Ho”
Martin Mull – “Santa Doesn’t Cop Out On Dope”
Mono Puff – “Careless Santa”
Monty Python – “Christmas In Heaven”
MxPx – “Christmas Day”
Nicole Blackman – “What I Want For Christmas”
No Doubt – “Oi To The World”
The Pretenders – “2000 Miles”
The Puddles – “Christmas List”
Rebel Pebbles – “Cool Yule”
The Royal Guardsmen – “Snoopy’s Christmas”
Shalini – “Nutrocker”
Simon & Garfunkel – “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night”
The Sonics – “Don’t Believe In Christmas”
Squeeze – “Christmas Day”
Squirrel Nut Zippers – “Indian Giver”
Stan Freberg – “The Night Before Christmas”
Stan Freberg & Daws Butler – “Christmas Dragnet”
Steve Hunter – “We Three Kings”
They Might Be Giants – “Santa’s Beard”
Timbuk 3 – “All I Want For Christmas”
Tom Lehrer – “A Christmas Carol”
Vince Guaraldi – “Skating”
Wayne Newton – “Jingle Bell Hustle”
Weird Al Yankovic – “Christmas At Ground Zero (Extra Gory Version)”
The Whirlees – “The Grinch”
XTC – “Countdown To Christmas Party Time”
I also enjoy many of the ones already mentioned (especially “Fairytale of New York” and “Christmas Wrapping”), and hope everyone gets to enjoy all the music of their choice and the holiday season! Take care all!
Santa brought me _The Happiest Days of Our Lives_ this year. Clearly, I need to leave him extra cookies next year. :^)
Merry Christmas to you, Merry Christmas to me! A gift for both of us: someone gave me “Just a Geek” off my Amazon list!
Wil:
Glad you took the time off. We have a rule at my house – no computers on Christmas day.
That said, you need to turn in your badge as an original listener to KROQ. Missing “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses. Shame, shame, shame.
What? Awesome list, but no Jingle Cats?? Their version of “Blue Christmas” is definitive, IMHO. Also, in a melancholy mood, “What a Year for a New Year” from the MAYBE THIS CHRISTMAS compilation. Happy New Year!