(I thought I’d start with one of my more tasteful images 🤣)

I have previously posted a lot of Christmas-related music, and for the past two years have done this in the form of my Advent Calendar, in which a posted a tune or two, or three, every day, along with some fun images like the one above, and the occasional advert that had gained my attention. I’ve decided to do things differently this year, and have renamed it my Advent Countdown. This will take the form of eight posts, each containing five seasonal tunes, an image or two and, as before, an ad if I feel so inclined. Spoiler alert: I’m afraid that the incredibly brilliant Hafod Hardware ads that I have shared with you won’t be getting a new addition, as they haven’t made one. But there is another which has gone viral here this year, which I’ll be playing at the end of this piece.

I should point out that if Christmas songs for you means anything like Screeching Mariah, Michael Bubbly, Cliff Richard or Wham you’re in the wrong place: I only deal in good music! I’m starting today with five songs that I have played before, but which I think are well worth hearing again. This one seems as good a place as any to begin, a retelling of the nativity story for modern times:

This modern retake on the nativity story was released in November 2019. There was so much to enjoy in the official video for it, but it seems to have been deleted for a reason I don’t understand. The tune still really rocks along, though. Like his 2021 single, So Happy It Hurts, this was co-written by Bryan with Gretchen Peters, who you may recall is one of my favourite singer-songwriters. Both songs are typical of Bryan, less so of Gretchen, but it’s good to see her rockier tendencies coming out! As this replacement video shows Joe And Mary appeared on an EP called Christmas: as far as I can tell its only chart placing was at #80 in Bryan’s Canadian homeland. I still think it’s fun, though.

Did I say that I wouldn’t be playing anything by Wham? But a cover version is ok, right? I played this two years ago and it was well received, so much so that I have since played several more by the band:

As I said back then, First To Eleven are one of my ‘finds’ from following YouTube recommendations. They are an interesting band, originally formed in 2009 under the name M4 – an abbreviation for ‘Mini Men Making Music’ – when Ryan Krysiak, who was working as a guitar teacher, suggested that a small group of his students who attended the same school form a band. At the time the band members’ ages ranged between eight and ten years old, and they didn’t have a vocalist. In 2015, Audra Miller, who was 14 at the time, was at one of their gigs and asked to join the teaching programme. Their then vocalist left the band shortly after that and she has been in the role ever since – do the maths and you can work out that she was just 16 when this video was released in 2017. They are very prolific, with loads of videos on YouTube of covers and umpteen albums available on iTunes, including a Christmas collection. I really like them, and it probably helps that Audra is as cute as they come: I love the bit in this when one of the fake snowflakes lands on her eyelid. The band is still very active, with at least one new video every week, and they will be here again this month. Around 9.5m views for this video can’t be wrong!

Whilst most of the songs I play this month will be related to the big day, I occasionally play one which isn’t. This is one of my two all time favourite December songs – I’ve played it several times before and it always gets a good reaction:

Beth Nielsen Chapman’s Every December Sky is very much a song about the feelings and emotions this time of year can bring as we move into winter. And I think it is beautiful, so it is very much a part of my own playlist. It is just about as close to musical perfection as you can probably get, with the combination of a beautiful tune and lovely words. For those who might be puzzling as to where they have heard the male harmony voice before, it is John Prine, who sadly passed away in April 2020 and who I have played in a couple of Tuesday Tunes posts. If it’s of interest, I have written about this song before, about how I first heard it and a connection I feel to it, in #SaturdaySongs No.7 which I updated and reposted last year, here. Beth Nielsen Chapman hasn’t enjoyed the chart success I think she deserves – she has never reached the US Top 100 Albums chart, though she has appeared five times in the Billboard Heatseekers listings. Take a listen to this and tell me you don’t agree that is criminal! This song was on Beth’s 2002 album Deeper Still which, of course, got nowhere near the charts: I rest my case.

I was lucky enough to be brought up amongst traditional Christmas carols and English folk music. I play this next one every year, as it combines the two so well:

Angels From The Realms Of Glory was listed last year as one of the top ten Christmas carols not known by 18-29 year olds here. Such a sad loss of tradition! I love this version, though. Maddy Prior has been a part of the English folk music scene since the late Sixties, and was a founder member of Steeleye Span, one of the two bands (with Fairport Convention) at the forefront of the development of our folk-rock tradition. She is still in the band but each Christmas she has also been with the Carnival Band, who do a series of gigs putting their own slant on traditional carols. This is a typical example: they have a lot of fun doing these shows, and from the roar at the end it seems our typically stuffy British audiences enjoy them too! As a side note, the fiddle player is Giles Lewin, who was a founder member of Bellowhead, my favourite live band. You’ll be seeing them soon, too, as you do every year!

Today’s final tune of my recycled five will get us off to a rousing finale. A fun song, and the video is an absolute hoot from start to end:

When I first shared this I said: “You might need to watch that more than once to get all of the jokes, there are so many packed into it. The Dropkick Murphys are an American ‘Celtic punk’ band, from Boston, who clearly revel in their Irish roots, and I love this video. The lead singer, Ken Casey, doesn’t have a voice for lullabies but it is well suited to this one! The band has been going since 1996, and Casey is the only original member still there. Their other videos are fun, too, if you want to follow up on them.” I stand by those comments, as it does bear a repeat watch or three to catch everything, which is why I play it every year! And if you’ve ever seen the video for their ‘homage’ to one of the Sex Pistols, Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding, you’ll know what I mean about them being funny. Is Christmas like that in your house? The fun is good but I’m not sure I could take the chaos: when I was married our two person junior terrorist squad caused more than enough mayhem!

I said earlier that Hafod Hardware haven’t given us a new Christmas video this year, but we still have the four they made between 2018 and 2021, so you may well be seeing one of those again this month. In all honesty, I’ve been keeping an eye open for new ones that I liked enough to share, and there have been very poor pickings so far this year. This one is a notable exception: it follows Hafod’s path of a low budget production with a nice little story of an old guy who finds some new friends, and it is beautifully done. Charlie’s Bar is a pub in Enniskillen, in Northern Ireland, and I take my hat off to them:

Isn’t that lovely? And they get extra points from me for closing with a perfect quotation from one of my favourite poets. The ad cost just £700 to make, and I’m guessing that some of that was to cover licensing the music, which is People Help The People, by Birdy. The video has gone viral on social media here, and has attracted national media coverage. It even got a classy response from the John Lewis Group, who have been the bringers of many of the best Christmas ads (though not this year – it’s shite): they said “We’re not crying – you are” and wished the bar a Merry Christmas. Fair play to them recognising that they had been completely upstaged! The star of this show is an amateur actor by the name of Martin McManus, who says it is “unbelievable” and that it feels “pretty good” to have been a part of this.

I can’t promise you many more like that, but I’ll keep looking in the hope I can find some new ones: mostly, the standard has been very disappointing this year, though.

That’s all for the first part of my Advent Countdown. Nothing new here, but some fun and laughs and an occasional tearjerker. I’ll see you again for the regular Song Lyric Sunday date, and part two of this collection will be appearing in Tuesday Tunes. See you for both, I hope 😊