As 2025 flies past at an incredible rate, it doesn’t feel like nearly a year since I was last sharing some seasonal tunes with you. But I’m afraid that it is! Newbies won’t be familiar with this but older hands will know that I devote my December musical posts to offerings for the time of year. I used to do this on a daily basis but for the past couple of years I have done it by using Tuesday Tunes and my midweek post for it, leaving room for me to take part in Song Lyric Sunday, without which my musical week wouldn’t feel complete.
This year there will be eight Advent posts, culminating on Christmas Day – it’s a Thursday, if you hadn’t noticed – and I hope you have the sprouts on a low simmer in readiness. Having been playing seasonal songs for around a dozen years I have amassed quite a collection, some of which are regular visitors, others less so. I’m beginning this year with a set of favourites, all of which have been here before, though one has a new video. And I’ll also be ‘treating’ you to some of the memes and cartoons I have collected – that is usually the point at which I abandon all pretence of good taste. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Today’s is fairly tame, though heartfelt, and it sets the scene for the type of music you will be hearing – i.e. this is a crap-free zone.
Let’s get going with one of my favourites, which I know you like too. The song is great, and the video is fantastic. I started with this one last year, and that feels like a plan to me:
The Dropkick Murphys and The Season’s Upon Us have become a regular feature of my Advent posts, deservedly so, I think. When I first played it 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.
Another of my regulars is one that I have loved since it was first released, and to mark its 50th anniversary a fabulous new video has just been released for it:
I Believe In Father Christmas was one of the big Christmas hits here in 1975, reaching #2 at a time when just about everyone was jumping on the bandwagon and releasing Christmas songs, though many of them were of dubious quality. The song was written by Greg Lake, of the prog rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, with other lyrics by Peter Sinfield, who was with Greg in the first of those bands. Although it is thought of as a Christmas song, Greg said that he wrote it in protest at the way that Christmas had become commercialised. Peter, however, said that the words are about a loss of innocence and childhood belief: take your pick! Whatever it is about, I’ve always loved it and continue to play it. The new animated video is great, and I’m glad to have it in my collection.
My next tune for today is one that was a debutant last year, as the video was newly released. It is a cover of an old Christmas hit, given the wonderful treatment of The Hound + The Fox, whose music I really like. This was a bit of a departure for them from their usual beautiful harmonies, but it looks like the family had fun with it:
McKenzie is gorgeous in that, but I think the show was stolen by Rowan, their older boy, doing a superb take on Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. The lovely fiddle playing of Luisa Marion also merits a mention. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree was written by Johnny Marks, the man who gave us Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer amongst several other Christmas songs, and was first recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958: it has since been covered many times. By the song’s 50th anniversary in 2008, Brenda Lee’s original version had sold over 15 million copies around the world with the 4th most digital downloads sold of any Christmas single, though I suspect those stats may since have been surpassed given the sheer volumes of downloads since then. In 2019, her recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It is very much a standard for this time of year, and this version is charming.
As you may have already noticed, I don’t just go for mainstream music in my selections, and this is another. A favourite of mine since the first time I heard it, and I play it every year:
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. It is a wonderful song, 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 a couple of years ago, here. Beth 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’m closing this first Advent set of 2025 with another song to which I can attach a story. Again, it is someone that you probably won’t know, unless you have been with me long enough. If so, you may recall that I was stunned three years ago to receive a comment from one of the musicians I had played, which I then turned into a post – on which he commented further. That post was A Star Is Born (Or Perhaps Not) – the title was a reference to me, not him! In that one I played several more of his tunes, including this one, a rather gentle reflection on how the season might have something unwelcome waiting for us:
That was Dax Pernick, with Happy Holidays, the tale of a relationship that ended at this time of year. If you check out my post from 2022 you’ll see more of his story, and how the music industry has treated yet another talented individual badly when loads of utter crap sells millions. He’s a nice guy, too, which for me makes this even more unfair: anyone who can give us songs like this one is fine in my book, and deserves to be much better known.
Another thing I do in these posts is to share an advert or two along the way. My all time favourites are the ones created by Hafod Hardware, a series of four which they have since stopped doing. I may play one or more of them for a bit of nostalgia, but for now here is the full-length version of the best I’ve seen so far of this year’s decidedly average bunch:
I’m sure most of you will have recognised Keira Knightley from that, but the male lead may not be as well known outside the UK. He is Joe Wilkinson, a comedian and actor probably best known for his outrageously funny appearances on the tv show Eight Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown, and for his recent stint in the Celebrity Traitors. This is a bit of a change of pace for him from his usual high octane comedy, and he makes this very watchable. Not that I’m likely to start shopping at the rich people’s supermarket as a result of it, though!
That’s all for my first Advent set of 2025. As I said, these are all repeat airings, but I think there is something comforting about that familiarity at this time of year. But, having said that, I will be adding in some new ones – starting with the next episode – so do stay around. Keep safe and warm, and I hope all of your preparations for the big day will go well. Take care 👍
