Christmas Album of the Week - Ashton Allen

Alt singer songwriter Ashton Allen's solid seasonal effort from 2008, The Christmas Songs, originally only available as a Barnes & Nobles exclusive, has made it to digital on Amazon (and Spotify) 

 

Ashton Allen - The Christmas Songs on Amazon

Christmas Album of the Week: Sunturns

One of my favorite seasonal releases from last year is now available as a digital download. You may remember Sunturns from the pair of free tracks shared by Lazy Acre Records last December (and still availabe here!). Great euro-indie-folk stuff!

Christmas by Sunturns at Amazon

MP3 Reissues from Aimee Mann, Vanessa Williams, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors and Danaher & Cloud

Aimee Mann's really, really terrific 2006 Christmas release One More Drifter in the Snow has found it's way to the Amazon MP3 store along with a re-sequenced version of The Best of Vannessa Williams' Vol 2 - Christmas  (Spotify), also from 2006, now titled Christmas With Vanessa Williams

 Also dropping this past week were digital versions of the jazzy A Neighborly Christmas from Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors (2009) and...

Danaher & Cloud's The Holiday Album (2011), at turns both rootsy and ethereal (and occasionally whimsical) Danaher & Cloud's unique flavor of Americana works wonderfully on this fine collection of holiday tunes

.

and now, some bonus Aimee Mann!

MP3 Release: Christmas with Ali Lohan and Friends

Christmas With Ali Lohan and Friends

What looks to be a compilation featuring selected tracks from 2006's Lohan Holiday (Spotify) plus cuts from The Pointer Sisteres, All-4-One, Take 6, and Jeff Smith, among others.

Buy Christmas With Ali Lohan and Friends at Amazon

It's an Ernie (Nor Bert) Holiday!

For the uninitiated - Our friend Ernie (Not Bert) is a yuletide legend among fans of classic Christmas music. Each year he plumbs the seemingly limitless depths of his magical collection of rare and out of print holiday albums and singles, chooses the shiniest and jolliest and rips, re-masters and (best of all for us!) shares them. For many of us into Christmas Sharity,  the holiday season doesn't really begin until Ernie starts sharing.

Here's what Ernie (Not Bert) is already sharing this season (plus make sure you check out his extensive archives!):

• Christmas Around The World-Selections From New Capitol Christmas Albums 1957
• TIME For Christmas (single)
• Fred Waring And The Pennsylvanians-'Twas The Night Before Christmas
• Fred Waring And The Pennsylvanians-Christmas Time
• Raymond LeFevre And His Orchestra-Merry Christmas
• Paul Mauriat And His Orchestra-The Christmas Album
• Paul Mauriat Orchestra And Chorus-Joyeux Noel

Saturday Evening Update

Thanksgiving

The Food Lab's Guide to Thanksgiving Day Planning

Vintage Thanksgiving Cards @ Back Porch Graphics

1935 Thanksgiving Party! @ A Vintage Cottage Home

David Byrne Loses Annual Turkey Mold Contest, Again! @ Gothamist

Christmas

Free Live Album: Sara Groves O Holy Night Tour: Live The Prison Show

More Christmas Singles reviewed @ Stubby's House of Christmas

Early Holiday Shopping - Sears 1975 (Barbie & friends) @ Vintage Holiday Images

Ancient and Absurd Holiday Cocktails @ X-Entertainment

Syfy Celebrates the Holidays with COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS, 12/6-12

Christmas at Jamendo

Jamendo offers musicians a platform to share and sell thier music. There are quite a few Christmas related albums and singles available. Click here to see a wide selection of Christmas music free to stream and download (and if you like what you hear you can make a donation to the artist).

Here are some popular selections I've listened to and enjoyed...

Tidings (traditional songs) by Allison Crowe (Acoustic)


Christmas carols by Frozen Silence (Solo Piano)


ChristmaSongs by Jason Silver (Folk)


Lonely Night by Maya Filipič (Solo Piano)


Christmas Visit by Forty Winks (Folk)


Re-imagining Christmas EP by Emorej (Indie)


Music of Christmas by Joseph G Vincent (Hammered Dulcimer)

Wednesday Evening Update

Thanksgiving

Video Gallery: Thanksgiving Cooking With Mark Bittman @ NY Times

How to Brine a Turkey @ Epicurious

How to Not Kill Your Family over the Holidays @ The Taste Spot

Cranberry Sauces and Stuffing @ Food Network

Christmas

The Boy Least Likely To – “Christmas Isn’t Christmas” @ Stereogum

The Found Sound Orchestra - Christmas Midgets

Listen: Babian - Käklek i paket (Love in the Package) via It's a Trap

NY Times Holiday Music Guide via Large Hearted Boy

A Dollar Tree Christmas: Part 1 @ X-Entertainment

Early Thursday Update

By neviepiecakes

Thanksgiving

Harold McGee's 5 Thanksgiving Dinner Myths @ eatocracy

16 Frugal Thanksgiving Decorating Ideas @ Tip Junkie


Black Friday: Holiday  Return Policies to Know Before You Buy @ Walletpop

Christmas

Christmas in Rock and A Very Loud Christmas @ bongobells


12 Bands of Christmas by Rock By the Sea (Charity Compilation) @ Bandcamp via Stackolee@IMWAN

Stubby reviews Now Christmas 2010 (Denmark) @ Stubby's House of Christmas

Free Chacra World Music Holiday Sampler at Amazon

Amazon is offerin the free 5 track Chacra World Music Holiday Sampler featuring songs from Coro Vox Aurea, The Allisons and Celtic Lore.

The Stingiest Men in Town

The Stingiest Man in Town (1956)

Fans of vintage holiday fare will appreciate Stagedoor's budget price release of the Original Television Soundtrack of this 1956 adaptaion of Charles Dickens classic morality tale A Christmas Carol. Originally shown as an episode of The Alcoa Hour this pre-Scrooge musical version of Dicken's novel stars crooner Vic Damone as young Scrooge and Basil Rathbone as the older, haunted Scooge. Rathbone gives one of the finest performances of his later career. Rathbone, and The Four Lads as a sort of Greek chorus of carolers, are my musical highlights of the show, though everyone involved is quite good.

While a bit old fashioned compared to more recent musical adaptations Stingiest Man still succeeds thanks to the supurb performances of it's veteren cast and a strong set of tunes that include a number of should-be classics.

Amazon | Napster | MOG

The Stingiest Man in Town w/ Narration

Amazon also has a MP3 download of what I'm assuming was a later attempt to adapt the songs from the show into a spoken word recording. There's a narration, by what sounds like a much older Rathbone, linking the songs and while I imagine it's not as good as watching the original or even a straight recording it does help bring the story together a bit better than the song only soundtrack. There are two parts, each about a half hour in leangth - probably each side of the original LP - and it'll set you back, as of this writing, $1.78.

The Stingiest Man in Town (1978)

More than 20 years after The Alcoa Hour Stingiest Man was broadcast Rankin-Bass preiered an animated version of the musical starring the vocal talents of Walter Matthau, Tom Bosley, Robert Morse Dennis Day, Paul Frees and Theodore Bikel - an awesome assemblage indeed. The animated version is available as part of the Classic Christmas Favorites DVD along with nine other (mostly) classic holiday specials.

More Christmas in July Goodies

bongobells is offering...

• a 19 track compilation of different versions of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
• Messiah Variations
• Jennifer Avalon - Sounds Of Bethlehem
• Allison Crowe - Tidings

Cheerful Earfull has Lew Charles - Christmas Carols on the NBC pipe organ

Ernie (Not Bert) continues to share rare seasonal goodies...

• Christmas In July 2009-Day The Ninth w/ the St. Louis A Cappella Choir, Jerry Read Smith & Tom Fellenbaum, The Glasgow Orpheus Choir, Virgil Fox and The Cascading Strings
• Christmas In July 2009-Day The Tenth w/ Mr. Jack Daniel's Original Silver Cornet Band, Eddie Albert, Vaughn Monroe, The Mike Curb Congregation and The Duluth Accordionaires
• Christmas In July 2009-Day The Eleventh w/ Billy Edd Wheeler, Ferrante & Teicher, Ethel Smith, Werner Müller And His Orchestra and Joe "Finger" Carr

Christmas in July @ bongobells

Ring The Christmas Bells (by hagerstenguy)

bongobells is celebrating Christmas in July with...

• 54 versions of I Saw Three Ships
• Torley on Piano - Holidium
• Owen Family Celtic Christmas
• I Sing the Carol Electric (..."electronic holiday tunes from "Moog" to "8-bit"
• ...and everything else between.")
• Another 228 Days Of Christmas (19 more renditions of The Twelve Days of Christmas )
• Machine Man Band: Christmas Music
• Jingle Brass - Joy to the World
• Stocking Stuffers (an eclectic 49 song compilation!)
• The Dr. Demento Show - Christmas in Dementia (1976)
  

Ernie's Christmas and a Half gift / Christmas Forever shares some Heinje

Coolin' Off (by hokielover01)

Ernie (Not Bert) celebrates his birthday (and Christmas and a Half) with a nifty compilation of rare Christmas 45's

Christmas Forever shares Weihnachten mit Heintje (1968) and Heintje - When The Christmas-Bells Are Ringing (1971)

Rare "Santa's Land" album share and more....

eve (by brijeet1)

Twelve Months of Christmas shares New Sounds of Christmas From Santa's Land

"One of my personal favorite finds this past Christmas was this rare record from Santa's Land in Cherokee, North Carolina. I am not sure the exact year this record was produced (what was it about a lot of vinyl not having any dates printed anywhere on the jacket or record label?) but from the look of the kids and the sound of the music, I'd place it circa early to mid 1970's..."

bongobells offers a tantalizing tease of goodies soon to come in his Christmas in July Sneak Preview

Chick Lit Reviews and News reviews The Gift by Cecelia Ahern

Some wonderful Christmas Card designs from Diavega's Weblog

Weekend Before Christmas Overnight Update

(by wvgasguy)

Christmas 2008 @ Womenfolk

Christmas Time's A Coming by Bill Anderson & The Skater's Waltz by Frank Chacksfield and His Orchestra @ FaLaLaLaLa

Heino - A Festive German Christmas @ A Christmas Yuleblog

bongobells is Rockin' Around and Around and Around the Christmas Tree

Cheerful Earful shares Hinsdale Central - Silent Night

OTR: Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon @ Internet Archive

The Violet Burning - Divine @ Free Christmas Music

Ingo Star Cruiser - Just Like Christmas @ MP3hugger

New Artists, Old Songs: A Holiday in My Inbox @ Cover Lay Down

Christmas Parade #2 (Gladstone), Superman and Santa Claus and Archie Giant #579 all at Cool-Mo-Dee

Fortress of Fortitude shares the Creepy tale "Spare That Tree"

Christmas Comics Cover Countdown Day 20! @ Random Acts of Geekery

Animation Backgrounds:

Mickey's Christmas Carol
Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus
A Charlie Brown Christmas

Cartoon Brew's The Twelve Animated Days of Christmas

December Wallpaper, Holiday Music & Paper Shoes

white christmas cup cake (by pixel_boy)

My favorite source for desktop wallpaper (among other things) - Smashing Magazine - has released their December wallpaper selections. Check out the wonderful, seasonal wallpapers that come in a wide variety of sizes, and often with a choice of a December calendar as part of the image.

Cheerful Earful shares Merry Christmas from Al Morgan

Listen to The Deal Is's Christmas Mixtape

It's (almost) Christmas...@ Hits in the Car

The Pillar Cast Christmas Podcast

It's that time of year where all podcasts are Christian music podcasts. Original music from Darrell Smith and some old favorite tunes from Ball in the House, Admiral Twin, DegreeZero, Smallfish, and Jaime Thietten. Have yourself a happy and very merry Christmas!

Electric Fantastic Christmas 2008 (Free Download!)

Kites With Lights - I Wish Every Other Day Was Christmas
Hyperbubble - Christmas With The Bee Gees (Robin Reindeer Mix)
Schmoof - Turn On Christmas
Libra & Atari Cowboy - Little Drummer Boy
Exx - Around The Universe
Diskodiktator - Green Christmas
Electraset - Christmas Wish
Quelles Paroles - In The Ghetto
Selfcentered Spacecadet - Three Kings
The Garland Cult - Blue Heart For Christmas
Electraset - We Wish You A Medley Xmas

Make Paper Shoes for St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6) @ Foreign Language Fun

More Santa Claus Presents: Christmas on 45 @ 12 Months of Christmas

The Tone King at Twelve Months of Christmas has posted the next installment of his Santa Claus Presents: Christmas on 45 Christmas compilation !

Visit Twelve Months of Christmas now for Part 2!

New Christmas Music: A Scary Little Christmas

Here's a lovely little album of darkly tinged holiday favorites performed on solo piano by Kris Knight...



Nice to find something I can crosspost here and at my Halloween Blog!

Peel's Other Christmas Records, Christmas Eve 1992 @ IWiCbCE

I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday has unearthed a nearly forgotten holiday program from the late, beyond great, John Peel...

Visit I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday for Peel's Other Christmas Records, 1992-12-24