Flash Back- Christmas record albums

Just like giving up chocolate for Lent, we (me) are sacrificing classic rock and roll on the radio for the station that plays all Christmas tunes, all day, all night, all calendar days from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Not that I mind it. It also makes you appreciate a good hard Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix guitar solo that much more once the holidays are over!!

( Captain Kangaroo- torn but still loved)

We all have our favorites on the radio too.

N. lights up like a Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation decorated house when he hears: I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock and Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time.

(Disney- always stands the test of the generations)

A. has twinkles in her eyes like a Balsam Fir loaded with white faerie lights when she hears Carol of the Bells- the version that goes really fast.

E. jingles with enthusiasm like the bells on a Victorian sleigh when she hears anything by Mannheim Steamroller.

(The 1950's idyllic family- did you have one?)

Now for me, there are too many to mention. Let's just say I like the old classics, the old voices we grew up on, the old stand-bys just like the Christmas decorations I came to expect to come out of the boxes from the attic each year, so too were the songs...old friends...a sense of comfort and security. We could all use a little sense of security this troubled economic Christmas, can't we.

I do feel all warm, like a down filled flannel comforter, inside when I hear Santa Baby, Baby It's Cold Outside and anything from Burl Ives or Bing Crosby or Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole....

(Crickets?- everyone gets into the act for Christmas songs)

We have the radio on every day for hours. If it is not on, then one of the kids will go turn it on. I like the radio better than TV anyway because you are not tethered to it like having to watch a TV screen. You are free to do Christmas crafts like making paper chains or stringing popcorn or less fun things like dishes and laundry (sorry to snap you back into reality during this utopia of Christmas memories past!).

(early 1960s- Christmas without so much technology was less stressful)

Christmas past...

Jell-O molds with all sorts of (sometimes questionable things) inside.

[ Don't you love the cat food in the Jell-O mold Aunt Bethany brought in Christmas Vacation?!]

Erector Sets and Chatty Cathy dolls wrapped under the tree.

Mom in a girdle and Dad in a skinny tie.

Brothers all in matching dorky dress shirts. A little girl in a cork screw curled do-the result of sleeping with hair in pink sponge curlers- and patent leather shoes.

( These are my own very personal Christmas past memories).

(Sesame Street- good safe fun to trust in any season)

I am a connoisseur of old Christmas album art and not just Christmas--all vintage record albums.

These I have shown are in my collection. There is something magical about the colors and settings of most older record album covers. Modern CD cover art can't compare, in my opinion.

I am planing a really unique project incorporating all my vintage Christmas record album covers. These shown are just a few of them.

( Gene Autry- need I say more?)

( Bing Crosby- sweet faced, innocent- surely on the "good" list- children)

This Bing Crosby record reminds me...

We were going somewhere in the car (I as much as live in my car when toting the kids around to all their activities), and yes we were also listening in the car to the above mentioned radio all Christmas, all the time station. N. asked me if I had turned up the bass on the car stereo (as I sometimes do when a good Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix guitar solo comes on). I replied no and laughed so hard it hurt as I explained to him that it was only Bing Crosby's voice that sounded like that!!!!!! Gotta love the ol' Bing!!!