Advent Calendar Day 1

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Those of you who have been following me since before last festive season may recall that I have posted a lot of Christmas songs during December. I’ve been doing that under the banner of #ChristmasSongADay on Twitter for six or seven years, and added the Facebook page for this blog into the mix for the past two years. I have also posted a kind of seasonal picture each day on Instagram: though these might not have been to everyone’s taste they made some people laugh. Previously I have shared selections from the Christmas songs here, to allow you to catch up, but I’ve decided to do it a little differently this year, so

 “Welcome to my Advent Calendar!”

Sadly, I haven’t been able to work out a way of sending you virtual chocolates to open each day, so you’re going to have to make do with the songs and funnies. Sorry, but I’ll do my best to make it worth your while. What I’m going to be doing up to and including Christmas Day is to give you a Christmas song each day – or maybe two, as I can be more flexible with the format here – and share a Funny Of The Day with you too, all leading up to the big day and whatever might await us in a lockdown Christmas. So, without further ado (or waffle) here is the song that I have made it my tradition to begin with:

That was one of the big Christmas hits here in 1975, at a time when just about everyone was jumping on the bandwagon and releasing Christmas songs, though many of them were of dubious quality. You will, I hope, be relieved to know that very few of those will be featuring here: my preferred music for this season is rather better, I think, albeit a little obscure in some cases.

To get the month off with a swing, I thought I’d make today one of the ‘two song days’ by giving you this one too:

That song has become very much a Christmas standard since it was written in 1941, and there are known to be more than 220 versions in several languages. But I bet you’ve never seen it done like that before – I just love the bit when things go wild. That’s a far cry from Boney M or Crosby/Bowie, but I prefer it bigly. It dates back to 2013 when the band was a five piece, before the sad passing of Beard Guy (aka Mike Taylor). If you count the participants you can see all five of them so the ‘Feat. Doggies’ must be real, right? If Greg Lake can believe in Father Christmas…

That’s today’s songs, so its now time for the first Christmas Funny. I thought I’d break you in gently, as it wouldn’t be a good idea to lose you all on the first day:

I wonder when the first of these will arrive?

A final note for today. If you’ve been paying attention you might have noticed a change in the blog’s appearance. I like to do this for December to go with the Christmas theme of the posts. Normal service will be resumed in the new year.

See you tomorrow 👍

30 thoughts on “Advent Calendar Day 1”

  1. Pingback: A Wonderful Christmas Message: #GiveWhatYouCan – Borden's Blather

  2. Pingback: Music Monday: My Favorite Christmas Songs Countdown – Borden's Blather

  4. I should’ve known walk off the earth would have a great Christmas song, thanks for letting me know about it. I plan to feature Christmas music oh my next few music Mondays as well. Thanks for the laughs. Hope all is well

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  5. I wrote a short story to the Greg Lake song, Clive. I usually publish it every year on my blog. I love the song so much that it inspired me to write one of my own favourite stories.

    Love the second song and the dogs. Never seen that one before. Thanks for the laughs.

    And no Christmas newsletters have arrived yet. Although given the year we’ve all had, I expect some will arrive.

    I’d forgotten about the Christmas WordPress theme. It looks very festive. I wonder if they’ll be doing the falling snow this year? I had to turn it off because it got very distracting while trying to read.

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    • Thanks, Hugh. I must have seen that story but I’m afraid I don’t recall it – so I’ll look forward to seeing it when you publish it again. Did you know the song is actually intended to be about the commercialisation of Christmas? I think that meaning has got rather lost over the years.

      WOTE have a unique way of covering songs, and always bring something new to them. I’m a big fan of theirs and have featured them several times previously.

      It can’t be long before I get my first newsletter too – fortunately, I doubt that any of the senders will ever see this!

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      • I had no idea that was the meaning behind the song, Clive. Looking back at when it was written, I guess that the commercialisation was well underway by then. These days, however, I think it’s more commercialised than ever. However, it’s always been my favourite time of the year. It’s one of the reasons why I find it so easy to write about.

        I’m keeping my fingers crossed that nobody who sends you a newsletter stumbles upon this post. However, even if they do, I hope they see the humour behind it all. After all, we all need laughter in our lives. More so this year, than ever.

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      • It was apparently why they went for the desert setting for the video, rather than our ‘traditional’ snow settings, i.e. more appropriate to the original nativity. I enjoy this time of year too, hence the main theme of my December posts and seasonal makeover for the blog.

        I agree – humour is needed more this year than ever!

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      • I just use the free themes and don’t pay for my blog, Hugh, so maybe they give me different options. I know of two Christmas themes: Spirit, which is what I’m using this year, and Cheer, which I’ve used in the past. There are others, but they don’t work the way I like with the widget column to the right. It’s good that you’ve found a way that suits you, though. You asked about the snowflakes earlier. I haven’t looked this year but from memory they used to be available about a week into December. Like you, I found them annoying and turned them off anyway!

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  6. Hi Clive – omg the dogs in the band were just super fun – and how it builds was well done
    –
    Also liked the father Christmas song – the beach and camels and vibe was not the typical snow and all that —

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  7. Off to a good start, Clive. I’d never heard the Greg Lake tune before. I like to think back to what I was doing when these songs came out. I would have been a high school sophomore who just got his driver’s license.

    I’d had seen the Walk off the Earth song, although I sheepishly admit that I only found out about them through blogging about a year ago. Talk about missing out. One day when I didn’t have much going on, I sat and watched their videos for two hours. Their creativity is through the roof, besides having some outstanding voices.

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    • It was #2 here at Christmas 1975, held off the top by Bohemian Rhapsody. It only got to #95 in the US so I guess it wasn’t very well known there. It’s actually a song against the commercialisation of Christmas but is widely accepted as a Christmas song. As to timing – that was my first Christmas in full time work after leaving university. Happy days!

      I’ve been a fan of WOTE for years, and share your view of them. I’m guessing it was Jim who introduced you to them?

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