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50 Little Know Christmas Facts

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50 Little Known Christmas Facts

1.      Norwegian scientists have hypothesized that Rudolph’s red nose is probably the result of a parasitic infection of his respiratory system.
2.    The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of dyed goose feathers.
3.    Each year more than 3 billion Christmas cards are sent in the U.S. alone.
4.    All the gifts in the Twelve Days of Christmas would equal 364 gifts.
5.     The “true love” mentioned in the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” does not refer to a romantic couple, but the Catholic Church’s code for God. The person who receives the gifts represents someone who has accepted that code. For example, the “partridge in a pear tree” represents Christ. The “two turtledoves” represent the Old and New Testaments.
6.    Most of Santa’s reindeer have male-sounding names, such as Blitzen, Comet, and Cupid. However, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas, so the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh are likely not male, but female or castrati.
7.     In A.D. 350, Pope Julius I, bishop of Rome, proclaimed December 25 the official celebration date for the birthday of Christ.
8.    According to the Guinness world records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the NorthgateShopping Center in Seattle, Washington.
9.    The traditional three colors of Christmas are green, red, and gold. Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth; red symbolizes the blood of Christ, and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.
10.            According to data analyzed from Facebook posts, two weeks before Christmas is one of the two most popular times for couples to break up. However, Christmas Day is the least favorite day for breakups.
11.  Contrary to popular belief, suicide rates during the Christmas holiday are low. The highest rates are during the spring.
12.             The world’s largest Christmas stocking measured 106 feet and 9 inches (32.56 m) long and 49 feet and 1 inch (14.97 m) wide. It weighed as much as five reindeer and held almost 1,000 presents. It was made by the Children’s Society in London on December 14, 2007.
13.             Christmas trees have been sold in the U.S.since 1850.
14.             Christmas trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.
15. Many European countries believed that spirits, both good and evil, were active during the Twelve Days of Christmas. These spirits eventually evolved into Santa’s elves, especially under the influence of Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas (1779-1863) illustrated by Thomas Nast (1840-1902).
16.             Each year there are approximately 20,000 “rent-a-Santas” across the United States. “Rent-a-Santas” usually undergo seasonal training on how to maintain a jolly attitude under pressure from the public. They also receive practical advice, such as not accepting money from parents while children are looking and avoiding garlic, onions, or beans for lunch.
17. Bolivians celebrate Misa del Gallo or “Mass of the Rooster” on Christmas Eve. Some people bring roosters to the midnight mass, a gesture that symbolizes the belief that a rooster was the first animal to announce the birth of Jesus.
18.             The British wear paper crowns while they eat Christmas dinner. The crowns are stored in a tube called a “Christmas cracker.”
19.             In Poland, spiders or spider webs are common Christmas trees decorations because according to legend, a spider wove a blanket for Baby Jesus. In fact, Polish people consider spiders to be symbols of goodness and prosperity at Christmas.
20.           Alabama was the first state in the United States to officially recognize Christmas in 1836.
Oklahoma
21.             Christmas wasn’t declared an official holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870.
22.           Oklahoma was the last U.S.state to declare Christmas a legal holiday, in 1907.
23.           Mistletoe (Viscum album) is from the Anglo-Saxon word misteltan, which means “little dung twig” because the plant spreads though bird droppings.
24.           Ancient peoples, such as the Druids, considered mistletoe sacred because it remains green and bears fruit during the winter when all other plants appear to die. Druids would cut the plant with golden sickles and never let it touch the ground. They thought it had the power to cure infertility and nervous diseases and to ward off evil.
25.            Evergreens (from the Old English word aefie meaning “always” and gowan meaning “to grow”) have been symbols of eternal life and rebirth since ancient times. The pagan use and worship of evergreen boughs and trees has evolved into the Christianized Christmas tree.
26.           Because they viewed Christmas as a decadent Catholic holiday, the Puritans in Americabanned all Christmas celebrations from 1659-1681 with a penalty of five shillings for each offense. Some Puritan leaders condemned those who favored Christmas as enemies of the Christian religion.
27.            A Yule log is an enormous log that is typically burned during the Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25-January 6). Some scholars suggest that the word yule means “revolution” or “wheel,” which symbolizes the cyclical return of the sun. A burning log or its charred remains is said to offer health, fertility, and luck as well as the ability to ward off evil spirits.
28.           Because of their pagan associations, both the holly (associated with the masculine principle) and the ivy (the feminine) and other green boughs in home decoration were banned by the sixth-century Christian Council of Braga.
29.           The poinsettia is native to Mexicoand was cultivated by the Aztecs, who called the plant Cuetlaxochitl (“flower which wilts”). For the Aztecs, the plant’s brilliant red color symbolized purity, and they often used it medicinally to reduce fever. Contrary to popular belief, the poinsettia is not poisonous, but holly berries are.
30.           Christmas has its roots in pagan festivals such as Saturnalia (December 17-December 23), the Kalends (January 1 -5, the precursor to the Twelve Days of Christmas), and Deus Sol Invictus or Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun (December 25). The Christian church heartily disapproved of such celebrations and co-opted the pagans by declaring December 25 as Christ’s day of birth, though there is no evidence Christ was born on that day.
Turkey
31.             Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nikolas of Myra (also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker, Bishop Saint Nicholas of Smyrna, and Nikolaos of Bari), who lived during the fourth century. Born in Patara (in modern-day Turkey), he is the world’s most popular non-Biblical saint, and artists have portrayed him more often than any other saint except Mary. He is the patron saint of banking, pawnbroking, pirating, butchery, sailing, thievery, orphans, royalty, and New York City.
32.           Early illustrations of St. Nicholas depict him as stern, commanding, and holding a birch rod. He was more a symbol of discipline and punishment than the jolly, overweight elf children know today.
33.           Puritan Oliver Cromwell outlawed Christmas celebrations and carols in England from 1649-1660. The only celebrations allowed were sermons and prayers.
34.           Wassail is from the Old Norse ves heill, meaning “good health.”
35.            Christmas stockings allegedly evolved from three sisters who were too poor to afford a marriage dowry and were, therefore, doomed to a life of prostitution. They were saved, however, when the wealthy Bishop Saint Nicholas of Smyrna (the precursor to Santa Claus) crept down their chimney and generously filled their stockings with gold coins.
36.           There are two competing claims as to which president was the first to place a Christmas tree in the White House. Some scholars say President Franklin Pierce did in 1856; others say President Benjamin Harrison brought in the first tree in 1889. President Coolidge started the White House lighting ceremony in 1923.
37.            President Teddy Roosevelt, an environmentalist, banned Christmas trees from the White House in 1912.
38.           It is estimated that the single “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin is the best selling single of all time, with over 100 million sales worldwide.
39.           There are approximately 21,000 Christmas tree farms in the United States. In 2008, nearly 45 million Christmas trees were planted, adding to the existing 400 million trees.b
The first lighted Christmas tree can be traced to Martin Luther
40.           The first person to decorate a Christmas tree was reportedly the Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546). According to legend, he was so moved by the beauty of the stars shining between the branches of a fir tree, he brought home an evergreen tree and decorated it with candles to share the image with his children.
41.             The first printed reference to a Christmas tree was in 1531 in Germany.
42.           Approximately 30-35 million real (living) Christmas trees are sold each year in the U.S.
43.           Christmas is a contraction of “Christ’s Mass,” which is derived from the Old English Cristes mæsse (first recorded in 1038). The letter “X” in Greek is the first letter of Christ, and “Xmas” has been used as an abbreviation for Christmas since the mid 1500s.
44.           In 1962, the first Christmas postage stamp was issued in the United States.
45.            In Germany, Heiligabend, or Christmas Eve, is said to be a magical time when the pure in heart can hear animals talking.f
46.           The Viking god Odin is one precursor to the modern Santa Claus. According to myth, Odin rode his flying horse, Sleipnir (a precursor to Santa’s reindeer), who had eight legs. In the winter, Odin gave out both gifts and punishments, and children would fill their boots or stockings with treats for Sleipnir.
47.            The earliest known Christmas tree decorations were apples. At Christmastime, medieval actors would use apples to decorate paradise trees (usually fir trees) during “Paradise Plays,” which were plays depicting Adam and Eve’s creation and fall.
48.           Commissioned by Sir Henry Cole (1808-1883), British illustrator John Callcott Horsley (1817-1903) invented the first Christmas card in 1843.
49.           According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there are 2,106 million children under age 18 in the world. If there are on average 2.5 children per household, Santa would have to make 842 million stops on Christmas Eve, traveling 221 million miles. To reach all 842 million stops, Santa would need to travel between houses in 2/10,000 second, which means he would need to accelerate 12.19 million miles (20.5 billion meters) per second on each stop. The force of this acceleration would reduce Santa to “chunky salsa.”
50.  Christmas purchases account for 1/6 of all retail sales in the U.S.

This blog is written and published by DLF Music Transfer, LLC  dba Christmas LPs to CD.  For more information on Christmas music or to purchase CDs of classic Christmas records on CD, please visit our website www.christmaslpstocd.com , call us 888-384-6970, or e-mail us david@dlfmusic.com.

Bing and Bowie: An Odd Story of Holiday Harmony

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By Paul Farhi

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006


One of the most successful duets in Christmas music history — and surely the weirdest — might never have happened if it weren’t for some last-minute musical surgery. David Bowie thought “The Little Drummer Boy” was all wrong for him. So when the producers of Bing Crosby’s Christmas TV special asked Bowie to sing it in 1977, he refused.

Just hours before he was supposed to go before the cameras, though, a team of composers and writers frantically retooled the song. They added another melody and new lyrics as a counterpoint to all those pah-rumpa-pum-pums and called it “Peace on Earth.” Bowieliked it. More important, Bowiesang it.

The result was an epic, and epically bizarre, recording in which David Bowie, the androgynous Ziggy Stardust, joined in song with none other than Mr. “White Christmas” himself, Bing Crosby.

In the intervening years, the Bowie-Crosby, “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy,” has been transformed from an oddity into a holiday chestnut. You can hear it in heavy rotation on Christmas-music radio stations or see the performance on Internet video sites. First released as a single in 1982, it still sells today — to add to its quirky afterlife, it’s part of an album that’s ranked as high as No. 3 on the Canadian charts this month. How did this almost surreal mash-up of the mainstream and the avant-garde, of cardigan-clad ’40s-era crooner and glam rocker, happen?

It almost didn’t. Bowie, who was 30 at the time, and Crosby, then 73, recorded the duet Sept. 11, 1977, for Crosby’s “Merrie Olde Christmas” TV special. A month later, Crosbywas dead of a heart attack. The special was broadcast on CBS about a month after his death.
The notion of pairing the resolutely white-bread Crosby with the exquisitely offbeat Bowie apparently was the brainchild of the TV special’s producers, Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, according to Ian Fraser, who co-wrote (with Larry Grossman) the song’s music and arranged it.

Crosby was in Great Britainon a concert tour, and the theme of the TV special was Christmas in England. Bowie was one of several British guest stars (the model Twiggy and “Oliver!” star Ron Moody also appeared). Booking Bowie made logistical sense, since the special was taped near his home in London, at the Elstree Studios. As perhaps an added inducement, the producers agreed to air the arty video of Bowie’s then-current single, “Heroes” (Crosby introduced it).

It’s unclear, however, whether Crosby had any idea who Bowie was. Buz Kohan, who wrote the special and worked with Fraser and Grossman on the music, says he was never sure Crosby knew anything about Bowie’s work. Fraser has a slightly different memory: “I’m pretty sure he did [know]. Bing was no idiot. If he didn’t, his kids sure did.”

Kohan worked some of the intergenerational awkwardness into his script. In a little skit that precedes the singing, Crosby greets Bowieat the door of what looks like Dracula’s castle (actually, it’s a set that’s supposed to be Crosby’s rented Londonhome). The conceit is that Bowie is dropping by a friend’s house and finds Crosby at home one snowy afternoon.
They banter for a bit and then get around to a piano. Bowie casually picks out a piece of sheet music of “The Little Drummer Boy” and declares, “This is my son’s favorite.”
The original plan had been for Bowie and Crosby to sing just “Little Drummer Boy.” But “David came in and said: ‘I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?’ ” Fraser said. “We didn’t know quite what to do.”

Fraser, Kohan and Grossman left the set and found a piano in the studios’ basement. In about 75 minutes, they wrote “Peace on Earth,” an original tune, and worked out an arrangement that weaved together the two songs. Bowie and Crosby nailed the performance with less than an hour of rehearsal.

And that was almost that. “We never expected to hear about it again,” Kohan said.
But after the recording circulated as a bootleg for several years, RCA decided to issue it as a single in 1982. It has since been packaged and repackaged in Christmas compilation albums and released as a DVD.

It’s still the most played Christmas duet on WASH-FM (97.1), airing once or twice a day when the station plays nothing but holiday music, said Bill Hess, WASH’s program director. Hess likes how the two men blend their voices. The real clincher, he says, is Crosby, who has been associated with holiday music for generations. ” ‘White Christmas’ really helps sell it,” he says.

Also among the song’s fans is Roger D. Launius, who remembers watching the original Crosby TV special while he was a graduate student and the parent of two children, ages 1 and 3.

“It was a very hectic time in my life, and the song was very peaceful and beautiful,” says Launius, chairman of the space history division at the National Air and Space Museum. “I don’t remember anything else about the special, but I remembered that song.”
Launius hadn’t given it too much thought until about seven years ago, when his now-adult daughter sent him a Christmas CD. Among the selections was the Bowie-Crosby duet.

The other day at his office, Launius checked the hard drive on his computer. Yep, there it was. With a couple of clicks, Launius let the warm harmony, and the memories, come flooding back. 

This blog is written and published by DLF Music Transfer, LLC  dba Christmas LPs to CD.  For more information on Christmas music or to purchase CDs of classic Christmas records on CD, please visit our website www.christmaslpstocd.com , call us 888-384-6970, or e-mail us david@dlfmusic.com.

History of Christmas Traditions – An Interview with Bruce Forbes

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Did you know that Santa Claus was a 4th century bishop in what is now Turkey? That Puritans tried to outlaw Christmas? Or Tiny Tim was originally Little Fred? We shed light on Christmas’s pagan past and consumerist present.

What exactly is Christmas? It’s certainly not Jesus’s birthday, is it?
There are several surprises that people encounter when they start to learn about Christmas. One is that Jesus probably wasn’t born on the 25th, because we don’t know when his birthday was. Secondly, it’s a surprise for many people that the early Christians did not celebrate Christmas. It took 300 years or so before there was an annual Christian celebration.

And Christmas originated as a pagan festival long before that, right?
When one studies the history one sees that there were, especially in Europe, many mid-winter festivals that existed prior to Jesus even walking the earth. Then Christians decided to start a birthday celebration, and intentionally set it in the middle of pre-existing mid-winter festivals. So right from the very beginning, the Christmas tradition has always been a mixture of a winter party and a Christian celebration. The struggle of how we balance those two is nothing new.

Let’s delve deeper into the pagan origins of Christmas with the first of your book selections, 4000 Years of Christmas. How so, 4,000 years?
Some people look at this book and don’t do the calculation in the title – obviously, if Jesus was born approximately 2,000 years ago it means there’s a great pre-history to Christmas.
This is a tiny little book – barely 100 pages long, with small pages and big print – written by an episcopal priest with a background in anthropology. It was originally published in 1912, and I’m not sure that there’s been anything better published since. In a very brief way, he gives an indication of the pre-Christian roots of winter festivals, especially in central and northern Europe– with all kinds of traditions that Christianity then borrowed or morphed for its own purposes.
What I think about the festival is this: Winter is hard for human beings to survive. It’s cold and it’s dark. Even today – with the benefit of electric lights and thermostats – we still have trouble in winter. Imagine what it was like for people in Europe in the Middle Ages to survive. So it’s very understandable that all kinds of culture would develop a mid-winter party to distract them. It would likely be when the days stop getting shorter and start getting longer – in other words late December. And you could guess what it would involve. It would feature lights, like candles and burning logs. It would feature evergreens, because they look alive when everything else seems to have died. You would have people gathering together and feasting.
All those things are for many of us our favorite parts of Christmas. Christians came along later, started a party, and put it right in the middle of these pre-existing winter festivals. Every time they moved to a new culture, they encountered some kind of winter festival that probably then became wrapped up in Christmas.
So where did this date the 25th come from?

We have no document that tells us clearly why they placed it on the 25th. What we do know is that when it was started, sometime in the 4th century, the Roman empirealready had three winter parties. One was the Saturnalia, which was a late harvest festival. The second was a new year’s celebration lasting five days. And in between there was the birthday of Mithras, god of the “unconquerable sun”, which was on December 25th.
Maybe Christians chose the middle date because the symbolism worked – you have worship of a sun god, and Jesus is talked of as the light of the world pushing back the darkness. Another way to think of it is taking the birthday of the sun god, and turn it into the birthday of God the Son. Or it might simply be that Christians were trying to hijack the popularity of the mid-winter parties, or trying to tame them because they were too wild.

Presumably this story is continued in your second pick, The Origins of Christmas.
This is another brief book accessible to general audiences, written by a Catholic religious studies professor in the US. He talks about what the limited Biblical evidence is for Christmas, and where we got some of the other traditions. Much of our Christmas story isn’t really in the Bible – in order to develop a big birthday celebration we’ve added all kinds of traditions. This book looks at the origins of St Nicholas, the Magi, and so on.

What does he say about St Nicholas?
He talks about how St Nicholas is really a legendary figure. It’s difficult to tell what is historical and what is legend, but the legends are I think marvelous. He was a bishop in the 4th century in what’s now Turkey, and gained a reputation for generosity, and for caring for young children and travelers. As a saint he almost became the equivalent of a guardian angel. He became very popular, and his saint’s day, December 6th, at least was in the month leading up to Christmas. So over time he became associated with Christmas celebrations. Then, when the legend got to the States, and especially to New York, St Nicholas morphed into Santa Claus.

Tell me more about how that happened.
Well, New York was founded as New Amsterdam, with Dutch beginnings. And the Dutch kept alive the tradition of St Nicholas where many other countries, influenced by Protestantism, had de-emphasized him. So St Nicholas hopped the waters with the Dutch to New York. Then, in a very complicated story in which you would have to trace five or six steps because of one person or another’s influence, he morphs and becomes de-frocked.  In Washington Irving’s writings, he is a Dutchman who rides a wagon pulled through the air by horses on St Nicholas’s day. Then later on, with the famous [1823] poem “Twas The Night Before Christmas”, he moves to Christmas day and gets reindeer.

In that poem, as you point out in your own book, St Nicholas is an elf.
Yes, which is a complete surprise for most people. If you buy a picture book of that poem, the illustrations are usually of the full-size, jolly, red and white Santa Claus. But if you read the words of the poem, he’s an elf – not just in the phrase “the jolly old elf”, but it talks about “a miniature sleigh”, “tiny reindeer” and his “little round belly”. He’s an elf. So he still has to morph more, through the art of [19th century American cartoonist] Thomas Nast and then the advertisements of Coca Cola, until he becomes our modern image of Santa Claus.

Next up is Dickens’s classic yuletide fable, A Christmas Carol.
There’s an interesting back story here. The great importance that Christmas has now was not always so. With the Puritan revolution of the 17th century, the Puritans tried to outlaw Christmas. They were only partly successful but in England, in the century and a half following that period of revolution, Christmas was de-emphasized to a surprising extent. It was only in the 1840s that Christmas came roaring back, partly because of the influence of Queen Victoriaand Prince Albert– who came from a German background where they didn’t have Puritans to mess with their holiday – but the other great influence is Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol.
     It’s a wonderful story, and it’s also interesting historically. We need to understand that when we read A Christmas Carol we do not read a description of how Christmas was in Dickens’s time. In writing this story Dickens is as much an advocate as a descriptor. He wants to bring back old traditions. He wants more businesses to close on Christmas. He is helping to restart and recreate Christmas.

So at the time, Scrooge was not the exception but the rule?
Exactly. Yet the way he is portrayed pushes the development of the holiday in the direction that Dickens wishes.

Why should we read the annotated edition?
The Annotated Christmas Carol is a remarkable volume. The editor, Michael Patrick Hearn, has written a huge introduction – almost 60 pages – where he provides some wonderful historical background. Then the annotations are substantial. In many cases, they’re as long as the text.
They explain older phrases in English, and are about all kinds of other thing. I was just looking at one this morning about Tiny Tim. Apparently, in the original manuscript he was called Little Fred. There’s much speculation about why the name changed, and how Dickens featured, in many of his writings, poor or disabled children in order to tug at people’s heart strings.

Little Fred doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
No it doesn’t! By the way, this volume also includes the original illustrations by John Leech, which are beautiful.  One more point – and I don’t see many people commenting on this – is that it’s remarkable how non-religious A Christmas Carol is. It does not mention the birth of Jesus and the direct references to religion are few, with the famous exception of Tiny Tim, or Little Fred, saying “God bless us, every one”. What Dickens helped bring back was rather a Christmas spirit, that both religious and non-religious people can embrace. That is why I think Dickens was so successful in helping Christmas to become such a culture-wide phenomenon.

What is that Christmas spirit, in your eyes?
I think the Christmas spirit in Dickens is concern for the poor and the least fortunate in society – which has become one of our major themes for Christmas, as we often give to charity and think about the less fortunate. That is very much Dickens’s contribution.

Let’s carry on telling the story with The Battle for Christmas.
This may be one of the most important books written about Christmas. Nissenbaum shows that, prior to those developments in the 19th century, there was a carnival atmosphere of activities at Christmastime – which is one of the reasons why Puritans objected to Christmas. The party was wild. You had roving mobs, and riots, and some people feared for their safety. That happened in England, and also in New England and in New York.
     He then outlines how various leading figures attempted to domesticate Christmas, to emphasize it as a family holiday for children. That pulled the Christmas celebrations indoors. People always talk about Christmas as something special for children and the gathering of families. But it wasn’t always that way. Christmas as celebrated in the Middle Ages was more about gathering in taverns. This family-centered, domestic holiday is really a creation of the 19th century. And Nissenbaum, better than anyone else, describes how that happened.
     He also discusses, along the way, the commercialization of Christmas.

Let’s talk about that. People are always saying how Christmas has become a shopping holiday, and its God is consumerism. What are your thoughts?
The way I see it, because of the developments of the 19th century and since then, we really have two holidays now. You might call one a cultural Christmas and the other a spiritual or Christian Christmas.
I think it is true that business interests helped make Christmas a celebration where the whole culture stops. When Christmas moved from a more isolated to a culture-wide celebration, it’s not because the Church campaigned for that. It’s because business interests learned that holidays don’t have to wreck your business. We’re back to Scrooge again. The idea previously was that Christmas is paying people for work that they don’t do. But you see Christmas in a different light if there is commercial possibility. So business as well as religion – as well as people like Dickens who just love the winter holiday – all come together to make it a culture-wide holiday.

But my question is whether you think this other, commercial life of Christmas harms its religious meaning?
Yes, I think the gift-centeredness of the holiday is an interference. I always encourage people to simplify Christmas. My personal perspective is that it is a tragedy that when people are done with the Christmas season, they’re not renewed and refreshed, they’re exhausted. So it would be helpful to reduce the hectic nature of Christmas, and also the mass consumption.
I’m not calling for people to not give presents or boycott gifts, but simply to be more personal and to focus on what they find most meaningful. Sometimes that is Christian centered, sometimes it is family centered. We ought to be intentional about Christmas, rather than simply going on autopilot. I think the typical pattern is that when advent starts, you say to yourself: OK, this is the time of year when I must do this, this and this. I think it’s the time that we should pause, evaluate how we’ve celebrated Christmas in previous years, make some decisions about what was most meaningful and what wasn’t, and not do the things that weren’t so meaningful.

More and more people wish “happy holidays” instead of “merry Christmas”, so as to not offend non-Christians. I think that’s political correctness gone mad, but I don’t like the fuss kicked up about it by the American right either.
I live in the American mid-West, and I don’t see much political correctness happening here. I do hear a lot of stories in certain news outlets, such as Fox News, who claim that there’s a war on Christmas – but I don’t see a lot of evidence of that around me, at least where I am.
And I’m not offended by the general phrases because I have used them too. Sometimes I send out Christmas cards that say “Season’s greetings” instead of “Merry Christmas”, but that’s simply because I’m slow and don’t get my cards out in time. “Season’s greetings” helps me cover myself for the general Christmas and new year period. I don’t see myself as diminishing Christmas by doing that!

Let’s end with the Encyclopedia of Christmas, which takes us from advent to Zagmug, the Sumerian end-of-year festival.
This is a wonderful resource, now published in paperback. It not only has all kinds of interesting articles, but bibliographies if you want to explore things further. If I get stuck, it’s the first place I go to answer questions like: How did we get the candle? Or what is the nutcracker? Or that the name for the Roman new year festival, Kalends, is where we get the term “calendar” from.

Tell us some more tidbits. Where did the Christmas tree come from?
The Christmas tree is mostly of German background, dating back to the 17th century and widespread by the 18th century. I think of Christmas as like a snowball which you roll, and which picks things up along the way. The snowball rolls very interestingly here. The German influences reach Englandbecause of the House of Hanover, so the German Christmas tree gets brought to England. Then the prints of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with a Christmas tree are published, and cause great interest in the United States. That’s how the Christmas tree becomes popular in the US.

Finally – and of course most importantly – where did gift giving come from?
That’s a complicated history. In the Church we’d like to say that it has to do with the wise men bringing gifts to baby Jesus, starting a gift-giving tradition. For much of Christmas history, gift-giving was more token, and sometimes was on St Nicholas’s day rather than on Christmas. But more recently – since the 1800s – it has become a great Christmas tradition. Gifts were given in different ways over time. Early on it was in a stocking, then it was under a small Christmas tree on a table. Now, of course, the Christmas tree has gotten bigger and is on the floor. And the gifts have grown and grown.

Well I will be celebrating Christmas like a good Brit by watching the Queen’s speech and playing Monopoly.
I love it! Wonderful.

Interview by 
Alec Ash

Published on Dec 22, 2011

This blog is written and published by DLF Music Transfer, LLC  dba Christmas LPs to CD.  For more information on Christmas music or to purchase CDs of classic Christmas records on CD, please visit our website www.christmaslpstocd.com , call us 888-384-6970, or e-mail us david@dlfmusic.com.

Christmas Music and Traditions in America – Voice of America Radio Transcript

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Spirit of the Season: Christmas Music and Traditions in America
A music-filled program looking at how Americans observe the most widely celebrated religious holiday in the United States.
Transcript of the VOA Broadcast
12/22/2008

Millions of Americans will celebrate Christmas on December twenty-fifth. It is the most widely celebrated religious holiday in the United States. For the past few weeks, Americans have been preparing for Christmas. I’m Bob Doughty. Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell us about American Christmas traditions and music on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA.

(MUSIC: “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” the Canadian Brass)

VOICE ONE:

People have been buying gifts to give to family members and friends. They have been filling homes and stores with evergreen trees and bright, colored lights. They have been going to parties and preparing special Christmas foods. Many people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Johnny Mathis thinks so, too.

(MUSIC: “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”)

VOICE TWO:

Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. They will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Church services will include traditional religious songs for the holiday.

One of the most popular is this one, “Silent Night.” Here it is sung by Joan Baez.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. To all, however, it is a special day of family, food, and exchanging gifts.

Christmas is probably the most special day of the year for children. One thing that makes it special is the popular tradition of Santa Claus.

Young children believe that Santa Claus is a fat, kind, old man in a red suit with white fur. They believe that — on the night before Christmas — he travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He enters each house from the top by sliding down the hole in the fireplace. He leaves gifts for the children under the Christmas tree.

Here, Bruce Springsteen sings about Santa Claus.

(MUSIC: “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”)

VOICE TWO:

Americans spend a lot of time and money buying Christmas presents.

VOICE ONE:

Some people object to all this spending. They say it is not the real meaning of Christmas. So, they celebrate in other ways. For example, they make Christmas presents, instead of buying them. Or they volunteer to help serve meals to people who have no homes. Or they give money to organizations that help poor people in the United Statesand around the world.

VOICE TWO:

Home and family are the center of the Christmas holiday. For many people, the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, people gather around the tree to open their presents.

Another important Christmas tradition involves food. Families prepare many kinds of holiday foods, especially sweets. They eat these foods on the night before Christmas and on Christmas day.

For many people, Christmas means traveling long distances to be with their families. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack sing about this holiday tradition.

(MUSIC: “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”)

VOICE ONE:

Another Christmas tradition is to go caroling. A group of people walks along the street. At each house, they stop and sing a Christmas song, called a carol. Student groups also sing carols at schools and shopping centers. Let us listen to the choir of Trinity Church in Bostonsing “Carol of the Bells.”

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Not everyone in the United States celebrates Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. And some black Americans observe another holiday, Kwanzaa. Yet many Americans do take part in some of the traditional performances of the season.

One of the most popular is a story told in dance: “The Nutcracker” ballet. The music was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in eighteen ninety-one.

VOICE ONE:

The ballet is about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her Christmas presents is a little device to open nuts — a nutcracker. It is shaped like a toy soldier. She dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince.

Professional dance groups in many American cities perform the ballet at this time of year. They often use students from local ballet schools to dance the part of Clara and the other children in the story. This gives parents a chance to see their children perform.

VOICE TWO:

We leave you with “The Waltz of the Flowers” from “The Nutcracker.” It is played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy.

VOICE ONE:

Today’s program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United Stateson the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA.


Listen to the VOA Broadcast
This blog is written and published by DLF Music Transfer, LLC  dba Christmas LPs to CD.  For more information on Christmas music or to purchase CDs of classic Christmas records on CD, please visit our website www.christmaslpstocd.com , call us 888-384-6970, or e-mail us david@dlfmusic.com.

Top 5 Christmas Myths by Rink Shenkman

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Macy’s Christmas Window Display

Top 5 Myths About Christmas

by Rick Shenkman

Mr. Shenkman is the editor of HNN. (History News Network  http://www.hnn.us)


#1 Myth
Retailers Have Ruined Christmas By Commercializing It
Until retailers began to see in Christmas the opportunity to market their merchandise the holiday attracted little of the attention it does now. It was retailers who made Christmas exciting. It was they who turned Santa Claus into a national icon. Montgomery Ward gave us Rudolf the red-nosedreindeer. Coca-Cola helped popularize the smiling Santa. Retailers discovered the commercial possibilities of Christmas after the Civil War. Only then did newspapers regularly begin to feature advertising sales associated with the holiday.
Retailers helped establish Christmas as an American tradition by persuading Protestants to overcome centuries of hostility to the holiday, which had long been identified as a popish import. The leaders of theMassachusetts Bay Colony so disdained Christmas that in 1659 they passed a law prohibiting the public celebration of the holiday, punishing”anybody who is found observing [it], by abstinence from labor, feasting, or any other way.” The law was repealed 25 years later, but the prejudice against Christmas remained strong. Judge Samuel Sewall was delighted to be able to report in his diary in 1685 that he did not see a single person celebrating the holiday.
#2 Myth
Christmas Cards Are a Venerable Tradition
Yes, Virginia, Christmas cards are venerable. But it was the Victorian businessman who made the Christmas card an American tradition.Before the middle of the 19th century Americans simply did not send holiday greeting cards at Christmas.
#3 Myth
Clement MooreWrote the Poem,”The Night Before Christmas”
Several years ago Vassar professor and professional debunker Don Foster concluded that Mooredid not write the famous 1822 poem with which he is so identified. Foster claimed, according to an account in the New York Times in 2000, that the poem’s”spirit and style are starkly at odds with the body of Moore’s other writings.” Foster speculated that the poem was actually written by Henry Livingston, Jr., an author from Poughkeepsie(where Vassar happens to be located).
The story made a big splash in the newspapers. It was then promptly forgotten. The same cannot be said of the poem.
#4 Myth
Christmas Trees Are Traditional
The Christmas tree first made its appearance in America in themiddle of the 18th century, thanks to German immigrants. But a hundred years later it was still rare. In 1851 a Cleveland, Ohio reverend who had recently emigrated from Germany put up a Christmas tree in his local church. He was roundly condemned. Nobody before had ever put up a Christmas tree in an American church. Victorians in the latter half of the 19th century slowly began adopting the German tradition, but the Christmas tree remained controversial. In the 1880s the New York Timeseditorialized against the Christmas tree. When Teddy Roosevelt became president he denounced the practice of cutting down trees for Christmas. Good conservationist that he was, he declared the practice a waste of timber.
#5 Myth
Santa Was Always Fat and Jolly
Whether he was a Dutch creation, as so many believe, is,according to scholar Eric C. Wolf, doubtful.”There is no evidence,” says Wolf,”that the Santa Claus myth existed in New Amsterdam, or for a century after English occupation.” To be sure, Santa is loosely based on the European figure, St. Nick, the fourth century Bishop of Demre, Turkey, who was said to have carried a sack full of toys for children. But it was only after the Revolution, when writers began inventing American traditions, that Santa suddenly achieved broad popularity. The myth was slow to build. Not until 1821 was Santa seen flying in the sky behind a pack of reindeer. Only in 1837 do we find evidence that he arrived in American homes via the chimney. And not until the Civil War did Santa look the way we imagine him. In colonial days he was often described as thin and beardless. In 1809 Washington Irving imagined Santa as a bulky man who smoked a pipe and wore a Dutch broad-brimmed hat and baggy breeches. Later, Santa was depicted as a fat man with brown hair and a big smile. Then in 1863 Thomas Nast gave us our modern idea of Santa Claus, as a jolly fat man with a flowing white beard dressed in a red suit.

– See more at: http://hnn.us/article/479#sthash.PJeqG2HA.dpuf


This blog is written and published by DLF Music Transfer, LLC  dba Christmas LPs to CD.  For more information on Christmas music or to purchase CDs of classic Christmas records on CD, please visit our website www.christmaslpstocd.com , call us 888-384-6970, or e-mail us david@dlfmusic.com.

Why This Orthodox Jew Loves Christmas Music by Michael Rosen

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For me, an Orthodox Jew in 21st-century America, December truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

     Yes, there’s Hanukkah and the family and community celebration it entails. And, sure, there’s winter vacation, the week or so between Christmas and New Year’s when the kids are home from school and my wife and I take time off from work.
But I really love December because it’s around then that my cable provider revives its “Sounds of the Seasons” music channel, which airs round-the-clock Christmas music through early January. Yes, I admit it: My name is Michael Rosen, and I love Christmas music.
Let me be clear: I am deeply proud of my faith, which I practice rigorously. While I genuinely respect the tenets of other creeds, I abhor religious syncretism of all sorts, and I have no desire to observe Christian holidays; the 20-plus yearly holidays on the Jewish calendar are plenty, thank you very much. And I profoundly loathe aggressive proselytizers of all stripes, especially those, like Jews for Jesus, that train their fire on me and my people.
I’ve also enjoyed the recent boomlet in neo-Chanukah music, including the amusing (Adam Sandler’s iconic “Hanukkah Song” and its sequels, and Tom Lehrer’s hilarious “Hanukkah in Santa Monica”), the catchy (the sweet-natured, harmonious “Eight Days of Hanukkah” by the unlikely interfaith duo of Sen. Orrin Hatch and Jeffrey Goldberg), and the viral (“Candlelight” by the Maccabeats of Yeshiva University).
     Yet Christmas music exerts a strong emotional and intellectual influence over me every December, for three distinct reasons, in increasing order of importance: its musical beauty; its deep-seated American-ness; and, most importantly, its powerful message of religious tolerance.
     The first reason is more or less purely aesthetic. Christmas tunes are almost uniformly melodious and tend to evoke intense emotions ranging from joy to nostalgia. Some songs are frivolous, some serious, others uplifting, but they universally make for agreeable listening.
They also span many different genres and artists. Every superstar American musician — from Sinatra to Crosbyto Fitzgerald to Elvis to George Michael to Beyoncé to (shudder) Kenny G — has performed a memorable version of at least one Christmas song, if not an entire album of such songs. Whether it’s Perry Como crooning “Do You Hear What I Hear?” or Nat King Cole scratching out “The Christmas Song,” or even Green Day screeching “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” the musical category enjoys an esteemed pedigree.
     The second, more important reason I delight in Christmas music derives from its distinctly American character. Here, it’s important to distinguish the strictly religious Christmas songs, such as “The First Noël,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and “Come All Ye Faithful,” from the generic “winter season” tunes, such as “Sleigh Ride,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” These latter songs are as American as apple pie, expressing a seasonal commonality felt by all Americans, regardless of creed. Wintry themes such as snow, love, gifts, fires, and family offer something for everyone and remind us that Americans of varied faiths, ethnicities, and generations share much more than we think.
     There’s no reason American Jews — even observant ones — can’t relate to these tunes. Indeed, as Marc Tracy and David Lehman have documented, many of the most famous of these wintry songs were written by Jewish composers, including Irving Berlin (“White Christmas”), Joan Ellen Javits and Phillip Springer (“Santa Baby”), Mel Tormé (“The Christmas Song”), and Sammy Cahn (“Let It Snow”).
     And as Lehman ably explains in A Fine Romance (Nextbook, 222 pp.), his perceptive history of the influence of Jewish songwriters on the American musical catalog, “the Jewish element in American popular song is a property not only of the notes and chords but of the words as well, or, more exactly, the union between words and music.” Jewish songwriters absorbed and displayed a discerning understanding of American culture. (This unexpected truth provoked a splenetic tirade last year from Garrison Keillor, who railed against “lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys” and un-Christianly explained that “Christmas is a Christian holiday — if you’re not in the club, then buzz off.”)
     But the third and most significant reason I relish the Christmas canon pertains to the strongly religious nature of the spiritual songs. While I obviously don’t share the theology they express, the religious melodies provide a stark, visceral reminder of the Christian origins of the United States, and especially of the astoundingly warm welcome the early Americans extended to Jews because of, not in spite of, their Christian faith.
     The pilgrims, of course, arrived on our continent while fleeing religious persecution and thus were highly sensitive to faith-based oppression. They also evinced a fierce devotion to the customs and history of the Hebrew people; one instance of this was the establishment, at Harvard and Yale, of Hebrew as a mandatory language. This love and tolerance deeply informed the First Amendment, guaranteeing Jews — among others — the right to freely exercise their religion in the absence of an established state faith.
     In his famous 1790 letter to the Jews of Newport, R.I., George Washington expressed this fervent hope: “May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” Washington’s encomium reflects God’s solemn promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 that “those who bless you, I shall bless, and those who curse you, I shall curse.” In other words, Washington’s devotion to his faith sparked his ardent desire to protect “the Stock of Abraham” in the new United States.
     This sentiment reaches its full expression in my personal favorite of the religious songs: “O Holy Night.” (I especially enjoy the version performed by Josh Groban, whose father was born Jewish but converted to Episcopalianism.) The music, naturally, is exquisite, but the lyrics nicely illustrate the philosemitic tendencies of the Christmas canon. Composed and written by two 19th-century Frenchmen, the song, while distinctly Christian, is a paean to religious tolerance:

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.

     The song forthrightly acknowledges the religious obligation borne by all Christians to love the stranger, unchain the enslaved, and liberate the oppressed. It’s difficult to overstate the intellectual and emotional impact of such an approach on American Jews, whom the U.S. has welcomed with open, Christian arms. Thus, whenever I hear Christmas songs sung in English, I cannot help but swell with thankfulness that I’m allowed to freely practice my faith in such an extraordinary country, where, notwithstanding the caterwauling of extreme activists, (almost) all oppression has ceased.
     Would that this tolerance were the norm around the world. Nowadays, where Christianity flourishes, Judaism thrives. But where secularism reigns, and where Islamism prevails, Jews find themselves under assault. Europe, home to the world’s largest Jewish population for centuries, has rapidly become the least hospitable place for Jewish communities to take root, as secular values and assertive Muslim populations have advanced. Tragically, oppression is on the march on the very continent that midwifed “O Holy Night.” Even here in the U.S., residents of San Francisco, the most secular of American big cities, now seek to ban circumcision.
     So I take nothing for granted when it comes to religious tolerance, and I’m grateful for the musical reinforcement I receive every December. Do I get strange looks from passersby on the streets of (mostly WASPy) La Jolla when, wearing my yarmulke, I’m whistling “O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord”? Absolutely. But such are the wages of being Jewish in Americain the modern era. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

— Michael M. Rosen is an attorney and writer in San Diego. Reach him at michaelmrosen@yahoo.com. 

(This article was originally published in the National Review on December 23, 2010)

This blog is written and published by DLF Music Transfer, LLC  dba Christmas LPs to CD.  For more information on Christmas music or to purchase CDs of classic Christmas records on CD, please visit our website www.christmaslpstocd.com , call us 888-384-6970, or e-mail us david@dlfmusic.com.

Christmas With the King Family – 1967

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They just don’t make wholesome TV variety shows like Christmas with The King Family anymore!  Watching this 1967 TV special is like looking into a window onto the past when variety shows on TV were at their zenith and wholesome even corny sentimentalism was so popular, it was expected.  For those of us who still love this sort of thing, we’re lucky that this entire 1967 TV special was released on DVD in 2009–a bonus feature on the Christmas with The King Family documentary that also aired on PBS.  The documentary is a collection of clips from several King Family Christmas TV programs with commentary by members of the King family.  Have you seen it?

DVD box cover

1967’s Christmas with The King Family was the first Christmas TV special following The King Family Show variety TV series.  Though “America’s First Family of Song” began their variety series on TV in 1965, this 1967 special is their first hour-long Christmas special.  The cast includes the King Sisters, Alvino Rey, the King Cousins, the King Kiddies as well as all the other aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews that make up the extended musical family. This Christmas special was rebroadcast by the network for many years until the King Family made their next Christmas TV special in 1974.

The family opens the show singing “Happy Holidays” and “Caroling, Caroling” as they decorate a Christmas tree on an open stage setting with a staircase, a chandelier and a couch.  The music continues with the King Cousins, the King Kiddies and the King Sisters singing a medley of “Deck the Halls/Jingle Bells” in an arrangement that features each group of singers.

“The Holiday of Love.” 

In gorgeous floor-length white dresses with black fur collars, the King Sisters harmonize on “The Holiday of Love.”  This song is one of the signature King Sisters holiday songs recorded for the King Family Christmas albums.

Tina Cole singing to her toddler son Volney Howard.

Tina Cole sings “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” to her baby son, while young Cam and Laurette, and King Sister Marilyn and husband Kent, continue the same song.

Rob on bass, Alvino with his “talking steel guitar” and daughter Liza Rey Butler on harp.

Alvino Rey plays the steel guitar with two King cousins accompanying him on harp and stringed bass.  My favorite performance is the King Cousins dressed in red pajamas singing and dancing to a hip bossa-nova arrangement of “Twas the Night Before Christmas/Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”  This is followed by King Sister Alyce singing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” at the piano, played by son Lex.  Lex continues on the piano, performing a relaxed arrangement of “Sleigh Ride.”

“Twas the Night Before Christmas” performance
Bob Clarke with the King kids.

Bob Clarke recites a story about a Christmas donkey to the group of children intercut with animated images of Mary and Joseph on a donkey.

“Hear the Sledges With the Bells.”

The whole family sings “Hear the Sledges With the Bells” and Marilyn sings “My Favorite Things.” 

Marilyn sings “My Favorite Things” a song closely associated with the holidays–though it original comes from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music.  Sadly, the last of the King Sisters, Marilyn, passed away just last month (August 2013).

Performance for the song “The Little Drummer Boy.”  What this photo doesn’t reveal is the adorable puppy running through the set!

The King Kiddies perform a dramatization of the Nativity story against a recording of the King Sisters singing “The Little Drummer Boy.”

“White Christmas.”

The King Sisters sing the beloved holiday classic “White Christmas” dressed in luxurious white hooded coats trimmed with white fur.  This is followed by the female members of the King Cousins singing “The Christmas Song” eventually joined by their mothers.

“The Christmas Song.”

“The Christmas Waltz.”

 
Together the family sings “The Christmas Waltz” dressed in white gowns and tuxedos as they waltz to the music. The family sings “The First Noel/Auld Lang Syne/We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and they close the show singing “(When There’s) Love at Home.”

Ric catches his mother by surprise walking up to her during her performance of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
Her tearful reaction is a rare candid moment for TV viewers, many of whom also had members of their family serving away from home perhaps even in Vietnam at Christmas time.

Most people remember  this particular TV special because it includes the surprise moment when King Sister Alyce has an unexpected and tearful reunion with her son Ric, who is brought on stage in the middle of her tender performance of the song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”  Ric who was away serving in the military at that time surprises his mother who had dedicated her performance to him just moments before.

“(When There’s) Love At Home.”

What I love about this classic TV special is its old-fashioned goodness and simplicity.  Even if I wasn’t around to watch it in its original run on TV, I enjoy watching it now as a way to capture that feeling we all love to feel at Christmas–a longing for the good ol’ days and warm times spent with the family.

The King Sisters started their careers during the Big Band era.

Even if you’ve never heard of The King Sisters, and their large extended family, you may be interested to know of the King family’s further influence on pop culture.  Guitar virtuoso Alvino Rey–husband to King Sister Luise–was a pioneer with the pedal steel guitar.  I still hear people evoke his name when discussing exotica music, a style of music Rey embraced later in his career.   Two of Alvino’s grandsons Will and Win Butler continue in the music industry–in a hugely successful band, Arcade Fire.  It’s a small world, isn’t it?

Young Cam Clarke with Laurette in “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.”

 
You may also recognize King Sister Alyce’s husband, actor Bob Clarke–who has appeared in several classic science fiction movies.  Clarke was also a regular in the 1960s color episodes of Dragnet (my favorite!)  King Kiddie Cam Clarke has since grown up to become a very successful voice actor in animation and video games.

Tina Cole played Robbie’s wife Katie in the TV series My Three Sons.

This blog is written and published by DLF Music Transfer, LLC  dba Christmas LPs to CD.  For more information on Christmas music or to purchase CDs of classic Christmas records on CD, please visit our website www.christmaslpstocd.com , call us 888-384-6970, or e-mail us david@dlfmusic.com.

Some Real Letters to Santa

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I thought we’d do something a little different in today’s blog post.  Here are a few real letters written by children for Santa Claus.

This blog is written and published by DLF Music Transfer, LLC  dba Christmas LPs to CD.  For more information on Christmas music or to purchase CDs of classic Christmas records on CD, please visit our website www.christmaslpstocd.com , call us 888-384-6970, or e-mail us david@dlfmusic.com.


Band Aid – "Do They Know It’s Christmas?"

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Band Aid ” Do They Know It’s Christmas“
     Band Aid was a charity supergroup featuring mainly American, British, and Irish musicians and recording artists.  It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ureto raise money for anti-poverty efforts in Ethiopia by releasing the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” for the Christmas market that year. On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was released in the UKfour days later.  The single surpassed the hopes of the producers to become the Christmas number one on that release. Two subsequent re-recordings of the song to raise further money for charity also topped the charts. The original was produced by Midge Ure. The 12″ version was mixed by Trevor Horn.

     The supergroupwas formed by Bob Geldof; former lead singer of Irish Band The Boomtown Rats. The media of the BBC played a major role in capturing the poverty effecting Ethiopian citizens and therefore influencing Geldof to take action. As a Celebrity Diplomat, Geldof could see that these images would elicit widespread compassion from the western world for these victims of intense poverty as well as donations from the public. The group was composed of forty artists to raise awareness and funds for the Ethiopian famine in 1983-1985. The groups name stemmed from the idea that the musicians were providing aid to the less fortunate and suggested that their project was likened to putting a band-aid on a wound. Geldof was looking for support from all nations for Africa beginning in Great Britain. To do so, the artists recorded a hit single titled Do They Know It’s Christmas? depicting a poverty stricken African scenery. Lyrics of the song included description of the country saying, “where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow, do they know it’s Christmas at all?” This song and its lyrics focus solely on the Western World’s Christmas Celebrations to gain popularity at this time of year. However, it ignores the fact that Ethiopiafollows the Orthodoxcalendar where Christmas is celebrated on the seventh of January.
     The original 1984 Feed the world logo was designed by Phil Smee of Waldo’s Design, who designed all the Ads prior to the event being announced. Geldof was so moved by the plight of starving children that he decided to try to raise money using his contacts in pop music. Geldof enlisted the help of Midge Ure, from the group Ultravox, to help produce a charity record. Ure took Geldof’s lyrics, and created the melody and backing track for the record. Geldof called many of the most popular British and Irish performers of the time (Kool & The Gang and Jody Watley were the only Americans present at the original recording), persuading them to give their time free. His one criterion for selection was how famous they were, in order to maximize sales of the record. He then kept an appointment to appear on a show on BBC Radio 1, with Richard Skinner, but instead of promoting the new Boomtown Rats material as planned, he announced the plan for Band Aid. The recording studio gave Band Aid no more than 24 free hours to record and mix the record, on 25 November 1984. The recording took place at SARM Studios in Notting Hill between 11am and 7pm, and was filmed by director Nigel Dickto be released as the pop video though some basic tracks had been recorded the day before at Midge Ure’s home studio. The first tracks to be recorded were the group / choir choruses which were filmed by the international press. The footage was rushed to newsrooms where it aired while the remainder of the recording process continued. Later, drums by Phil Collins were recorded. The introduction of the song features a slowed down sample from a Tears for Fears‘ track called “The Hurting”, released in 1983. Tony Hadley, of Spandau Ballet, was the first to record his vocal, while a section sung by Status Quo was deemed unusable, and replaced with section comprising Paul Weller, Sting, and Glenn Gregory, from Heaven 17. Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran sang between contributions from George Michael and Sting. Paul Young has since admitted, in a documentary, that he knew his opening lines were written for David Bowie, who was not able to make the recording but made a contribution to the B-side (Bowie performed his lines at the Live Aid concert the following year). Boy Georgearrived last at 6pm, after Geldof woke him up by ‘phone to have him flown over from New York on Concordeto record his solo part. (At the time, Culture Club was in the middle of a UStour.)
     The following morning, Geldof appeared on the Radio 1 breakfast show with Mike Read, to promote the record further and promise that every penny would go to the cause. This led to a stand-off with the British Government, who refused to waive the VATon the sales of the single. Geldof made the headlines by publicly standing up to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and, sensing the strength of public feeling, the government backed down and donated the tax back to the charity.
     The record was released on November 29, 1984, and went straight to No. 1 in the UK singles chart, outselling all the other records in the chart put together. It became the fastest- selling single of all time in the UK, selling a million copies in the first week alone. It stayed at No. 1 for five weeks, selling over three million copies and becoming easily the biggest-selling single of all time in the UK, thus beating the seven-year record held by Mull of Kintyre. It has since been surpassed by Elton John‘s “Candle in the Wind 1997” (his tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales) but it is likely to keep selling in different versions for many years to come. In 1986 the original music video from “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” received Band Aid a Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form.
     After Live Aid, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” was re-released in late 1985 in a set that included a special-edition ‘picture disc’ version, modelled after the Live Aid logo with ‘Band’ in place of ‘Live’. An added bonus, “One Year On” (a statement from Geldof and Ure on the telephone) was available as a b-side. “One Year On” can also be found in transcript form in a booklet which was included in the DVD set of Live Aid, the first disc of which features the BBC news report, as well as the Band Aid video.
The original Band Aid ensemble consisted of (in sleeve order):

Also including:

     The hit single, Do They Know It’s Christmas?, was incredibly successful worldwide. It sold over two million copies around the globe and raised more than twenty-four million USD. The supergroups success was seen as an large increase in Celebrity Diplomacy. There was then similar actions of support from countries such as Canada, France, Spain and the United States. The success influenced two organizations of live Benefit Concerts run by Celebrity Charity. The concerts were USA for Africa and Live Aid and were broadcast in over 165 countries across the globe. Band Aid and Live Aid combined raised about 150 million USD for the famine relief effort in Ethiopia. This is the most money raised than all previous celebrity charity combined.

     The first hit was so popular that several of the artists got together again to do a cover version of the original song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” These artists include Dido, Robbie Williams and Chris Martin. The group has now come together on a total of three occasions composed of popular British and Irish musicians.

This blog is written and published by DLF Music Transfer, LLC  dba Christmas LPs to CD.  For more information on Christmas music or to purchase CDs of classic Christmas records on CD, please visit our website www.christmaslpstocd.com , call us 888-384-6970, or e-mail us david@dlfmusic.com.