Christmas Music

I have quite a large collection of Christmas LPs, Reel to Reels and CDs.  One curiosity that I have especially when I play an LP is who owned this, how did that scratch get there and what the story of this record is.

When I think of Christmas, I reflect on the good times, the people and the memories.  How many different things each of these records have "seen" over the years.  Some of the Christmas albums are 50 or more years old.  Imagine all the family changes that went on over that time period.  How long did this album sit before I purchased it with the intent of playing it.  How many memories are contained in this record?

I am digitizing some of these recordings and posting them on my YouTube channel called XmasWonderland.  I am finding that quite a number of people are quite happy to see these videos of some of the less known seasonal music.  I have some comments that they hadn't heard that particular song in years, or tell me of their memories.  It is awesome and gave me the desire to post more music on the site to excite other people looking for certain songs.

I have about 250 Christmas albums ranging in quality from Good to Near Mint.  Sometimes I wonder if the album that I am playing has even been played more than once or twice.  One thing that I think about is how many of these were purchased in the bargain bins of the local store and forgotten about.  Or played that first year and their record player broke, or they received their first CD player and the records were filed in boxes in some dark corner of the basement.

The treasures held in these old records are pretty significant.  Some of the music has not been moved to CD, so except for those of us digitizing the songs and posting them, they may wind up forgotten songs.  I would hate to see that, as I am disappointed by the trend of radio stations to have a month or so of Christmas music by playing the same 40 songs over and over again.  When was the last time you heard the Lennon Sisters, or Lou Rawls, or Ed Ames, or Lynn Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, Ella Fitzgerald or Wurlitzer Organ Christmas music, which used to be very popular on the radio stations playing Christmas classics?

I am very glad to have a couple working turntables so I can enrich my holiday season by treating my family to some wonderful Christmas music that at least in my house, hasn't been forgotten.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Jeff