The mother of all Christmas albums has to be The Carpenter's Christmas Portrait which has the quintessential Christmas Overture (a tad on the yank side ... but it trully is evocative of the whole Christmas experience) amongst all the other conventional christmas tunes given the MOR treatment by Karen and her sibling Richard.
Make no mistake, this is retail Christmas for the frantic hours pushing through harried crowds looking for the perfect gift that suits the ever shrinking budget. But it keeps the jollification tandem riding high and helps concentrates the mind on those Christmas's of yore
Oh the memories this album stirs ... chucking a tanty to get that new Christmas outfit with the mandarin collar and the accompanying vest, catching up with old family friends at midnight mass and showing said outfit off, gazing wide-eyed at those twinkly Christmas lights and almost hyperventilating at all those presents gaily wrapped under the tree, the seemingly endless rounds of parties and dinners and church do's with interminable bouts of Carol singing which we took in our childish stride, the masking tape over the crudenza guarding mum's brandy soaked dried fruit for christmas pudding from prying fingers and greedy mouths, hanging out with C's friends after the Youth Choir Christmas concert once again in said Christmas outfit ... oh I could go on and on ... all of these slices of nostalgia packaged into one single album that is now pretty much out of print.
I can't think of any record that has been released since that comes even close to these 2 sides of sheer Christmas perfection, although a fine runner up is Diana Krall's Christmas Songs ... maybe I just love alto voices, but jazz and Christmas go together like proverbial horse and carriage.
Merry Christmas Darling still makes me feel warm inside and sad at the same time. Things were so much simpler way back when ...
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