Monday, December 06, 2021

Christmas Mix 2021

Christmas Mix
2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022

When I started to Photoshop the original photograph above into my own visually-sampled graphic, I thought of the lyrics to Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. However, I screwed up the second line and wrote in caps, "May your days be bright." Here's the first verse-

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on
Our troubles will be out of sight

Christmas time is a mixed bag, it can be full of bright days and dark days. I'm not here to tell anyone how to feel, to put on a smile and be of "good cheer." I do hope that this season finds you in a good place as I wish all my readers bright days ahead. I've taken my little screw up to heart by embracing it as is.

Now the Christmas Mix this year is typical of my past mixes, mostly positive songs mixed with a few 'dark days' songs just to keep it real. My favorite two in this vein are Burn Down This Town by Rosanne Cash and Something Good Coming by Tom Petty.

My wife's favorite, Carol Of The Bells by John Williams from Home Alone is tucked in its traditional second track spot for this seventh edition. Beatles songs are always sprinkled and clustered about. I've also included some interesting video clips to help round out the spirit of my little yin-yang thing. I will say, Europe makes the best Christmas commercials these days. 

Kelly Clarkson wins best break-up song of the year with her, Christmas Isn't Canceled (Just You) (in a year of notable breakup themed albums including, Kacey Musgraves and Adele). 

Here are a couple of my favorite things that struck me about this new Christmas song.

First off, I found Clarkson's 'Official Lyric Video' of the song on Youtube and busted a gut for a completely different reason than Kelly's breakup response with her husband. Look at the graphic below from the video - Who does the young smug cad in a top hat remind you of?

The young Donald playing the part?
Is it just me... or is this a spitting (and I mean spitting) image of the young ass, Donald Trump!

The graphic with his expressionless dour face complete with the little yellow duck-tail over his collar is perfect. Not only is the graphic perfect, but then juxtapose it with Kelly's lyrics, and what a great new song this becomes. I can't believe this video is an accident, jeez I can't be the only one who sees this?  This video is funny as hell to me.

Second, Christmas Isn't Canceled (Just You) also touched a chord within my heart regarding the shallowness of most Christmas music over the decades, and the fact that many of these songs are dependent on being with a husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend. Mariah Carey's 1994, All I Want For Christmas Is You comes to mind and has become a Christmas standard that carries the torch as a traditional classic. Sorry, I'm just the guy at Thanksgiving that's sick of turkey after six decades and just wants a little variety in my holiday meals and music. For me, Christmas Isn't Canceled (Just You) becomes a fresh 21st century contrast, a bright new day for women not needing to be dependent on a man for their happiness.

Okay, the last thing about this song that is absolutely self-empowering and hilarious at the same time is these two verses setting up this last line - 

Lost at first
Thinking that I might (I might)
Be cursed
Winter wonderlands weren’t made for one
So we’ve all been told since we were young

Ooh oh oh 

But I’m not feelin’ incomplete (feelin’ incomplete)
Turns out I don’t need a thing underneath my tree

Oh my, you go girl!

Now if you've only experienced my Youtube playlists on your phone, this time around you may want to watch it on your tablet or computer or better yet, use theYouTube app on your smart TV device. I have included a lot of videos in this mix. Here's my YouTube Channel if you would like to Subscribe.

Happy Festivus from Mary Kit & Doug


References

1 comment:

  1. Love the photo of you endless summer San Diegans. I like the idea of firing this playlist up on the TV whilst I whip up some dinner tonight while I sip a festive toddy. Always enjoy your Christmas playlist! It’s definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas round our house. Happy holidays to all you McIntoshers!

    ReplyDelete

Leave a comment, but please NO LINKED URLs. Thanks. And, if you do leave a link, I will delete.