Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

If I hear Burl Ives' Have a Holly Jolly Christmas one more time, my head is going to explode - like that guy in Scanners. I'm not kidding.

Here in Chicagoland, one of the local radio stations, WLIT, goes "all Christmas all the time" from around the beginning of November through the holidays. I love WLIT - I listen to Melissa Foreman every morning (and I really missed her when they canned her last year for Whoopi Goldberg (no offense Ms. Goldberg, but I want to hear the news and events from Chicago, not New York)) , and I love Christmas. I love everything about it - the decorations, the parties, the food, the giving, the singing, and the music. My ex-husband used to get exceptionally irritated if I wanted to put up any decorations until after Thanksgiving (all hell would break loose if he heard Christmas music in November . . . ). Of course, I have been known to listen to Christmas music in the middle of summer. I have a vivid memory of sitting on Linda's back porch with a group of SnB friends last summer, with my iPod in shuffle mode on the speakers. Jamie's head suddenly snapped up and she said, "is this CHRISTMAS MUSIC????" I forgot that shuffle would pull from all playlists :-D

Sorry - I've digressed. Anyway, WLIT is playing the Burl Ives classic in heavy rotation. And I mean heavy. Now, there's nothing wrong with this song, I like it just fine, and Ives had a great, great voice - and admittedly, the holiday playlist is somewhat limited, but JesusMaryandJoseph, do they have to play this song every 40 minutes?????

Poor Burl - does anyone even remember that he was an Oscar winning actor? Or that he originated the role of "Big Daddy" in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway and played him in the film? Prolly not. It's far more likely that they remember him as the voice of the narrator, "Sam the Snowman," in the Rankin Bass classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas was featured in this holiday special, and it's been with us ever since.

I'm listening to my own Christmas mix today. No holly, but still quite jolly - and if I get a hankering to hear Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, I just have run an errand. I never have to worry, because every time I get in the car (I'm not kidding), Burl is there, on the radio, singing me out of the garage and on my way :-D

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