Go To Christmas Albums from Childhood

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing okay. It's been difficult around here lately, which is why I haven't felt like doing more Christmas related blog posts this week like I originally intended. But, I wanted to do SOMETHING for the blog today, so I'm going to talk about five Christmas albums/CDs that we used to listen to at Christmas time that I still listen to today. This is gonna be in more of an overview style post rather than a review, so, don't worry, there won't be spoilers, since there's no story and characters to talk about. So let's get into it.

Before I get into the albums themselves, I wanna set the stage by talking a little bit about what Christmas was like in my house when I was a kid. When I was a younger kid, from about 1990 until 1995 or 1996, my siblings and I would open our presents from Santa, and our parents, as well as our stockings, at home, and then we would go over to Nana's and Grandpa's (my mom's parents) to open our stockings and presents from them, and we had brunch. Then we'd go home for a little bit, and then we'd drive to Grandma and Grandpa's to open presents from them and have Christmas Dinner with my dad's side of the family. Then when we were a little bit older, and Grandma and Grandpa had moved up to the cottage full time, we'd do Christmas Day with Nana and Grandpa, and then we'd drive up to the cottage on Boxing Day and stay overnight. This actually continued well into my teen years in the 2000s. And then, eventually, Grandma and Grandpa started going to Florida in November, rather than after Christmas, so they would leave our presents with my parents to put under our tree before they left, and we'd talk to them on the phone while Nana and Grandpa, and my uncle, would come over for brunch on Christmas Day. During that entire time, we'd have the five albums I'm gonna be talking about. So let's start.

First up is the 1997 CD version of Christmas with Elvis. I'm pretty sure that my dad got it for his birthday in 1997, but he may have bought it himself. I just know that he had it by the time my 11th birthday, because I remember listening to it while I opened The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. My favourite songs on this album are "Santa Claus is Back in Town", "Blue Christmas", "White Christmas", and "Winter Wonderland". It doesn't even feel like Christmas time until I've put this album on and have heard these four songs. My dad still owns the CD, but I ripped it to my computer years ago, and I put it on my iPod every time I get a new one...yes, I'm aware that I sound like I'm in like 2009 or 2010 instead of 2022, but I'm in my 30s, digital music, besides ripping the songs from the disc onto the computer, was just becoming a thing when I started high school in 2001, with the iTunes Store not becoming a thing until I was nearing the end of grade 10 in 2003. Anyways, this album is pretty great.

 Next up is an odd album called Smith Kids Christmas, released by SmithBooks, which is the name of some of the shopping mall bookstores, also known as Coles, owned by Indigo Books and Music, which also owns Chapters, a bookstore that I have many fond memories of from when I was a kid. I can't find any information about this album anywhere. No release date, nothing. Not even on the CD itself. But I remember having it as early as 1996, but no earlier than that. It was another one that my dad played in the rotation of Christmas albums. But, unlike Christmas with Elvis, I inherited this CD for my own collection once my brother, sister, and I were grown up and my dad took it out of the rotation. My favourite songs on this album are "Let It Snow", "Frosty the Snowman", and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". The rest of the songs are great too, obviously, but those are the ones I like the most.

These next two I'm gonna talk about together, just because they're two volumes of the same series, Christmas All-Time Greatest Records. These are all the classic Christmas songs sung by the legendary artists such as Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Merle Haggard, Lena Horne, Bobby Helms, Brenda Lee, the Beach Boys, Judy Garland, and the Andrews Sisters. My favourites on these albums are "Silver Bells" by Merle Haggard, "Little Saint Nick" by the Beach Boys, "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" by Donny Osmond, "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms, and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee. I know, it's cliche, but this is Christmas time, there are only so many Christmas songs out there, so why not go with the classics?

 The last album on this list is another compilation album. It's similar to the Christmas All-Time Greatest Records albums, except it's all country music. Hank Williams Jr., Merle Haggard, Andy Williams, Sawyer Brown, Bobby Helms, and Brenda Lee are all on here with both "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" repeated from the previous albums I talked about, but like I said, why not stick with the classics? My favourites on this album, aside from the two songs repeated from the previous collections, are "Pretty Paper" by Don McLean and "Winter Wonderland" by Merle Haggard. 

Unlike the first two albums on this list, I don't remember when my dad got these compilations. They came out in 1990 and 1991 respectively, so it's basically anytime after that that he would've gotten them. I just feel like we've always had them unlike the Christmas with Elvis and Smith Kids Christmas albums. But growing up my dad had them on every year and as we had a multi-disc changer CD player, all five of these albums would play all day on Christmas Day. At least, when we were home anyways.

That's it for me for today. I just wanted to talk about these Christmas albums since I've never done that before on any of my blogs. Like I said, I wanted to do more Christmas related content on the blog this year. So, that is it for today. I have a Christmas movie that I want to review before next weekend and then, aside from my review of season 1 of Star Trek: Prodigy, which is finally ending in two weeks, I am taking two weeks off for the holidays. So stay tuned for those reviews. Until then have a great evening and a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you later. Take care.