{"id":27341,"date":"2020-12-20T12:15:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T18:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=27341"},"modified":"2020-12-20T12:15:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T18:15:31","slug":"managing-the-christmas-playlists-at-nogglestead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/20\/managing-the-christmas-playlists-at-nogglestead\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing the Christmas Playlists at Nogglestead"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you know, gentle reader, I have numerous Christmas albums acquired over decades (well, I inherited some eleven years ago and have added to the stash since) and<\/em> I have a working record player this year. So am I listening to Christmas records 24\/7? Unfortunately, no–as I am not spending much time in the kitchen\/parlor\/living room area where you can hear the records on the record player.<\/p>\n

Instead, I have been listening to other, more limited, playlists of Christmas songs in other venues.<\/p>\n

I started with the local Christmas radio station. This year, 106.7 The River (don’t ask me the call letters–radio stations rarely mention them any more, and you can’t spell “River” from any combination thereof) started very early–the beginning of November–to get a jump on 105.9 KGBX (all right, make a rule and suddenly there’s an exception). As a radio station, it focuses more on the secular songs of Christmas and the more recent poppy versions of them. It mixes in a little Perry Como and Bing Crosby, but not a lot. Since it was the first source of Christmas music at my disposal, I let the radio play a lot, and after a couple of nights of a couple of hours at dinner and thereafter, we got very familiar with the radio-sized playlist–which is to say, it’s not very big.<\/p>\n

At night, in the recliner, I used my phone to play some of the albums I have in CD form streaming to a Bluetooth speaker. Unfortunately, my set of Christmas CDs is pretty limited: Erin Bode’s A Cold December Night<\/em>; Alberti’s Merry Christmas<\/em>; Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Christmas Album<\/em>; Jessy J’s California Christmas<\/em>; Mannheim Steamroller’s Christmas<\/em>, Christmas Extraordinaire<\/em>, and Christmas in the Aire<\/em> (as I mentioned<\/a>); and Natalie Cole’s Holly and Ivy<\/em>. I was starting to think of this as the “The Holly and the Ivy” Christmas as the song was over-represented in the CD streaming rotation (that is, Erin Bode and Natalie Cole sang it repeatedly).<\/p>\n

At the end of November, I remixed our audio equipment<\/a> here, which allowed me to spin records and stream the DirecTV more traditional Christmas station through the speakers downstairs.<\/p>\n

Well, a couple nights of addressing Christmas<\/a> cards<\/a> made me very familiar with the satellite provider’s Christmas list which is almost as small but different than the radio’s. <\/p>\n

For example, perhaps the person who programmed the playlist is a bigger fan of Robert Goulet than Fillyjonk<\/a>, but you get multiple tracks every night, including “This Christmas I Spend With You”:<\/p>\n