It's Chriiisstmaaasss! Time to take to the hills

(An update of something from this time last year, prompted by a recent visit to Tesco's in Callington where Slade appeared to be caught in a never-ending loop due to a technical hitch. I was not the only person to emerge reeling into the car park, feeling bilious and with fewer items in my shopping basket than intended. It was, however, strangely comforting, and more than a little gratifying, to see the 'Bah Humbug' spirit so much in evidence. Hooray, it's not just me!).

 

The season is with us, folks, when we curmudgeons have lots to sound off about. And there's nothing that irritates us more than the annoying, tedious and repetitive Christmas jingles and tunes we are bombarded with wherever we go. Yes, it's time to be assaulted yet again by an excruciatingly dippy version of “It’s A Jingly Jangly Jolly Holy Holly Santa Snowy Sleigh Ride” or some such. It really is snow joke (sorry) and yule (double sorry) regret venturing out when it's being played. Once I hear Noddy Holder screeching dementedly 'It's Chriiisstmaaasss!', I want to perforate my eardrums with a red hot needle.

But I never do, of course, because not all Christmas songs are totally naff. Let Santa Parsons give you an early Xmas present and point you in the direction of some festive fun that will make you forget the tuneless turkeys and the hapless harmonies. You might just find your heart filling up with Christmas joy if you follow the link to the podcast called The Yule Log from Hell.

It's a compilation from Keith Droz of New Jersey that comes out at this time of year and is around 90 minutes of 'alternative' Christmas songs: some straight, some completely off-the-wall, some politically incorrect, some unexpected pearls, some plain awful, some you would definitely not want your mother to hear but all of them infinitely preferable to Wham, Slade, Wizzard and their like. Take a look below at just a few of the songs featured in Episode 1 for 2015 and think where else you could find them. You can't, can you? Because Keith's podcast is unique. Why not download them all and entertain your friends and family to around 20 hours of festive glee? I have and I will - so, visitors to Colinette Barn, you have been warned!

 
* Santa Claus Looks Like My Daddy – Danny Kaye
* Christmas (baby please come home) – Jon Bon Jovi
* Christmas Seals - Leonard Nimoy
* Santa Claus Is Doing the Monkey – Arnold Dover
* Merry Twist-mas – The Marcels
* Jingle Bells – The GURU Project
* 21st Century Christmas – Sir Cliff Richard
* Christmas Date Boogie – Pete Johnson/Joe Turner
* I’m Gettin’ Pissed for Christmas – Peter and the Test Tube Babies
* Christmas On the Dance Floor – Gerard Joling
* Santa Claus, Go Straight To the Ghetto – Mint Condition
* The Little Drummer Boy – Sir Christopher Lee