It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas!

Music makes Christmas feel more Christmassy for me. For years we had a few Christmas CDs that were on heavy seasonal rotation in our house. However, in the last couple of years we’ve been collecting Christmas CDs by a range of artists.

Some of our Christmas albums...

Christmas albums almost always include several covers – and compilation CDs often include different classic Christmas songs covered by lots of different people. So, for example, I have fourteen different versions of White Christmas. Meanwhile I have eight different versions of Blue Christmas. (The colours don’t stop there – The Muppets did a song called ‘Red and Green Christmas’ and Barenaked Ladies recorded ‘Green Christmas’ plus I have two different recordings of 'Purple Snowflakes'.)

In the past month a couple of people have mentioned the Christmas Card audits that I used to publish every year. I’m not planning on restarting them this Christmas but I thought I could share some ‘stats’ about Christmas music. It’s not really an audit, more some number-crunching. (And if you want to enjoy the ACCAs of Christmases past, then they are all collected on this page!)

I currently have 34 different albums or compilations of Christmas songs and music entered onto a spreadsheet. It doesn’t include film soundtrack albums for The Muppet Christmas Carol or The Nightmare Before Christmas. Some of the compilations have multiple discs (anything up to five!). The total number of songs across all the albums in the spreadsheet is 821.

In terms of most popular songs, I decided to count this as different recorded versions. For example, Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin’ Stevens appears on four of the compilation CDs but would only count as one version of the song. It also throws up some quirks – I have five different versions of All I Want for Christmas is You, but I don’t have the original sung by Mariah Carey. Clearly, Mariah doesn't want to license it cheaply to the people compiling albums. 

So, with that in mind, I’m sure you are wondering what the most popular Christmas recordings in my collection are. Here are the songs that I have the most versions of by different artists.

Top of the heap is Winter Wonderland. I have sixteen different versions of this song, by a variety of artists. It also lends its name to one of the compilation albums – with tracks by different country artists.

White Christmas, Silent Night and Santa Claus is Coming to Town are in a three-way tie for second place with 14 different versions. Meanwhile, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is in third (or fifth depending how you count these things) with 12 recordings. The First Noel and Jingle Bells are both on 10 recordings. Only one version of Jingle Bells, by Barenaked Ladies, includes the alternate lyrics about how Batman smells. 

So, if you are picking up a collection of Christmas songs, I predict the most likely song you will hear on there is Winter Wonderland. I have enough versions that I could create a mixtape of just that song, sung by different people. Although you might yet hear it sung by someone else who I don’t have in my collection of tunes. Here’s my list of Winter Wonderland warblers for you to compare:

Kylie Minogue, Connie Francis, Darius Rucker, James Taylor, Macy Gray, Joy Electric, Johnny Mercer, Jason Mraz, The Saturdays, Elvis Presley, Norah Jones, Doris Day, Mickey Mouse & Friends, Jerrod Nieman, Louie Armstrong, Bill Doggett.

There are some famous names on that list! (I’m not a hundred per cent sure it is actually Mickey Mouse and the Disney CD this is on doesn’t give a list of vocal performers, as far as I recall.)

I’m hoping to blog some reviews of my favourite Christmas records. In the meantime, crank up the Christmas tunes!

Monthly round up - November 2024

It feels like every month I say 'another busy month', but November was busy, including Cathy's birthday, a work weekend in Northern Ireland, World Diabetes Day, the start of the last stage of our year-long home improvements, and setting a new personal best for football matches in November.

The trip to Northern Ireland was for an event organised by 'young leaders' in our programme. Because of flight scheduling I ended up there for two nights. I visited Antrim for the first time and saw Lough Neigh, which is the largest lake in the UK (top pub quiz answer knowledge there!) The event went really well, I enjoyed meeting the team and the young people out there, and it seemed like everyone who attended was very positive about the content the young leaders had scheduled.

I even got to meet Mr Tayto at the airport when I left!

World Diabetes Day was on 14th November. The organisation I work for decided to use it as an opportunity to start conversations about diabetes stigma and highlight how damaging it can be for people living with the condition. I don't talk much about my personal experience of diabetes, honestly because I have experienced those feelings of being judged and blamed for developing it. A few years back I blogged about my experience of  living with diabetes after being diagnosed. In January it will be ten years since I was diagnosed and I might blog more about it then. 

In Wales, my colleagues organised a World Diabetes Day celebration event and awards evening in Port Talbot. It was a fun night with former NHS colleagues, people from local support groups, colleagues and the programme's young leaders from Wales. 

Hard on the heels of World Diabetes Day came a very important date in our calendar - Cathy's birthday! I had the day off work and we had a nice, quietish day together. We went to the cinema to watch The Wild Robot, which we both enjoyed, and had a meal out in the evening. We have discovered somewhere new that Cathy can actually order something off the menu, which means we have options for a meal out locally now!

The final stages of our home improvements have started. Our old hall carpet has gone, replaced by tile- effect flooring. 

Of course, nothing is simple with our house. When the carpet was lifted, we discovered a ridge in the concrete that meant we had to have the floor levelled, adding another day to the process. We are also getting a new cupboard built under the stairs. Considering this all started with our new roof in February, it has been a very long sequence of getting thongs sorted. I have decided that unless there is a disaster, we aren't having any work done in the house next year!

Football-wise, I made it to seven games in November. This was a new record for me. It included seeing Shrewsbury Town benefit from 'new manager bounce' with a glorious 3-2 win over Birmingham City in Gareth Ainsworth's first game in charge. 

It was the same weekend as 'Storm Bert' and I had some trouble getting home on the Sunday after the game. It felt like I couldn't get out of Shropshire, with roads blocked every time I crossed the county boundary. I ended up having lunch back at Mum's house and then driving home via the motorways. All told, I spent eight hours trying to get home!

The other games I went to included a trip to Seven Sisters Onllwyn to watch Cardiff Draconians - it was a new ground for me and my friend Matt joined me there. Every five years or so I get Matt to come to a game with me even though he is more of a rugby fan. 

I also watched two women's games, Barry Town away at Cardiff City, and then at the end of the month Wales v Ireland in the final round of the qualifying play off for the European Championships next year.

I went to the Wales game with Steve - and it was the second time in a week we had been at the Cardiff City Stadium. Two days previously we had been in the away end watching Queens Park Rangers beat Cardiff City, along with another friend, Andy.

Randomly at the Wales game I was sat right next to my friend Ruth, who I saw a couple of months back having not seen each other for several years before that. So at this rate we might well be seeing each other in January!

December is always a busy month as well so I expect it won't feel like very long before I am blogging a review, and some reviews of the year that has sped by.