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!

Hallowe'en Decor

Noson Calan Gaeaf Hapus / Happy Hallowe'en. 

I thought this year I would post a few pictures of the mantelpiece after Cathy arranged some themed items for our All Hallows Eve amusement. Brace yourself for some treats. (If you follow my Twitter you may already have seen these pictures.)

The little Sylvanian Families house with the cat in a ghost costume was a present from Cathy to me. I gave her the large pumpkin in the picture below for National Pumpkin Day last year. It's made by Jellycat

All hail the Pumpkin King!

With the lights out and pumpkin nightlights on, it looks very atmospheric.

The Playmobil ghost also lights up in a colour change mode. Meanwhile Sally Brown was bought on one of our American road trips. We have several other Peanuts characters dressed for Hallowe'en, but Sally is the only one to appear on the mantel this year. 

Have a splendid Hallowe'en everyone. 

How many have you seen?

Here's an ABC of films I've seen and quite like. How many have you seen?

Aliens
Batman Begins
Cars
Dave
Empire Strikes Back, The
Fellowship of the Ring, The
Garden State
Hellboy
Italian Job, The (Original 1960s version)
Jaws
Kelly’s Heroes
Leon
Monsters Inc.
Nightmare Before Christmas, The
Overboard
Platoon
Quiz Show
Return of the Jedi
Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope)
Transformers
Untouchables, The
Van Helsing
Wallace & Gromit in Curse of the Were-Rabbit
X-Men
Young Guns
Zulu

Burton on Burton

Back when Planet of the Apes came out in 2001, a great number of people left the cinema saying "What happened at the end? Did you get it?"

Reading Burton on Burton, a collection of interviews Tim Burton has done through the years, it would seem Tim Burton doesn't really know either, except he didn't want to copy the Statue of Liberty ending:

"We just went back to the overall mythology of Planet of the Apes, of the book, even the other movies. For me the whole thing has got a sort of circular structure to it, it goes round on itself somehow - parallel universes, time travel, man/ape, evolution, religion. Where do we come from? Where are we going? Do we just keep re-evolving? There was a feeling of wanting to do something where it was a parallel world but it was all apes, and there was something about that I liked - I had this image of a weird twisted parallel universe. I thought about it in a big picture - even though I couldn't give a shit about sequels, but if you do something like this you think about a bigger picture of the material. So there was the idea of going back in a sort of twisting of time, and again going through this juxtaposition of human/animal, and coming back into a world where you think its normal, but something has happened."

Or you could just paraphrase it as: "Hey, I had to end the damn thing somehow..."

Geek film note: Nightmare Before Christmas afficionados might be interested to know the scarecrow designed to keep everyone away from the Ape holy site (which is actually the crashed spaceship Oberon) is modelled on the King of Halloweentown, Jack Skellington.

Man flu film reviews

Being off for a few days with a particularly vicious form of man ‘flu meant I’ve watched quite a few films, including quite a few where I had to take the shrinkwrap cellophane off before watching it! So, after Return of the King, Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Beetle Juice and Pirates of the Caribbean, I got onto a couple of films I hadn’t seen before…

Collateral is perhaps the film which proves Tom Cruise can actually act (unless you think the whole ‘Katie had a baby, so I guess Tom's straight’ thing is a diversion). As in Heat, Michael Mann uses the urban wasteland of LA to great effect, with the city effectively the third major character in the film. The ending is a bit contrived, but the plot works and everybody’s favourite Thetan in disguise puts in a great performance as Vincent. Playing against type as a bad guy clearly works for Tom, so hopefully he’ll take on a few more villainous roles.

Jongudmund’s rating: 8/10

Do you remember when pre-recorded videos were expensive and so you taped films off the telly? I revisited those deprived days of yesteryear and watched a film Cath taped back at Christmas. Down with Love is a ‘screwball comedy’ starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.

The film’s passable. Ewan McGregor is always good value and David Hyde Pierce is surely one of the most gifted comic actors around, even if he is playing yet another version of Niles Crane. While there are some funny scenes, and some decent dialogue, most of the key scenes are contrived and the performances smelt so much of ham I thought I was in the sandwich meat aisle in Tesco.

The thing which struck me most though, about the film, is that seeing him in thick glasses and a side parting, Ewan McGregor would make a great Clark Kent. Why wasn’t he signed up to play Superman in the limp ‘Returns’? With a knowing smile and a slightly feral glint in his eye, he’d be a fantastic Superman.

Jongudmund’s rating: 5/10

And is it nerdy that when I watched Beetle Juice I recognised Glenn Shaddix's name because he played the Mayor in Nightmare Before Christmas...?

It's a nice little problem to have

The hardest part about Christmas is finding homes for all the new stuff I've been given. Artoo-Potatoo will join Darth Tater and Spud Trooper quite easily. Books go on the shelf. Nightmare stuff in with the ever-growing collection of Nightmare stuff. Clothes go in the wardrobe etc. etc.

But suddenly I've got a collection of B-Damen. After Irony Boy gave me one in our pre-Christmas House Christmas, he then found a Jap import version cheap in Yeovil for me. I also found 3 import versions in our new fancy 'out-of-town, but nearer my house now' Toys 'R' Us for the ludicrous low price of 96p each. Suddenly I have an armada of the things and I'm not really sure where to put them.

Still, I guess the hassle of finding space for all my new toys is a nice hassle to have.

Another addition to the Spud Wars family...

It's Christmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!

I've never been considered much of a fashion guru, but at least I'm organised when it comes to seasonal underwear. The 'pigs in Santa hats' Joe Boxer shorts are on (probably not a contender for 'helps underline the real meaning of Christmas' award). The Jack Skellington socks are on. And I'm ready for a big day of Christmas fun and family togetherness.

And, in the spirit of Christmassy togetherness, Cathy's pants have 'ho ho ho' all over them. However, she wasn't chuffed when I referred to them as her "ho pants". Can't think why...