My Life and Code

With the Christmas season upon us once again , I wanted to write about some of my favorite Christmas songs. As an adult, I've found it difficult to get into the holiday spirit each year because there's always a lot happening. As a kid, the world almost seems to stop as the holidays approach and arrive, but as an adult, things just keep on moving. One of the few things that has any affect on my mood during this time is the music, almost always because of some sort of nostalgia, and even then, there are times when it does nothing for me. But I digress. Here's a list, in no particular order, of my 10 favorite Christmas songs. Sleigh Ride - Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops This one's my all-time favorite. It's an instrumental version that's been around since long before I was born, that I first heard on an album my mother would play when I was a little kid. My earliest memory of it was from when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I think the track itself originates in ...

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear  is an old made-for-TV movie that I saw in syndication when I was a kid. I seem to recall it being on more than once, either multiple times during the same holiday season, or in consecutive years. I loved this movie, but looking back on it, all I remembered was that it starred Mickey Rooney as a grandfather hanging around with his grandson during the Christmas season, and the ending of the film. It doesn't appear to have gotten a home release past the VHS format, and is long out of print. I was happy to find it on YouTube recently, and watched it for the first time in ages. Even though I had fond memories of it, I had little  memory of it -- what was it about the film that I liked way back then? It was strange watching it again, as nothing was coming back to me as I did so. I'd have expected some "Oh, now I remember this part" moments, but that never happened, and by the end, I was curious as to why I had enjoyed the film so much as a ...

(Updated 12/2/2018) I have a soft spot for TV, movies, and music that are considered...let’s say less than the best . Sometimes entertainment that is unintentionally bad is more enjoyable to me than something comparatively decent. And the Hallmark Channel Christmas movies fit that bill for me. Are they bad ? Well, not really. But they’re incredibly cheesy (IMHO). I watched them every chance I had during last Christmas season, and this year I plan to do the same. Here are the reasons I find these movies so cheesy, and why I love them so much. They’re essentially Lifetime  movies - Okay, now stay with me here. There’s nothing wrong with Lifetime  movies, and I don't want to give you the wrong impression. It's just that these movies follow the same general formula: the lead character is female (either a professional or a small business owner), the story deals with romantic relationships, and the male lead is unrealistically perfect and the type of guy that makes us real-li...

Philadelphia, December 2017

I didn’t have a very happy childhood, but some of my fondest memories from when I was young, memories which I cherish, are of baking Christmas cookies with my mother. I was in my early school days, starting around kindergarten or maybe before. I remember rolling out the dough on a round table in our kitchen and using cutouts to make the cookies we would then decorate. Thinking about it now, these are probably my happiest childhood memories. While we’d be making the cookies, my mother would play Christmas music from some old records. They were compilation albums from the 1960s featuring artists of the day performing traditional Christmas songs. To this day it remains my favorite kind of Christmas music. In the years since then, I remembered two album covers specifically: one was a white cover featuring round Christmas tree ornaments with pictures of contemporary stars like Jim Nabors and Johnny Mathis, who appeared on the album, inside the ornaments; the other, which I was sure was ...

Okay, so this is a little late, but still funny. The 1982 Tron Holiday Special from Rip Taylor

I really enjoy Christmas music -- especially the more traditional, Johnny Mathis/Andy Williams type stuff -- but there are certain Christmas songs that I just can't stand. For starters, it seems like I don't like anything modern, specifically new takes on old classics. Mariah Carey is very talented, but for some reason I can't explain, I don't like her versions of any of the old Christmas songs. Same goes for any of the other current mega-singers. Again, I'm not sure why -- I have nothing against them, I just don't like their renditions of those songs. Then there's some old classics that I could never stand. For example, "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth". Personally, all I want for Christmas is for him to stop singing. Then there's a handful of songs that I used to hear, over and over, on any given Christmas at my aunt's house -- she'd always have the radio on and I guess the station only had a limited number of Christmas...