When in doubt, crank up some Christmas

So, for reasons that we won’t go into here (diddly interpersonal family stuff), I got thrown off course today and needed to feel productive while also doing something to cheer myself up. Voila! Time to work on the 2010 edition of “Cool Yule,” the annual holiday mix CD that I’ve created every year for the past 20 or so years (and yes, it was initially distributed on cassette). While I try to hold back on getting wildly Christmasy before Thanksgiving, attention must be paid early to the “Cool Yule” imperative if I am to get songs selected and sequenced, discs duplicated and in the mail in time for my audience to enjoy it.

The "Cool Yule" collection is, if I may say so myself. quite a popular annual event with those Close Personal Friends who get it each year, so become a follower, send me an email and maybe you, too, will get a puffy envelope full of holiday tunes in the next few weeks.

And therefore and henceforth, with a reheated Starbucks holiday latte at my side (it’s “BOGO” between 2 and 5 pm through the weekend, so I doubled up), I’ve been checking out some of the new zip files that have come in over recent weeks with Christmas music (not much Hanukkah action yet) in ‘em and have started making a bigass playlist from which to pick this year’s top 20+ selections.

One of the tracks that might make the cut, and which I can share as a free download, is this version of “Santa Baby” by the Puppini Sisters. 

 Whoa. Just checked my emails and discovered that I received my first publicist note about this album on August 31^st! And even then, it was second after an even earlier announcement of the Indigo Girls’ first holiday album. So much for me jumping the gun!

At any rate, I needed a little Christmas and I got it. I feel better already. Hope you do, too.