who would you like an Xmass album from

[olddots]

The options are endless .

[csziggy]

1. If it was produced before 1980 my Mom probably has it

She collected Christmas albums for many years - every single year from whatever tire store used to give them away, plus whichever ones she could find for cheap. From the late 1950s until about 1980. And she still has them all.

Dad liked to play them through the intercom system in the house they bought in 1977. He'd start them first thing on Thanksgiving Day morning and play them all the way through until New Year's. All day, every day. He never ran out of albums to play. Once we sat down and figured that in order to play them all, he'd have to start playing them somewhere around Easter.

Dad was seriously disappointed when the house was struck by lightning the second time and it took out the intercom. We were all very relieved.

[orleans]

6. great story! (seriously)

and funny. (i smell a screenplay!)

on edit: or possibly a scene in my next stage play!

[csziggy]

8. Here is the punchline - Dad was pretty much deaf

So he'd put on the Christmas albums, set the volume and couldn't hear the music. The rest of us suffered through it. Someone would sneak over to the stereo and turn the volume way down while Dad wasn't looking so we could hear each other talk over the music.

We figured the lightning strike was a sign from God - but it took two of them to kill the intercom and the stereo system at the same time.

[orleans]

9. your dad sounds like he was pretty funny

maybe he was even living vicariously through his family--knowing they could hear the music maybe he wished he could hear--thereby it being almost as good!

i think it's very cute

and that lightning business is pretty damn funny too (glad no one got hurt!!!)

[csziggy]

10. He was a character - and he loved music

One of his sorrows in life was that he was not musically talented like his mother (who was a concert level pianist) and his oldest daughter. He had a large music collection but once his hearing finally went completely he was not able to appreciate it. He never got to listen to the music of his grandson who is a talented jazz trombonist and who writes and produces music.

Our family his this sort of affinity to lightning. My great great grandfather was hit by lightning. The only thing that saved him was that he was standing at the sink with the knife he had just opened a letter with resting against the water spigott. The lightning hit the house, traveled through the wiring, out through a picture frame, and arced across the room to hit my gg grandfather. We have the picture still in the lightning damaged frame and the shreds of the letter he was reading. The picture frame had been gold leafed but is not a weird silver gray color with a hole burned through where the lightning traveled from the hanger wire through the nail and out the front. My grandmother was a child at the time and saw it happen. I have her account of the event that she wrote up for a family history.

Dad was hit by lightning once, too. He was building a sand dredge and working on the top level when lightning hit the dredge and him. All he knew was that he was working, then woke up lying on the platform on the dredge. His assistant had been on the side of the sand pit and saw the whole thing. All he ever could describe was "FLASH - and your dad fell as if he was dead!" When Dad woke up he had no residual effects, went right back to work and drove home that afternoon.

So the house being hit twice by lightning is just part of the family lore, not anything unusual.

[orleans]

11. that lightning business is very interesting

and when you say "just part of the family lore, not anything unusual" it tells me you & your family seem to take it all in stride--but i will stress to you (and i'm sure you know) *most* people would be like: OMG!!!!!

i know a lot of people who do not appreciate music--if it vanished from their life it wouldn't be missed or hardly missed at all. but i also know many people who felt/feel just the opposite and the loss of music would be like losing a part of themselves, and a part of what is in their spirit/soul. it was obviously important to your dad. (and the image of him playing christmas carols over the house intercom is pretty darn cute)

[Archae]

2. Mannheim Steamroller

They have a new one this year, that includes older tunes from them, it's called "30/40," since it's been 30 years since the first Christmas album, and 40 years since their first "Fresh Aire" album.

[shenmue]

3. Slayer

[Marie Marie]

4. Anything from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

[olddots]

5. ~mmmmmmmmmmm Perry Como or was that Coma ?

I love bad Christmas music in sick kinda way .

[shenmue]

12. I bet he has one already :)

My Dad really likes him. He and my Mom have seen Como live a few times.

[jmowreader]

13. Your wish is Perry's command

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/greatest-christmas-songs-remastered/id268456140

[Algernon Moncrieff]

7. I was just having this converation

Almost no major groups from the "Classic Rock Era" did holiday albums -- even those who are known to have performed such songs in concert, and even some that released Xmas singles.

The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Led Zeppelin
The Who
Pink Floyd
Bob Seger (did release a single of "Little Drummer Boy&quot
The Eagles (did release the "Please Come Home for Christmas" single)
Elton John (released a couple of Christmas singles)