All I want for Christmas is new

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/12/2024 (675 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s an iron law of decency that you don’t start playing Christmas music in public until Dec. 1.

However, outlet chains prefer the laws of economics, and for some reason, those dictate that one must begin piping out cornball tunes such as Wham!’s Last Christmas and Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime at 8 a.m. the day after Halloween.

But Christmas music can be much more than mind control to get you to buy crap. It’s a tradition stretching back to the 14th century. On top of this tradition, sits a canon — about 150 mostly secular songs penned over the past century or so — that almost everyone knows.

Arguably, there’s no other canon this old, and often downright jazzy, that enjoys such mass popularity. In an era where cultural commodities are chucked and forgotten almost as fast as they’re spit out, this seems like a wonder.

Yet the Christmas canon, as something that evolves, has fallen on hard times. It’s tough to think of a festive banger that’s become a standard since the release of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You in 1994.

One explanation for this emphasizes the power of nostalgia. People crave familiar traditions — eggnog, turkey, the old-fashioned stuff on a Michael Bublé Christmas record — come December, or so say the musicologists interviewed by Wired in an article on the topic.

But we’d like to think that local culture can sometimes be a more enriching source of tradition and familiarity than mass-produced crooner schmaltz.

So we’ve built a list of Manitoba Christmas tunes that we hope will fill humbuggers’ and Hallmarkers’ hearts alike with yuletide cheer. An alternative, local canon that, for some of us, already includes tunes that are Christmas traditions.

1. Begonia — It Won’t be Christmas (‘till You’re Here) (2018)

With its horn stabs, pulsing piano and thickly harmonized R&B vocals, this entry sounds like an update on A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, an album featuring such hits as Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.

And it follows a similar logic to some of those tunes (Mariah Carey’s Miss You Most (At Christmas Time) and All I Want for Christmas is You, too): write an earworm about wanting your lover back, add sleigh bells, and voila, a winning recipe.

The proof’s in the Christmas pudding: Begonia’s catchy tune has more than half a million streams on Spotify.

William Prince’s Don’t Go Leaving Me (It’s Christmas Eve) is also in this tradition, another marker of which seems to be (charming, if unnecessary) parentheses.

 

2. Lenny Breau Quartet – Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1976)

This pick deserves a biographical preface: Nashville icon Chet Atkins — arguably the most influential country guitarist of all time — called the late Winnipeg jazzer Lenny Breau the greatest guitarist to ever live, comparing him to Chopin.

Breau’s life is the stuff of underground legend: a major influence on the Guess Who’s Randy Bachman — and someone praised by Leonard Cohen, Pat Metheny and scores of other major figures — Breau nevertheless didn’t achieve proper fame.

In the 1970s, he could be seen at Ting Tea Room on Broadway in Winnipeg playing for a small crowd of fans who recognized his genius, including media mogul Izzy Asper, and led a tumultuous life, dying at just 43.

Breau’s version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town showcases his signature techniques: his singular ability to play melody and chords at the same time, like a piano player, and his use of artificial harmonics, which you’ll hear glistening near the end of the recording.

There’s an extended improv section and a few edgy harmonic choices, but it’s also a bluesy rendition of a holiday classic that makes for easy listening.

 

3. Choirs, choirs, choirs

Winnipeg is a choral city, and those choirs reflect a big part of Winnipeg’s cultural makeup.

Many of them throw holiday concerts — a chance to experience older, pre-commercial and religious Christmas music whose roots stretch back to the cultural traditions of countries around the world.

Here are a couple pieces from such traditions that Winnipeggers have interpreted and recorded:

Coventry Carol, arranged by Andrew Balfour, a Cree composer and conductor reared musically in the Anglican choral tradition, who gently coaxes modern harmonies out of this 16th-century English Christmas carol.

But mostly Balfour lets this haunting work sing for itself. Prairie Chamber Choir’s recording of the piece can be found online via Soundcloud.

Po Vs’ omu Sviti Stala Novyna (the Carol of the Christmas Miracle): this recording, from Fred Penner’s Christmastime album with the Mennonite’s Children Choir and the Ukrainian Folk Ensemble, feels like Penner gracefully giving his younger listeners a little education.

But there’s nothing pedantic going on here: it’s glorious, gorgeous music that should resonate with listeners of all ages.

 

4. Kipp Kocay — Oceans of Blue (2011)

While technically not a Christmas tune, this song by the late Kocay — who died suddenly at the age of 34 in 2021 — has assumed a certain melancholic Christmas quality.

Oceans of Blue is on the list as a nod to Kippmass, the quasi-annual musical concert Kocay held on Boxing Day. Since Kocay’s death, others have thrown Kippmass at the Times Change(d), a bittersweet chance to reflect on their admiration for Kocay.

Oceans of Blue, a song about love lost, is a poignant score for such reminiscences and, despite its lo-fi recording, has all the makings of a standard in the vein of Leonard Cohen or Amy Winehouse.

 

5. William Prince, J.P. Hoe, Lana Winterhalt and so many more…

Limiting ourselves to just five picks seems unfair given the lavish amount of Christmas music Manitobans have released. So, we’re going to cheat with our last entry by reeling off a few more standout local holiday tunes:

• Lana Winterhalt’s ethereal Diamonds;
• JP Hoe’s witty, rootsy Hoe Hoe Hoe;
• the Broken Song Band’s jazzy When Wintertime;
• Red Moon Road’s soulful A Simple Kind of Christmas; and
• Prince’s aforementioned Don’t Go Leaving Me (It’s Christmas Eve).

We’re sure we’ve left out other local gems, so check out Manitoba Music’s Holiday Tunes Spotify playlist, featuring all regional acts making like carollers and jingle bell rockers.

conrad.sweatman@freepress.mb.ca