Giving in to nostalgia

Edition 32: Reflections on the Holidays

AJ Lee at family Christmas dinner circa 1989 (image courtesy of AJ Lee)

I am not a traditionalist but I do love traditions. As an atheist, I have no right to be such an obnoxious Christmas fan but I am an absolute sucker for the rituals that it allows me to indulge in. Maybe if my parents had forced religion on me I would like it less? I guess we’ll never know (for years, I thought one of the hymns we sang at school was “He was the Lord of the Dance Settee” and had gleeful visions of a thin man in robes leaping over the back a couch in Jerusalem.)

Mince pies, mulled wine, stockings, crackers, advent calendars, red berries, year end lists, day drinking, Home Alone, sequins, weird choral collars, parsnips. Each taste and sensation is a memory past and a new memory being made, happy and sad triggers piling on top of each other like a giant Boxing Day leftovers sandwich. And no festive trigger is more enjoyable (in my opinion) than a yuletide playlist.

Yes, I am one of those people that starts playing Spotify’s ‘Christmas Hits’ from December 1st onwards. It’s hard to pick my favorites, but there are certain festive songs I return to again and again, for a 100% guaranteed hit of conscious nostalgia and happy weeping.

It’s also this time of year that I have a strange craving to listen to British voices. Regional accents from the UK are the soothing soundtrack my mind clearly wants to return to at the end every 12 month cycle, in search of comfort. Cheeky Cockney tones, reassuringly flat Midlands intonation, the sing song beauty of the Welsh Valleys — I lap it all up. Perhaps there is no surer sign that I am now truly American than the fact that I find everything British charming…

Hence, the podcast that I turn to when I am feeling my most festive is Desert Island Discs (DID): the 80 year old BBC Radio 4 show, currently presented by Lauren Laverne, a Sunderland native and ex-Britpop star who manages to be both cool and warm at the same time.

I’m sure you know the premise of DID — each week, a person of note is invited on to pick the eight tracks they would pick if they were stranded on a desert island, and usually each song has some significance for a different anecdote about their life. I am not a person of note and I am also aware that it is very hard to cull a lifetime’s music consumption into such a short list. You don’t want to come across as taking yourself too seriously, and yet you don’t want to fall into the pitfall of choosing things that only became your favorite a week ago.

AJ Lee at a festive gathering in her room at university circa 2000 (image courtesy of AJ Lee)

Safe in the knowledge that I will never be asked to grace the BBC airwaves, and fully comprehending the rules of DID enough to flout them, here are the eight Christmas tunes I would CURRENTLY pick if I were stranded and determined to pretend it a festive party all year long:

1. Last Christmas — Wham
   For the better part of my young adulthood, George Michael lived down the road from my family home in a picturesque manor on the River Thames. For my sins, I took him for granted. Tipped off by my friend and Hudson Valley star culture journalist, Meredith Blake (who writes for the LA Times), I recently watched the Netflix Wham! documentary and discovered that beneath my love of his pop bangers, I truly appreciated Michaels’ excellence as a writer and artist. ‘Last Christmas’ never gets old, and was truly robbed of the No. 1 spot by Band Aid.

2. 12 Days Of Christmas
   Transcendent Texan musician, and local Ulster County resident, Sam Cohen recently stopped by our house and played this song as though Little Richard had ingested Class A Christmas. It was epic, and I will forever love screaming ‘FIVE GOLDEN RINGS’ like my life depends on it.

3. Auld Lang Syne
   This is my favorite song to lean heavily on my friends while singing, and I like to imagine I am Meg Ryan in a strapless dress with puppy-dog eyes at the end of ‘When Harry Met Sally’ every time it starts to play.

4. O Come All Ye Faithful
   As I mentioned — not religious. But attending many years of carol services via my Church of England school seeped into my psyche. And while I refused to say the J or the G word during daily assembly (and very significant protest, I’m sure the Holy Trinity noticed), somehow I can’t fight the infectious build up of the “O, come let us adore him” riff. I’m pretty sure I was singing about Luke Perry in 1996.

5. Feliz Navidad — Jose Feliciano
   This. Song. Rocks. That’s all.

6. Merry Christmas Everybody — Slade
   Noddy Holder is a genius. He wrote a cracking Christmas song with zero jingle bells and apparently rakes in 1 million British pounds each year from it being blasted out of every radio station and department store for 30 days solid. Some speculate that the reason we still love this song is that it’s essentially a glam rock 70s classic that just happens to have festive lyrics. I personally love the way he wails “It’ssss Chrissssstmassssssss” towards the end of the song — it sums up perfectly how I feel when I turn on my out of office at the end of December.

7. DJ Play A Christmas Song — Cher
   Yes, I went there: I picked a song that was released three weeks ago. But, it’s Cher! My kids already know the words. She’s an icon. I kind of hate her music but I am hopelessly devoted to Moonstruck and every outfit she turns up in at awards shows. And I actually do just wanna be dancing all night long.

8. Fairytale of New York — The Pogues

   Of course. This is THE Christmas song. Shane MacGowan was a punk poet for generations (RIP). It’s a festive song that allows you to throw insults at people on the dance floor. It makes me feel connected to my best friend who’s Irish (we saw in the new Millenium together in a sticky nightclub in Dublin.) Before I was even allowed to watch Nora Ephron movies, I heard this song and knew I had to move to New York. I owe this song a lot, and I still love to jig like a maniac every time it comes on.

   

   AJ Lee on Christmas day circa 1989 (image courtesy of AJ Lee)

   
   So there you have it. My end of year list. If you’re not already mainlining pre-prepared playlists, feel free to steal this one for your festivities tomorrow.
   
   Merry everything everybody. See you on the other side.