Rant #3,037: "Christmas Bells, Those Christmas Bells ... "

My personal holiday cheer is minimal this year.

If you are a regular visitor to the Blog, I think I have outlined the reason(s) for this feeling I current have over the past few days or so.

But that does not mean that the season has to be joyless, completely devoid of any happiness.

I have my family and friends to help me to get through all of this, and let’s be honest about it, a lot of people do not have the support system that I have to make it through this mess.

I am personally getting better, my mom is too, and I believe that we are closer to recovery than we are to total breakdown.

And tonight is the fifth night of Hanukkah, Saturday is the sixth night, and Sunday is the seventh night … and this leads into Sunday’s Christmas Day.

As I said many times before, I really have no idea what Christmas means to me. It is not my holiday, I am an outsider looking in on the holiday … but the holiday can be revered even from a distance.

I look at Christmas maybe a little bit differently than those who celebrate the holiday, because growing up in a Jewish family, we did not have Christmas trees, we did not adorn our house with Christmas lights, and Santa Claus was simply a symbol of the “other holiday.”

Over the past 13 years, I have spoken about this subject at great length. Take this personal look at the holiday, which was originally posted as Rant #643 from December 22, 2011. I have edited it a bit, but it kind of reflects how I can talk about the special day without really talking about the special day directly.

Here it is:

"A early Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this special time of year.

Even though I am Jewish, I still occasionally get caught up in the frenzy of the Christmas holiday season.

And part of that frenzy is the music, more to the point, the contemporary music celebrating the holiday.

While there is scant little for Hanukkah—more than you might think if you want to look for it, but still not that much—for Christmas, of course, there is plenty.

Some radio stations jump onto this point with a loud crash, playing Christmas music—and nothing but Christmas music—from like September on.

Other stations mix it in with their usual fare, but during the week prior to Christmas, they mix it in ad nauseum.

But I’m one to talk. I have so many Christmas recordings that you might think I am a good goy, as in gentile. But I’m not, of course. I just have lots of Christmas recordings in my collection.

What’s my favorite Christmas record? Or more to the point, what's the favorite Christmas record of this Jewish guy (not goy)?

In previous years, I told you it was "Riu Chiu" by the Monkees, which really isn't directly a Christmas song, per se, but a Spanish folk song dating from the 1500s that the Monkees used on their Christmas episode. Thus, for the past decades, it has morphed into a Christmas recording.

And if there is a No. 2, it most definitely has to be "Snoopy’s Christmas”/”It Kinda Looks Like Christmas” by the Royal Guardsmen. Yes, the entire 45 that was released in 1967.

Both songs--and the Monkees recording--bring me back to a different time, so they are both nostalgic and Christmassy at the same time.

Although on their Christmas episode, "Riu Chiu" was never officially released until many years later. I will bet that if it was released in 1967, it would have been a huge holiday hit.

The Royal Guardsmen tunes are another thing altogether.

Dating from the same period as the Monkees’ tune, the A side of the single is simply a continuance of the band’s “Snoopy” saga, which would encompass at least four singles: “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” “The Return of the Red Baron,” “Snoopy’s Christmas,” and “Snoopy For President.”

(And I found two more: "The Smallest Astronaut" and the Royal Guardsmen reunion-related "Snoopy vs. Osama.")

It kind of blends bubblegum with the holidays, and it works to perfection.

It did not chart on the Hot 100 of the time, although it did chart on Billboard's Christmas chart. It has been a favorite for the past decades, and you regularly hear it during this time of year.

The B side is basically a standard Christmas song, but it works wonderfully with the more popular A side.

It's very light and fluffy, almost like audio snow.

The Royal Guardsmen kind of got pigeonholed into the Snoopy thing, and they aren't remembered for much else. But they did have several other terrific singles, including my favorite "Behind Enemy Lines."

But they will always be remembered for those Snoopy records, and I will always love "Snoopy's Christmas."

I still have the original single that I bought in late 1967 in my collection, and it still plays well.

So have a Merry Christmas everyone!

"Christmas bells, those Christmas bells, ringing out from the land ... "

Say what you want, but this was my reflection on Christmas several years ago, and it still holds up today.

Whenever I hear "Snoopy's Christmas," I know that we are in a real special time of the year.

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend and a fantastic Christmas!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgiGIfrZ2HI