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Christmas music, my parents console, LPs, memories and me...

heekma

heekma

Well-Known Member
Howdy folks!

It's that time of year--oh yes it is...

To this very day--I'm now 35--the only Christmas music that sounds like Christmas music to me are the artists/songs I listened to on my parents console when I was young.

Probably six or eight records stacked on the changer--maybe even more.

I remember, even as a small child, feeling sorry for that old record changer and the precarious number of LPs stacked on it...I guess it's safe to say my parents were not "audio enthusiasts.":thmbsp:

Anyway, it was Brenda Lee, Elvis--for me, it's not Christmas until I hear Elvis sing "Blue Christmas", Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, NKC, Merle Haggard? for God's sake???, among many other classic artists singing Christmas music, and for me it will always be the only Christmas music I enjoy.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

Best,

John
 
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Well, when I was growing up, we didn't have stereos or electricity. After coming in on Christmas Eve with a scrub cedar we'd just chopped down, and a rabbit we'd just shot, we huddled in front of the fireplace and sang carols as the women decorated the cedar tree (bush) and cleaned the rabbit.

And we liked it!

;-)

Have a Merry Christmas! Dig deep!
 
heekma said:
Anyone else have a similar experience?

Best,

John
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, my grandparents had a Fisher console and my grandfather player Bing's White Christmas, The Ames Brothers There Will Always Be A Christmas, and one by Dean Martin. I can still see grandpa taping his foot to Dino. :thmbsp:
 
Yup, for me also, my Grandparents and their White Magnavox Console. I can remember sitting in their Living room as a VERY young kid, listening to 78 RPM Italian Christmas LP's, They had quite a few records, of which I now have, mostly of Italian Artists, the ones that stick out in my mind are Nat King Cole, Engelbert Humperdinck, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Andy Williams, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, and the Carpenters. The most influential to me was listening to Karen Carpenters voice just ring out those Christmas tunes, especially The Christmas Song, really left an indelible mark on my memory. yup :)
 
You folks have named a lot of my memories of Christmas but none of you have admitted to hearing one artist that I remember being associated with the holidays. Mantovani had two lps on London that were a big staple in my parent's house. Although these are the only two Mantovani lps that I own, they are still, in my memories, a big part of Christmas!
 
We had four Christmas Lp's. Two came from Firestone and sucked for the most part. One came from the Goodyear Tire & Supply, which in the 60's carried stereos, televisions and appliances. The Goodyear Christmas albums were made by Columbia with some of their most popular artists. My oldest brother had the Phil Spector Christmas album with The Ronettes, Crystals, etc.
For me it wasn't Christmas if the Columbia/Goodyear and Phil Spector albums weren't spinning.
 
The record up there^ was played a hundred times on a Zenith console they owned. Along with the 2 others Ray recorded. Anyway, when I was about 12- 14 , we would drive upstate to Allentown where my grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins galore would congregate at each others' houses. We'd go from one house to the next, hot food, candy, cookies , decor, every house was loaded. Sometimes, my dad would give me his carkeys..I would venture out, turn on the radio and tune to the 50,000 watters I knew would play what I was looking for. It was magical.
 
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I have fond memories of Gene Autry's Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer album (the 1964 reissue on Harmony with the cartoon Santa and Rudolph riding in the sleigh - bought new the year I was born) playing on my family's little RCA console. I still have the album but I've moved up in the world from RCA to The Fisher.
 
For me it's the albums "I Wish You A Merry Christmas" by Bing Crosby, "A Partridge Family Christmas Card" by The Partridge Family, "Jackson 5 Christmas Album" ,Kenny Rogers "Christmas" and "Mantovani Christmas Carols"...
 
My parents had one or two Firestone albums. I loved Christmas and Christmas music and was always putting the album at the front of the album stand so it would be showcased. My mom would always put it out of sight as she wasn't in any hurry for Christmas to arrive.

Those old songs are the ones that really touch my heart now that we're all grown up and my parents are gone: Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry....
 
Nat King Cole, Der Bingle, Julie Andrews, The Little Drummer Boy (name of the LP, don't remember who), one or two of the Firestone LP's... All of them on the Silvertone tube console that my dad bought in the '60's to replace the old Magnavox mono console. Was lucky to find pictures of the exact same model on ebay a while back.

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no console memories. but my dad's old ar xa turntable fed through a medium-grade technics receiver into epi 100s played those old firestone christmas albums every year when we did the tree, drank egg-nog, and ate christmas cookies by the fire. then again as background music to christmas morning. "white christmas" was always my fave, because it evoked something i'd never get in west los angeles...also listening to my gramps play baritone sax on "have yourself a merry little christmas" with devol on ella's christmas album!
 
For us it was indeed, the Magnovox Mono Console that Dad bought in the late 40's or early 50's loved the warmth of those glowing tubes, and the sound of A Music Box Christmas or Johnny Mathis later on But earlier it was the Bing, NKC and other standards of the time but in my mind that Music Box Christmas has stuck, and I just found it at the thrift cleaned it up and gave it a listen and sure enough it did the trick I can almost taste the Yorkshire pudding and the over ripe pears that we got as a gift every year.
 
We didn't have a big console like some of my friends but on our little record player I remember NKC, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Elvis, Dino, Bing Crosby...

Tonight I'm listening to copy of the great Christmas album James Taylor did for Hallmark a few years ago. If you can get your hands on it it's fantastic!

Old time style with modern acoustics.
 
Like several others, I can well remember listening to the Firestone Christmas Albums being played on my father's Magnavox console.

I still have the albums, and I have his Magnavox console, along with the memories of him and my mother, both gone now.

But the memories are good.....not sad. :yes:
 
I still have my grandparents console although the TT no longer works. I don't have the albums but I did buy a copy of the Ames Brothers LP a couple of years ago.

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