Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Ten

If you're looking for Christmas cards with a retro twist look no further than The Retro Christmas Card Company.  I wish I had stumbled upon this earlier, since it's a little too late to be sending Christmas cards.  Oh well! I guess it's never too soon to start planing for next year.  I wonder if the company will branch out into other cards for other occasions. 

 

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Nine

Some of the more subversive filmmakers have looked towards the holidays as a perfect setting for horror.  The first, and most successful, example of this is Bob Clark's 1974 film Black Christmas.   In Black Christmas a sorority house full of girls is terrorized by an unseen maniac.  At first they get just explicit phone calls, but soon after girls start to go missing. 

Black Christmas is a landmark in horror films for a couple of reasons. It was the first horror film to use the first-person point of view for the killer.  Clocking in at almost four years before Halloween it is the first horror film based around a major holiday (John Carpenter's original Halloween was originally intended to be a sequel to Black Christmas).  The film also bucks the standard horror film cliches in making having the main heroine be a pregnant girl who wants an abortion (as opposed to the virgin being the one person left alive). 

Beyond this, Black Christmas is a great film overall.  It's really fun watching the suspense build as characters fall prey to the killer and it has a marvelous twist ending.  There's also a great sense of humour coursing beneath the surface. It's also Canadian for those who are counting. Here's the trailer...

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Eight

Here's a couple more retro holiday ads for your enjoyment.  I'll keep refrain from the glib comments this time around.  Enjoy!

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Seven

A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector (1963) had a long way twisted path to become the landmark Christmas album that it is today.  The album, originally titled A Christmas Gift For You From Philles Records, had the misfortune of being released on the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated and was considered a flop for Spector's Philles records and faded off into obscurity.  It was re-released by Apple Records in 1972, at which point it finally started getting the recognition that it deserves.  Many of the songs have been included on various film soundtracks and have been included on countless Christmas playlists. 

While the tracks from The Ronettes, The Crystals, and Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans are all wonderful, to me the two tracks that stand out the most on this album are Darlene Love's renditions of Marshmallow World and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).  With the unmistakable Wall of Sound treatment and Darlene Love breathtaking vocals elevate these tracks above the rest of the album.  Here's a listen...

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Six

I really wish we still had honest to goodness variety shows like they did in the fifties, sixties, and seventies.  By variety show, I mean the kind with skits, musical numbers, and a jovial yet nonthreatening host.  Having recently watched  Andy Williams: Best of Christmas, a DVD that shows a compilation of some of the highlights of his annual Christmas specials, I have come to wish for these simpler times.  I was taken aback by the complete lack of cynicism that Andy Williams and his family had when producing these specials.  They just wanted to put on a great family friendly show that would be the highlight of the Christmas viewing schedule in years gone-by.  It is also clear that the Andy Williams crew spared no expense when producing these shows.  The costumes and sets are amazing for a show that in those days would only ever be shown on television once or twice. 

To modern eyes something like the Andy Williams show may seems like something incredibly quaint and geeky (it seems like the Osmonds were perpetual guests), but I urge people to seek out some of the clips on YouTube.  You can have a laugh about the goofy clothes they wear and enjoy some warm Christmas television like our parents used to enjoy.  Here's a sampling...