I don’t spend a lot of time on YouTube, but I have a few music videos that I like to watch. My favorite right now is “Into the Unknown” performed by Panic at the Disco. This is the song from Frozen II, and this cover is awesome.

After that, I usually listen to Brian Hull sing “Let it Go” using different Disney character voices. This is my favorite version. I let it play as I do other things, and then I stop.

Today, I glanced to the right where the other videos wait to tempt me, and one caught my eye. It was an acapella Disney medley. Now I like DCapella’s renditions of Disney songs, so I thought I’d check this new singer out. I could always exit out if I didn’t like it.

Well, I loved it. I loved it so much that I’m sharing it with you. It’s a Disney medley by Jared Halley. What makes this special is he sings all the parts. It’s unbelievably good.

What I loved most was not the singing, which was great, but the way he made all the videos of him singing flow seamlessly. I can’t imagine the amount of work that went into this video, and he has a lot of others.

I hope you will watch Jared’s video and check out his YouTube page. I could spend hours watching his various covers. It inspires me to create things that people will stumble upon and share with their friends. Absolutely amazing.

I listened to a different Christmas CD every day of December. Some I already owned and some I got from the library. Most years, I get my Christmas music from the radio or listen to the same two or three Christmas CDs over and over again. I wanted to broaden my listening experience, so I gave myself this challenge.

What I learned is when it comes to Christmas albums, there is good, bad, and really bad. I thought I would share my favorites. Perhaps you can check them out from the library and see if you like them too.

Six Christmas Albums Worth Listening to:

Let’s Sing a Song of Christmas* by Spike Jones. I’ve been listening to this album since I was a kid. It has great traditional carols and all the fun ones too. It’s hard to find the CD nowadays, but you can download it for only five dollars, so that’s a better deal.

Christmas Party by The Monkees. This was a CD I checked out of the library. I don’t mind music by the Monkees, but this album really surprised me. It’s great. The songs are familiar, yet have that Monkees vibe. It was a happy CD to listen to, and it’s my new favorite.

Any Bing Crosby Christmas CD. Bing Crosby’s rendition of “Silver Bells” is my favorite, and let’s not forget “White Christmas” (both the song and the movie.) If you are looking for traditional songs sung without any modifications, any Bing Crosby Christmas CD would be perfect. (I included a link for the one I own, but there are many to chose from.)

Christmas with the Rat Pack. I’m not a huge Frank Sinatra fan, but I do like Dean Martin. However, this Christmas album is fun. It has songs that aren’t found on a lot of albums, and they’re outstanding. “Christmas Time All Over the World” by Sammy Davis Jr. is my favorite.

Christmas SPEC-TAC-YULE-AR by 3 Redneck Tenors. I saw these guys perform in Branson, Missouri, several years ago. They were hilarious, and their music was fantastic. These three tenors are Julliard-trained and spread great music through humor. Their Christmas album is awesome.

Next year, try some new Christmas music. You might discover your new favorite song. Merry Christmas!

*The links are Amazon affiliate links.

You can also go see the Nutcracker or your school’s winter concert, but if you have never been to a Tuba Christmas event, I highly recommend it. You can find one in your area by going to their website and typing in your state.

Tuba Christmas has been happening for 46 years. The first Tuba Christmas was held at the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center in New York City. I bet the music sounded awesome bouncing off the skyscrapers.

When I was in college, I learned to play the tuba so I could participate in Tuba Christmas. My hubby has played the tuba since high school, and we both joined the event in 1994. Our concert was held outside and had about fifty tuba and baritone players. So cool.

I have been playing a different Christmas album each day in December. It’s a lot of fun to hear different performers sing familiar carols, but it doesn’t match hearing those songs played live. Take time to take in a concert this month with friends and family. It will brighten everyone’s holiday. Especially if it is tubas.

I thought I would find out why the Salvation Army kettles are red, but apparently, they just are. The idea of collecting donations for the poor in a kettle started in San Francisco in 1891. It spread quickly to other Salvation Army regions, and now the red kettles are found around the world.

Some of the bell ringers are volunteers, and some of them are paid minimum wage. It turns out the bells are more interesting than the kettles. In 1900 in New York City, a volunteer named Amelia bought a 10-cent bell to ring while asking for donations, and many more people paid attention to her. With that success, other volunteers started using bells, and now we hear them everywhere. I personally like the sound and love seeing a kettle outside of stores.

Here is the best part about the bell ringers. The song “Silver Bells,” one of my favorites, was inspired by the Salvation Army bell ringers.  Those are the silver bells mentioned in the song.  Here is the article from Holidappy:

“Silver Bells” was written for the movie, The Lemon Drop Kid, starring Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in 1951. It was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, who were very reluctant to write a Christmas song as new ones had never made the hit list. Their uncertainty about taking on such a project also stemmed from the fact that their contracts were coming due and they had not written a hit in a while. Another flop would have sealed their fate.

Because the studio was insistent on a new Christmas song being written for this movie, the duo wrote a song based on department store Santas and Salvation Army workers tinkling their bells on New York street corners. They named their song, “Tinkle Bell” and fortunately for all of us, Jay told his wife about the song, including their name for it. Asking Jay if he was out of his mind, she proceeded to inform him of the slang meaning of ‘tinkle’ understood by most people.”

Luckily, Jay listened to his wife, and Tinkle Bells” became “Silver Bells.”

I always carry change with me in December, so I can drop a few coins in every kettle I see and wish the bell ringers a Merry Christmas. Every little bit can help.

Tape? What year did I make this list? I still have several Christmas cassettes, but this year I’m transferring them into iTunes as I have done with all my other tapes. I do have a cassette player, but I rarely pull it out, and it’s easier to play the music on my phone.

My dad had a speaker in every room that connected to his record player and stereo. In December, we would put a stack of 33s on the rod and listen to all the side A’s as they dropped. We’d then turn the stack over and listen to the other sides. Dad had Spike Jones, Mitch Miller, Elvis Presley, The Mormon Tabernacle, and others. It was fun to listen to as we wrapped gifts or hung lights.

When I went to college, I copied most of his records onto cassettes so I could play them in my dorm room. Some of them I have since bought on CD, but others are really hard to find, so I’ll just add them as they are.

I don’t know why I added the part about reducing road rage, but it’s probably true. It’s hard to be mad at other drivers when you are singing “Rudolf, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Whether you listen to the radio, an 8-track, a cassette, a CD, your phone, or SiriusXM, I hope you’ll play some festive music in the car and be courteous to other drivers. We’re all a little crazy this time of year.

One of the things I want to focus on this year is Christmas music. Now that it’s after Thanksgiving, I love listening to the festive songs on the radio, but I rarely play all the Christmas CDs I have. This year I’m going to change that.

I plan to listen to a different CD each day. I don’t have 24 CDs so I checked some out from the library and added them to my iTunes. I tried to get a variety so I have country stars, English chants, and children’s choirs. I’ll intersperse them with my own favorite Christmas CDs.

The new songs may not all be good, but I’ll get to experience lots of Christmas music which should be a fun Christmas goal.

I like it, but I prefer to listen to it during the Christmas season. I can’t help but hear it when I go into stores and even restaurants, but at home, I wait until the day after Thanksgiving.

This year I gave in.

Not wanting to listen to news radio, my hubby and I found the Christmas station. It was refreshing to hear the happy melody of “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls.”

This leads to my question for all of you.

When do you start listening to Christmas music at your home? The day after Halloween? December? July? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll know if I am a holdout or one of many in my Christmas music preferences.