“Hula Holiday” by Rockapella: I could have gone with something from “Out Cold”, but I picked something off the “Bash!” album. I love this song! It’s so relatable. Ok, so I’ve never been to Hawaii or left the continental US. But I like the theme of celebrating Christmas in a warm climate. I like this song more than their other song about the same subject “Island Christmas”. That is a chill reggae groove. To me “Hula Holiday” just seems more fun. Barry Carl does a good impersonation of Santa with his deep bass voice. I’m not opposed to a “partridge in a palm tree”. I’d really like to see that. This is a good song to listen to during a heat wave in the summer.

“Oi to the World” I chose the No Doubt cover version. Which lessens my punk cred, but how much punk cred do/did I have by listening to No Doubt? It’s cool I’m familiar with The Vandals. I like “Pizza Tran” and “I got a Date”. For some reason my friend who was not into No Doubt really liked that song. We sang it at the senior picnic as a joke. I remember when they debuted it at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas 1997 which I had recorded their set off the live broadcast off the radio. If I could not see Gwen hearing her was just as good. This song used to be very rare. It was only on the “A Very Special Christmas Volume 3” for a long time. Then they released it on their “Everything in Time” album. During the show she mentioned it was a Vandals cover song. 

The music video is pretty good too. I remember the first time I saw it. I was on a creative sugar high. That night I was eating nothing but Gummi Savers and mini M&Ms in the canister. Me on a No Doubt and sugar high made me doubly excitable. I saw the video on ABC’s “In Concert” I really regret that I did not tape that off the tv. Since I was on such a high I was not sure if I had really seen this video or that I dreamed I did. Sometimes I dream about made up music videos.

“Father Christmas” by The Kinks it’s an old song. I think it’s the oldest on the list. I first heard this song when I was like, I don’t know, eight? That was back when I still believed in Santa. When I first heard the song it disturbed me. I'm pretty sure I didn't really understand what they were really singing about back then. When I got older and more jaded the chorus made me laugh. I think I like the concept of kids harassing Santa for money.

The titles usually related to current events like "No Toys for OJ", or the titles had sexual innuendo like “Santa’s Swingin' Sack” or “Swallow My Eggnog”. There were tracks on that CD that were not songs,  they were greetings or skits.