The Holiday Lush

I've always thought this song was incredibly creepy.  Finally, someone embraces it.

The Christmas Goat

I know Christmas is over but I had a Finnish Christmas song I used to hear ad nauseum stuck in my head so I Googled the Finnish word for Santa...and learned this fun fact.  One downer about being part of a community with almost no representation in the United States (or the world, really) is that you don't have opportunities to absorb facts like this at a tender age where you would still have sufficient wonder and imagination to be unfazed by the idea of a Christmas Goat.


Joulupukki is a Finnish Christmas figure. The name Joulupukki literally means Yule Goat. 


Wikipedia: Joulupukki

Cost of Twelve Days of Christmas

The eight milking maids received an automatic minimum wage increase, to $7.25 an hour. Even so, they totaled a mere $58, up $5.60 from last year. The eight ladies dancing fared far better, with a 15 percent raise, to $5,473 for each performance based on figures from the Philadelphia modern dance company, Philadanco.
But other performers were not as fortunate, reflecting a jobless rate that doubled this year after hovering around 5 percent for much of the decade, Mr. Dunigan said. Pay was flat for the 12 drummers drumming, at $2,475, 11 pipers piping, at $2,284, and 10 lords-a-leaping, at $4,414.


NYTimes: 12 Days of Gift-Giving Cost True Love $21,466

So festive

I had to sign up for a security alert newsletter for work, and today I got this message.  Ahhh the holiday stray dog cull, a heartwarming tradition sadly lost in the commercial Yuletide hubub outside former Yugoslav republics.

Corgi Socks. Corgi Socks. Corgi Socks.

Is it commercialization of Christmas in its most decadent, indulgent form? Yes. But it's still fun.  The "War on Christmas" folks should be thrilled!

Can't we all just get along?

From Grace Kassab for the LA Times in Beirut.

Singing Saw

Christmas songs performed on saws.  I think listening to the whole album would put a little bit of a damper on your holiday spirit, but it's definitely an interesting break from Bing Crosby.

Merge Records: The Singing Saw at Christmastime