Friday, November 17, 2017

A Classic Christmas Playlist


Today I'm sharing one of the most requested topics from my holiday survey a few weeks ago and that is my Christmas/Holiday playlist! I created this playlist on Spotify 4 seasons ago and have been continuously adding to it.

In Paris, everything is already beautifully decorated for Christmas... I'm not going to lie, I started listening to Christmas music earlier this month so I am in full-on Christmas-mode.

You'll notice that my playlist is filled with almost all old-school classics. You'll find no Justin Bieber here. I just love this time of year and I think the music is one of my favorite aspects of celebrating the holiday season. I love all of the crooners, the old school movies like White Christmas, and all of the nostalgia from vintage Christmas cards.



I'm sure you can all agree with me when I say that Christmas music holds so many memories, but certain songs hold more memories than others. I thought I would share some of these memories with all of you! Christmas has always been such a warm and wonderful time in my family and I really think the music makes all the difference!

Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi
This entire soundtrack holds so many memories and specifically reminds me of my dad. This is an album that has been played throughout our house forever and specifically when my parents would host holiday parties. To this day, I can just listen to this album over and over and can't help but to feel so cheery!

A GRP Christmas (one//two//three)
To me, this brings me right back to being young and getting so excited for Christmas. I specifically remember all three of these albums from my parent's Christmas CD collection. We used to have a big binder filled with Christmas music and the GRP's were always mine and Callie's favorite. It's so funny because I had songs off of the album on a playlist but I started to listen to the full albums (they are from the late 1980's and you can really tell when you listen hahah) and it's really interesting to me that the first song off of their album reminds me of a timeline during a party my parent's would host. For example, The Little Drummer Boy is one of the first songs on the album and as soon as I listened to it, it makes me think of the period of time we would be setting up the house just before guests arrived for our incredible Christmas Eve party. Callie and I LOVED the Feliz Navidad song and would go crazy in the living room dancing around. We eventually ended up choreographing a dance to Go Tell It On The Mountain and I am sure if I asked Callie to do it with me right now, she would still be able to do some of the opening moves. 

I honestly think you might not all love these albums as much as I do because they sound a bit dated. But for me, I think my children will grow up knowing all of these because they just hold so many wonderful memories for me.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland 
This song is not only in Meet Me In St. Louis (which is such a classic) but it's also in one of my favorite movies of all time: The Family Stone. The scene when this song plays always makes me cry. Always.

The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole
This reminds me of Christmases in high school. I was obsessed with this song and would always find it on random burned CDs. It specifically reminds me of one night driving to cheer our high school basketball game which was the last one right before the holidays my junior year of high school.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams 
This song reminds me of my grammie and grandpa. For some reason, Andy Williams overall does, but I can just picture my grandpa having this play on the radio. And what a classic, right?

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow by Lena Horn
My mom would always pick us up from high school- you know that feeling of being outside in the freezing cold but getting into a wonderfully warm car? It was the best feeling ever and she would often play this song around the holidays.

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee
When I hear this song, I think of nothing but this awful dancing Santa that my mom has. You press a button and he shakes around to this song. My cousins and sister will know exactly the Santa I am referring to. It's on YouTube... I'm warning you. You can't unsee it once you've seen it.

Sleigh Ride by Ferrante and Teicher
We played this song in the orchestra in high school (I played violin) and I was SO excited we got to do a holiday song. I just remember the guy who was playing the clapper had to do it over and over to get the timing right, ha!

I could go on and on and on with songs and memories but I'll leave it here for now! What are your favorite Christmas songs and do you have any attached to vivid memories?! Here's to creating even more amazing holiday memories! 

3 comments:

Lauren said...

Love all these songs and I love how you attached a memory to them!

Lauren,
http://www.atouchofsoutherngrace.com/?m=1

Shannon said...

I LOVE LOVE GRP Christmas!! I've never heard anyone else mention this album before!! It brings back such great childhood memories for me too :)

Lynne said...

Confession:

When I originally discovered this blog, it was due to the "How To Throw A Pittsburgh Perfect Dinner Party" advert, and my friends and i liked to snark on it--- our version of a Pittsburgh Perfect Dinner Party is pizza and beer,

But I think it's high time i apologize to you, because here's the thing, Sydney-- I actually have grown to really like your blog. I think you may for real be a secret genius.

I needed something to wear for Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving next week, and I recently purchased your recommendation of the JCrew fair isle sweater from Nordstrom. And I love it.

So, thank you, Sydney Carter, for being a class act who has now helped out this clueless girl with a complete lack of fashion sense (me),

What I would give for you to be my personal shopper for a day and teach me what to wear :)

Keep up the good work here.

:)




 

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