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David E
For a digital engineer Christmas in October shouldn't be surprising. Everyone ...
Will.Dauchy
And all the people, "AMEN". When I was growing up, Christmas didn't start until ...
What were they thinking: Christmas in October
Brian Bailey
11/9/2012 11:18 AM EST
I was dismayed the other day when I went into a department store and they were playing Christmas music. It almost made me want to leave the store. Every year it seems to get earlier and perhaps I am just an old humbug, but I wish we could get over Halloween and Thanksgiving before being assaulted with a constant stream of forced merriment. It like have a laugh track on real life. Be happy now!
That made me think about Christmas radio and how in the past some of the stations I listen to switch over to playing all Christmas music and then I saw an article on “The Street” that made me shudder – they have already started folks. In fact a station in Yakima switched over to its North Pole Radio format October 8th! The article reported that about 300 to 400 stations will adopt this format in any particular year. What is doubly depressing is that they have reduced their play lists from an average of 752 songs down to 694 so you know you will hear your worst nightmare songs more than ever! Now don’t get me wrong – I am not against Christmas songs and my personal library of Christmas music has several thousand tracks in it – but why do they have to limit it so much?
So – here is their list of the most annoying songs:
10: Leroy Anderson and The Boston Pops/Sleigh Ride
9: Jose Feliciano/Feliz Navidad
8: Band-Aid/Do They Know It's Christmas?
7: John Lennon and Yoko Ono/Happy Xmas/War Is Over
6: Bobby Helms/Jingle Bell Rock
5: Andy Williams/Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
4: Nat King Cole/The Christmas Song
3: Mariah Carey/All I Want For Christmas Is You
2: Brenda Lee/Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
1: Burl Ives/Have A Holly Jolly Christmas
It appears that their list is based on the total number of plays but does not represent the ones I get tired (that is putting it politely) of hearing, such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in its 5000 different forms. Which ones do you hate the most?
Brian Bailey – keeping you entertained
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Michellec
11/9/2012 11:46 AM EST
Brian I agree with you 100%, I love the holidays, and the man in the red suit, but in October??? let's enjoy all the seasons, especially autumn with change of colors, pumpkins, etc. Let's leave Christmas to start 6pm Thanksgiving day.
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BrianBailey
11/9/2012 12:18 PM EST
Hear hear! I am most certainly with you on that!
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David Ashton
11/10/2012 3:40 AM EST
Here in Australia (being as we are the other side of the world from you lot and our seasons are the wrong way round) we have "Christmas in July" and if we are lucky the Blue Mountains - about 100Km from where I am - might have a bit of snow. Restaurants and hotels do Christmas packages and meals complete with crackers (we call them bonbons here) and turkey and christmas puddings and copious amounts of alcohol (which goes with any Australian celebration). But (thank heavens) we don't get xmas muzak in the stores.
We DO get that here now, but our local shops have been a bit late this year. They've only just put up the decorations now - usually it is the end of October here too. And my favourite Xmas song hate is "Winter Wonderland" which didn't even make your list.
Then of course, the day after boxing day you can usually find Easter hot cross buns for sale....
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garydpdx
11/11/2012 11:44 AM EST
One year, maybe the early 2000's, we were driving past Macy's on State Street in Chicago (still Marshall Field's then) on a Sunday evening, Labor Day long weekend, and there on the southeast corner was the Christmas shop, up and running!
Two Chicago stations have an all-Christmas format and last year or the year before, one station fooled their rival into starting early in November after floating rumors that they would do so!
The Annoying Music Show at WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio, has two lists (at least) of bad holiday music ... so bad that there is at least one CD collection on sale at Amazon! (Why do people do that to themselves?) For masochists, here's one place to start ...
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/11/131962619/annoying-songs-for-christmas
What a surprise, the Annoying Music Show hasn't been picked up by OPB yet. (I don't visit opbmusic that often so if I'm wrong, my apologies!)
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Work to Ride comma Ride to Work
11/13/2012 4:15 PM EST
Our local Sam's Club had Christmas stuff out before Labor Day weekend. Ugh.
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misterme
11/13/2012 7:49 PM EST
in the Philippines, Christmas starts in September! :)
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Will.Dauchy
11/15/2012 4:21 PM EST
And all the people, "AMEN". When I was growing up, Christmas didn't start until the day after Thanksgiving.
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David E
11/19/2012 4:47 AM EST
For a digital engineer Christmas in October shouldn't be surprising. Everyone knows that:
Dec 25 = Oct 31
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