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What Christmas Is As We Grow Older

In his 1851 essay, 'What Christmas Is As We Grow Older,' CHARLES DICKENS emerged from despair to summon his youthful optimism about the future course of human events.
by David McGee
 

 
 
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In Which He Keeps Christmas Well

The old curmudgeon, you ask? No, NICK LOWE is now the old sentimentalist, complete with his own Christmas album, QUALITY STREET. Be ye not dismayed: it's unlike other Yule fare.
by David McGee
 

 

 
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Essential Sondheim

STEPHEN SONDHEIM's life and music, inextricably linked, are explored in captivating fashion in the new HBO documentary, SIX BY SONDHEIM, airing through December. Review herein.
by David McGee
 

 
 
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Christmas Beyond the Blue

BLUES, BLUES CHRISTMAS VOLUME 3 leads this revised and updated review of four essential blues Christmas albums, including last year's DEATH MIGHT BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS
by David McGee
 

 

 
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Cuddle Time

This delectable five-song missive--an unassuming but undeniably moving seasonal communiqué--is an affecting followup to Ms. Smith's 2007 Christmas gem, My Holiday.
by David McGee
 

 
 
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The Murky Origins & Everlasting Life of ‘Jingle Bells’

In 1850 JAMES LORD PIERPONT, inspired by one-horse open-sleigh races in his home town, wrote a Thanksgiving ditty for his father's Sunday School class. Thus the humble origin of 'Jingle Bells.'
by David McGee
 

 

 
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BEYOND TOMORROW (1940)

In DEEP ROOTS THEATER: a charming holiday movie, BEYOND TOMORROW. Three elderly industrialists killed in an airplane crash return to earth as ghosts to help reunite a young couple whom they initially brought together. Plus: Pop...
by David McGee
 

 
 
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Very Mary Indeed

Unquestionably the top new Christmas release of 2013, A MARY CHRISTMAS, the DAVID FOSTER-produced holiday long player from MARY J. BLIGE, is an instant soul Christmas classic.
by David McGee
 

 

 
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The Yuletide Report From the Chairman of the Board

Revised and updated, this appraisal of Frank Sinatra's Christmas recordings as an art form unto themselves was first published in TheBluegrassSpecial.com in 2008.
by David McGee