It is that time again, a time for tinsel, cookies, too much drinking and everything that comes along with it, angry throngs of people descending on the marketplace to buy the love of a cynical (and ultimately ungrateful) child, sibling, friend or colleague, and as always, Christmas songs written by Jews.

Here is a smattering of classic Christmas songs written by Jewish composers and/or lyricists:  Winter Wonderland, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), Sleigh Ride, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, White Christmas, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree, Silver Bells, I’ll Be Home For Christmas, and last but not least, A Holly Jolly Christmas. I am sure there are countless more but in the twenty minutes I spent researching the topic, this is what I found.

Although I am not of Jewish descent, I feel compelled to mention these songs when presenting my own take on the Christmas song form. Christmas songs by outsiders resonate with me personally, deeply really. And my own contribution to the format has been a product of the kind of detachment an atheist feels around the holidays. Like the composers of the songs listed above I’ve made an assessment, observing from the outside looking in, without all the baggage, like Jane Goodall or Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Last year’s Christmas song chronicled the young Shirley Temple’s realization that Santa Clause was not real and the devastation that all children feel when confronted with such a horrifying truth (you can find that song here). In that spirit, I would like to present a happy number about love in this most splendid time of year, Holidaze. Please enjoy this holiday ditty performed by the Nicholas Urie Large Ensemble. If you like what you hear there is still time to buy enough copies of Excerpts From an Online Dating Service to fill everyone’s Christmas stockings. ENJOY!

Listen to holidaze here.

Happy Birthday Bob!

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Christmas has a rich tradition of music that celebrates this glorious time of year. Whether it is a spiritual holiday or one of secular commercialism and gluttony, I think we can all agree that it is a time of merriment. But for every child who grows up in a home where stockings are hung and cookies are placed under the tree, the devastating reality that Santa Claus is fictional and that your parents had been using this benevolent man of holiday joy to manipulate you into being well behaved from Thanksgiving through Christmas calls into question what other horrors exist in this world. This is one of those stories as told by one of the most beloved children of all times, Shirley Temple.

“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. My mother took me to see him in the department store and he asked me for my autograph.”

- Shirley Temple

Tragic as this was for Ms. Temple, she persisted. And that is what nicholasurie.com would like to communicate to all of you this holiday season. Don’t let the rampant commercialism and violent shoppers get you down. Enjoy the holidays for what they are: A chance to make fun of the ridiculousness of modern life while getting drunk with friends and eating obscene amounts of butter. This also works well as a gift for the people in your life that have everything. Go ahead. Pass it along. enjoy! Download by clicking here: shirley-christmas

Leah Hennessy – Vox.

James Wyliy – S. Sx.

Daniel Durham – Bass

Aristotle says, “Mother’s are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain that they are their own”. Right you are, Aristotle. Because we all have one, nicholasurie.com would like to wish everyone a happy Mother’s Day. Please click the link below to hear the setting of our good friend’s quote on the nature of maternal connections. Enjoy.

Listen to the “Mothers” here!