I’m not much of a shopper: especially in crowds. Hence Black Friday is my stay-at-home/pull out the Christmas albums (er - CDs) and put-up-the-tree. The outdoorsy scent reminds me how Mother decked the house with pine boughs Dad cut from the surrounding forest. The house filled with piney freshness as she covered every flat surface - adding colorful ornaments and big red bows. This is the day I douse myself in childhood nostalgia.
When I was young, in the 1950s, the radio was always on. And, to my great delight the day after Thanksgiving (not called Black Friday then), our local station in Medford, Oregon flipped the switch to Christmas, releasing a fantasy of sugary expectations into the air..
I might have been biased, but Buddy Holly’s version of “Holly Jolly” made me swoon!! Our local station favored Country/Western and Pop. Not my parents' taste, so I often listened from my room, dreaming of my own holiday perfection.
In the fifth grade when we got our first television, I gathered with my family around the black and white for Nat King Cole and Perry Como’s Christmas Specials. Every Sunday night we watched more entertainers: a wide genre, from opera to Elvis, on the Ed Sullivan Show.
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) Nat King Cole Louis Armstrong Best Album Christmas Songs 2021 🎄🎄 Louis Armstrong Christmas Songs Playlist 2021 Ella Fitzgerald - Christmas Songs (FULL ALBUM)
In the late 1950s we watched The Wizard of Oz on TV every holiday season. Not a holiday movie, but an important tradition we shared with everyone in our small town (there was only one TV station - also in Medford). Then, In the 1960s, our favorite Sunday newspaper “funnies” character, Charlie Brown, became an annual holiday special. The jazz was so accessible, Vince Guaraldi breaking it down to the barest foundation. I think my love of the genre started with Charlie Brown.
Here's one last trip to nostalgia land if you want more...
Hope you enjoy, Happy Black Friday!