December

December
Duc du Berry's Book of Hours

It's the hap! happiest time of the year!

Well, maybe not for the wild boar in this medieval hunt scene. If you're already tired of Christmas music, it's probably because the holiday season starts earlier each year-- this is called 'Christmas creep.' Around here we look forward to getting out Christmas Cd's on Thanksgiving weekend, and since we've added several each year for the past 25 years, it's a big old box of music. Wikipedia put together a partial list of hit Christmas songs by popular artists. Everyone wants to get in the game. I noticed that little Justin Bieber just recorded The Christmas Song.

And the most performed Christmas song in the United States is The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...) It was written in 1944 by Mel Torme on a blistering hot summer day in California. According to Torme, he wrote the lyrics and music in about 40 minutes in an effort “stay cool by thinking cool."

Now, that's really cool.