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I simply love Christmas! To me, it’s truly the best time of the year. There’s something extra special about singing carols, seeing the bright lights and coming together with friends and family that give me an overall sense of good cheer.

As a performer, it brings me great joy to sing in concert during the Christmas holiday. A few years ago, I was privileged to present a program of Christmas classics at the White House. What an awesome experience! It was a thrill for me to perform some of my most favorite music during my most favorite season in such a historical landmark. It is a cherished memory that will stay with me always.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what singer/songwriter Benjamin Dakota Rogers had to say: 

Since I was a little kid, one of my favorite family traditions has been that on Christmas Eve we exchange fun Christmas pajamas and sit around eating cookies, cheese, cured meats and drinking eggnog.

A pretty common winter activity, and a favorite of mine, is tobogganing! Going out and finding a big hill to race down. Bringing a thermos of hot chocolate and some leftover Christmas cookies is quintessential holiday fun. That and bird watching from the window in my kitchen; we always put out seeds and I love seeing all the different birds flit around the yard.

One of my most memorable gifts has been little vintage lead cowboy figures. I had seen them at an antique market over the summer and wished I made the purchase. I looked online and couldn't find anything similar. Somehow my little brother found a whole set for sale last year on Etsy of all places and gave them to me. I was so surprised and since they have become some of my prized possessions, they sit on the desk in my recording studio constantly squared off with each other.

"Bleak Midwinter" is for me one of the most beautiful Christmas songs ever written. I love the lonesome haunting melody; it feels like a cold winter night to me in a very nostalgic way. I think my favorite version is by a Canadian band called The O'Pears - the harmonies are just so pretty.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what singer/songwriter Ruby Greenberg had to say: 

Growing up, it was typical for us kids in the family to get lots of opportunities to play music. My brother and I were enrolled in piano lessons, music classes, and performed often in the community and in school alongside our classmates. The holidays, however, were a very special time because my entire family gathered together to sing. My mom would sit at the piano and play chords, and all of us would sing Christmas songs. We'd squeeze three people onto the piano bench, I'd flip the pages of the songbook and we'd fight over which songs to skip and which to tackle. 

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what Starpainter frontman Joel Stretch had to say: 

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what Zadkiel lead vocalist Dan Heathcote had to say: 

My favourite Christmas film is probably Scrooged starring Bill Murray. It was made in 1988, and I remember growing up with it on television during that time. It's kind of an MTV hell thing that ends up being heaven on Earth.

Scrooged is an adaptation from the original A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and is set in corporate America during the Reagan era of Wall Street-esque’s 'Greed is Good'. Except that capitalist greed isn't good for us all (or the planet), even if it seems that presents are the only meaning of Christmas to most kids and some adults nowadays. Santa's sleigh is weighted down with an overabundance of trash and high-end products. I like Christmas and the spirit of peace to all on Earth is something we should aspire to all the time, not just towards the end of each year. Anyway, enough evangelising; I'm not religious but I'm not a rich capitalist either, nor would I want to be!

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what Two Late To The Party's Adam Corkett had to say: 

Growing up in Canada as a practicing Catholic, Christmas was always fairly routine; going to church, spending the next morning with family opening gifts and a turkey dinner afterwards. Though I moved a lot as a kid, our traditions were always the same and even the people I shared it with were always the same.

In the 2000s I had the opportunity to travel and live in Southeast Asia as a tour guide for a small travel company from Canada, and since I wasn’t going to be able to go home I was kind of lost on what to do for Christmas. It should be no big surprise that the Christmas season in Thailand is very different from Canada. As a predominantly Buddhist country, December is essentially just another month in the year and if it weren’t for the odd Christmas lights or picture of Santa, you would have no idea it was Christmas at all. At the time I was living in Northern Thailand, in the city of Chiang Mai, studying Thai and as the season changed I was starting to miss my family and was looking for something to distract me from thoughts of home. Figuring it wasn’t too far away I decided to head to Laos for Christmas and New Years.

I did very little planning for this trip and didn’t know it at the time but it would be a long boat ride over two days to get me to my destination of Luang Prabang in Laos. After arriving at the border crossing I met up with a random group of German tourists who were headed in the same direction on the same boat. We were setting out Christmas Eve and would be spending the night in a small village halfway to Luang Probang. At this point I was definitely getting homesick; I never spent Christmas away from my family and I had never experienced being alone. Fortunately for me, this wonderful group of Germans were kind enough to include me in their Christmas tradition, which was celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve.

From out of nowhere people were pulling out chocolates, passing around German schnapps and music was being played (both Christmas and traditional Bob Marley tunes). Christmas morning we got back in our boat, a bit worse for wear but still in a festive mood. We kept the good times rolling as we enjoyed a Christmas morning cruising the Mekong river. I don’t remember feeling homesick in the end, just the feeling of being included and cared for even though I couldn’t remember the names of those wonderful people.

In the end, this turned out to be one of my favorite Christmases, and allowed me to step outside of what I had always known and thought of Christmas. It showed me you can find the most special Christmas memories in the most unusual places and it's not where you are but who you are with that really matters.

Two Late To The Party finds it's never too late to find the true meaning of Christmas

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Ever since I was a kid in Connecticut, the holidays were always a special time to decorate the house with my DIY arts and crafts projects and of course decorate the tree. I was always the "unusual" kid and was obsessed with spiders, Disney villains, bugs and pretty much anything creepy. My holiday shopping would always start the day after Halloween and I would always buy creepy accessories to put in the tree and had a stuffed tarantula toy I would bring downstairs on Christmas morning.

Years later, I'm happy to say I'm still the same "unusual" kid who likes creepy holiday decorations and will never outgrow DIY arts and crafts projects to decorate the house. Every Los Angeles Christmas, I like to decorate my Tim Burton-style looking tree with crystals, jewelry and of course, lights! Christmas wouldn't be complete without pictures with Santa so I take my guinea pigs, Gucci and Gizmo, to get their picture taken on Santa's lap every year and love sending the pictures to my family.

Graphic created by Lucas Seidel Design

Graphic created by Lucas Seidel Design

Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what songwriter Catherine MacLellan had to say:

Christmas 2020 was a lonely season. So many of us were unable to gather with their friends and family and felt disconnected. I was missing many people that would normally gather around my kitchen table for feasts and laughter. Longing for the ones we love is such a part of Christmas culture for me - “White Christmas”, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” - the list goes on! That was the sentiment I was touching upon when I wrote “Calling You Home (for the Holidays)” - being separated from our loved ones, and hoping they might make it home.

My Christmas wish last year was that friends and family who live far away would move back to my home province of Prince Edward Island. My wish has come true and this Christmas I’ll be sitting around the table toasting in person with my favourite people, singing songs and recounting the strangeness of the last couple of years.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what author Holly P. Rice had to say:

12 Days of Princess combines two of my favorite things: Christmas and Disney Princesses. As a kid, I loved getting in the holiday spirit by belting out “The Twelve Days of Christmas” in the back of the car as my parents drove us to see Christmas lights downtown. When thinking about how the Disney Princesses could help readers celebrate the holidays, I knew I wanted to use “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as inspiration to put a Disney twist on my favorite holiday memory.

I wrote the book in Summer 2020 and getting to spend my days listening to Christmas songs for inspiration and brainstorming how each of the princesses would celebrate the holiday season was a much-needed reprieve from everything happening in the world. The most fun part of the process was coming up with the days and objects that would represent each of the princesses. For some of the characters, it was easy, like Snow White who has the Seven Dwarfs in her film, or Cinderella who wears two glass slippers. Other characters required a bit more creativity. I had to go back and watch their films to come up with ideas (not the worst way to spend a workday!). After spending so many days singing the tune with various princess-fied lyrics in my head, I don’t think I will ever be able to listen to “The Twelve Days of Christmas” the same way again!

I am very thankful for this experience and the ability to spread a little Disney holiday magic through the pages of this book. John John Bajet, the incredibly talented artist of this book, captured all of the fun of Christmas in every piece of artwork. I’m looking forward to flipping through the pages and belting out the 12 Days of Princess for years to come.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what songwriter Andrew Thomases had to say:

I grew up in a secular Jewish household, and my wife grew up in a secular Christian household. Now that we have three kids, each holiday season our family both lights the menorah for Hanukkah and decorates the Christmas tree. Our kids receive their own new ornament each year, so they like putting up the new ones and finding the old ones - each with a memory of a prior holiday season. Each kid also gets a very large and very full stocking stuffed with goodies each year. They love digging down to find all of the fun gifts inside.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what King Park lead singer Timon Moolman had to say:

Lead singer Timon here! I am South African and one of the classic Christmas dishes made in any respectable South African home is the Tipsy Tart. Named after the generous quantity of brandy in the recipe, it is a key ingredient to warm up your toes by the fire on Christmas Eve.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what Reaven lead vocalist Romeo Bassi had to say:

I had many beautiful and special Christmases throughout the years, but the last one in 2020 was really unique in its own way.

The world was going through a very rough period; I wasn’t able to see my loved ones easily. COVID was here. But, in this troubled time I was spending almost all my time working in my recording studio with my drummer six days out of seven. We tried to exist as artists without being able to perform on stage. I could have said that it was a hard time for us, and indeed it was, since we cancelled our tours, but it was also a time of happiness. I spent last Christmas telling myself that I’ve been lucky to have some extraordinary people around me and that this last Christmas was a very good way to think of what is truly important.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what Simple Radicals lead vocalist John Malkin had to say:

Since we’re a rock and roll family, it is only suitable that we make sure our Christmas tree is filled with rock or music-oriented decorations. So we make it a tradition each year to find a unique ornament that expresses our love for music. It’s a great tradition and there are so many unique ornaments and items as you can imagine. And of course we fill the room with Christmas-themed music and a heavy dose of pure, visceral rock.

One of our favorite ornaments

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what songwriter Cade Hoppe had to say:

I always loved the holidays and Christmastime when I was growing up back in my hometown of the Sacramento, CA suburbs. When I moved to New York a few years ago, the holiday season became something entirely different that I’ve developed a new love for, as well. For me, my holiday tradition has become fitting in whatever New York holiday festivities I can before I fly back to California and celebrate Christmas with my family. That means walking around Central Park in the snow, going to see the tree at Rockefeller Plaza, Christmas shopping on 5th Ave., etc. and I’ve really fallen in love with all of that.

There’s never enough time to do everything in the city I’d like to in December and it’s hard to leave the city and the people in it that I’ve grown so close to behind. Last year, I actually wrote a Christmas song for my girlfriend about that exact feeling of having to go home for the holidays and leave behind so many things that also mean home now.

This year, I decided to go in with my producer Harper James and actually record it, so I could put it out. It’s called “Home for the Holidays” - I’m super excited to finally have one of my own songs on people’s holiday playlists this year. If I can be a part of anyone’s holiday traditions in any way through this song, that would mean the world to me.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what husband and wife duo Loud Forest had to say:

This year, as Christmas was approaching, we were feeling the growing nostalgia of pre-pandemic elements of gathering, celebrating and collaborating on music projects with close friends. We have a group of friends that gather every year to write and record a Christmas album - but considering that last year we couldn't gather, everyone wrote a song and we shared them over email. Our idea was this little diddy, called "Christmas Star". It was a very rough idea of what you hear in this recording - just a classical guitar and our voices. The lyrics were inspired by the celebration of last year's convergence of Jupiter and Saturn, creating the phenomenon of the Christmas Star. We took that scientific spark and molded it into a light and whimsical Christmas love song, in honor of holiday cheer and a light sentimentality that has been missing from our gatherings since the pandemic began.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what songwriter Alexa Villa had to say:

Growing up, every year for the holidays my family would take a road trip. That trip usually included Las Vegas and one place else we hadn’t been. I remember going to Lake Tahoe one year, Seattle another, or San Francisco, etc. and on our way home we’d always stop in Vegas for Thanksgiving. We’d usually have that classic meal at a hotel buffet on the strip and if the restaurant was full we’d go to Denny’s. I know this sounds totally counter-traditional but it was our tradition. It wasn’t particularly fancy but there was always something magical about the four of us packing into a car together at around 3 a.m., getting on the road and blasting Deep Purple that I’ll never forget. The holiday for us was more about spending time together, adventuring somewhere new, than it was about a specific recipe.

My third Christmas

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what songwriter Jesse Butterworth had to say:

I’ve always been a strictly “No-Christmas-Music-Or-Decorations-Until-After-Thanksgiving” guy. Well, that is, until recently.

My wife and kids really love Christmas and are always pushing me to move that deadline up. The irony, of course, is that I really love Christmas, too, and that all the music and decorations get me into the Christmas mood.

So, I decided to write a song about my shifting mindset from the fall into “Thinking About Christmas”.

In the video I had a blast re-enacting 12 scenes from famous Christmas movies. Can you guess them all?

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My favorite part of the holiday season is Christmas in New York. I grew up right outside the city in a small suburban town on Long Island, and visiting during Christmas is always the most magical time of year for me.

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Gather 'round the open fire for Chimneyside Chats - a monthly feature with holiday stories from our favorite artists. See what's in their stockings this year as they reminisce on Christmas memories, share their favorite recipe and more! Here's what songwriter Kyle Richardson had to say:

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved the Christmas season.

From the deep piles of snow that would cover my mountainside childhood home in the Okanagan countryside here in Canada to the holiday treats, festive decorations and the childlike wonder as to what Santa would hide under the tree that year, it is nothing but magical.

For me, a huge part of setting the Christmas scene has always been the holiday music that starts to trickle out on the airwaves shortly after Halloween. I found myself excited year after year to hear the latest holiday songs by my current favorite artists, alongside the classics that have permeated the winter months for as long as I could remember.

As I grew up and started working on my original music, I always had the idea in the back of my mind to write and record my own original Christmas song. I wanted the song to represent all the things I love about Christmas, as well as having a nostalgic vibe both lyrically and musically. It was equally important for it to fit in with the classics I grew up loving, while coming from my own perspective and providing a fresh vocal approach.

And so in 2019, I wrote a simple idea on my acoustic guitar and brought it to longtime collaborator Jeff Dawson, who helped me create the final vision of “Christmas Time This Year”, which I think perfectly captures the romantic wonder of the Christmas season that so many of us have.