I didn't know which Christmas song to highlight this year. But as I was going through my e-mail a few hours ago, I ran across this story from reporter Lyndsey Parker of Yahoo! Music about the song, its interesting history and, unfortunately, the premature end of the band and the unfair early death of the frontwoman, the troubled Patty Donahue. Give it a read; it's interesting, although sad.
Christmas songs are almost universally happy. There are many somber Christmas songs, though very few are popular enough to listen to every holiday season (Pearl Jam's "Let Me Sleep [It's Christmas Time] remains an underrated classic). But tart Christmas songs? I don't know if there is more than one, but if there is, "Christmas Wrapping" is the first. And it remains singular when it comes to lyrical content and story. The Waitresses are considered to be a new wave/pop-punk band, but I would submit that this may be the most popular alternative holiday song out there.
I read this last year in this Guardian article, authored by Dave Simpson: Waitresses founder, principal songwriter, and guitarist Chris Butler (the band was formed in Akron, Ohio and he moved back there) makes a donation to the Akron-Summit County children's library every holiday season in the name of the first person to tell him he or she heard "Christmas Wrapping" on the radio. Cool.
Here's the single version:
And this is the album/long version:
Once again, folks: Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas!
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