I mentioned this one in the review of “The McGarrigle Christmas Hour” so I thought I’d write a little about it. It may just be a totally personal thing since I don’t have a Christmas in my memory when we didn’t have this record playing in the house, but to me this album is as essential to Christmas as the tree and everything. It’s a real shame it’s not widely available anymore (and to be honest, I don’t know if it ever was – I have no idea where we got our copy) – at the time of writing, I can find just one copy on eBay.
Even putting aside the collective voices of the girls, which for me at least is always gonna be disarming (though some of the solos here I think will never be matched for the cute factor), the arrangements and production of the tracks here always makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. They even have coconut shells on “Little Donkey” and a bone fide recorder in “Away in a Manger”, what more could you ask for!? I plan to put a Christmas playlist on my radio thing before Christmas, and I’ll probably throw one of these tracks into the mix. I’m almost tempted to stick the whole thing up on Christmas Day or something unless someone wants to object, lol.