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So, Christmas music on Edison Records, is very popular. Especially on eBay. From old carols and hymns to unknown songs, by todays standards. Some fetching a pretty penny. I have a couple of Christmas Diamond Discs, but nothing on cylinder records. I would love to own some.

Yes. I've noticed the same thing at phono shows and Nauck's auctions. The asking prices for Xmas records at shows and the Minimum Bid on Nauck's auctions are usually significantly higher than for the typical, run of the mill non-Xmas Edison record. Even the asking price on Xmas 78s are usually higher.

My wife and I have been collecting Christmas cylinder records for a number of years now. We have over 60 of them. They are a lot of fun to play around Christmastime. We also recorded some of them, and some disc records, and put them on CDs for our friends. There are some wonderful songs that have been forgotten over the years, such as "Ring Out the Bells of Christmas" and "Ring Out Wild Bells". "Auld Lang Syne" is a great recording, the verses being sung in Gaelic. Still looking for a copy of "The First Nowell" BA 3030.

I have the odd assorted Christmas records on Edison and other, but somehow when the season rolls around I always forget about them or--given they aren't stored in keeping with my regular system--can't find them. But that reminds me: maybe now would be a good time finally to break out the Christmas tunes. I try to wait until close to the day to keep them special and fresh, not an easy task when every store loudspeaker and radio station has been pumping them out for weeks.

Of course, this year, in the Ill Wind Dept., I've had blissfully little exposure to store speaker systems...

PS: In case anyone is interested, I wrote a little article about my Christmas favorites three years ago: https://www.tnt-audio.com/vintage/chris ... 017_e.html

I agree with drh. Does anybody actually like Jingle Bell Rock or that horrible Paul McCartney Christmas song that you are almost always forced to endure whenever you venture into a store in December? Due to the Covid19 pandemic, my trips to stores have been practically nonexistent this year so I have generally been able to avoid those noxious sounds that parade as Christmas "music."

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time!

I worked in retail for years- was a district mgr. for KMart Enterprises. Try LIVING that stuff for six weeks, over and over and over...

But, I have to admit, John Lennon's "Happy Christmas/ War Is Over" is a modern Christmas song that has a lot of meaning for me. I am of the age that this bogeyman called VietNam haunted my childhood and adolescence. While "Happy Christmas" was released in 1971, it got a ton of airplay during the Christmas season of 1975, when the war finally, really WAS over. People forget that Nixon's peace accord contained a clause that we could jump back in to defend South Vietnam if the North got too aggressive, and the draft was still active. The NVA overwhelmed the South too fast for this to happen, and President Ford decided not to intervene.

I was at the age where the guys a year ahead got the last draft lottery cards. Whew!

McCartney made a lot of good music, but that limp Christmas song wasn't among his best. I was always WAY more of a Lennon fan, anyways, and preferred George Harrison's solo work to McCartney's as well.

Hard to believe John has been gone 40 years now.

Ah, well, back to Edisons!

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

I have several Diamond Discs to play at this time of year. One that is fun is Christmas Morning With the Kiddies.

I tend to buy BA's in job lots, keeping those that I want and selling on those that I don't. I have kept the following Christmas titles :

1606 Silent night.
2464 The Night before Christmas.
23136 Christians Awake.
23139 The awakening of Scrooge.
23144 The Mistletoe Bough (although not actually a Christmas story).
23148 The Street Watchman's Christmas.

Perhaps "Santa Claus hides in your phonograph" will come my way one day.