The Atkins Diet

Truth be told, I'm a big fan of Christmas music. Yes, it starts far too early, those "continuous Christmas" radio stations can be a bit much, and nothing makes me reach for the dial faster than the opening strains of "The Christmas Shoes," but all in all, I dig it. The music and the shopping are the two things that most get me into the Christmas spirit.

My favorite songs tend toward the modern - TSO's "Christmas Canon," Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)," and Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Despite that, the more traditional, serene, and pastoral works have a definite place in my collection.

Several years ago, I made a 2-CD set of songs that I think "define" Christmas for me. It had a little bit of everything - traditional and modern, religious and more secular, rock, pop, country, jazz, and everything in-between. In most cases, I tried to find the "definitive" or most familiar version of a song, which was easy in some cases and much more difficult in others. I soon found how odd it is to hear one artist's version of a song that's associated with someone else. I really didn't like those at all. You don't want to hear Gene Autry singing "Blue Christmas" and Elvis' "Rudolph..." - you want it the other way around.

I found that the one thing that transcends this sort of natural association is the instrumental. I poured over hundreds of songs in putting that collection together, and although I stuck with the classic (vocal) versions in most cases, I found that one artist kept popping up time and again with solid interpretations of all the well-known Christmas standards - Chet Atkins.





With that, I found two new additions to my Christmas playlist. Christmas with Chet Atkins and East Tennessee Christmas are easily my favorite single-artist Christmas albums. For lack of a better term, they're atmospheric...

The one you love waits curled up on the couch, in the dark save for the lights that twinkle on your tree. Snow falls outside as you push "play" on the stereo and settle in beside her, dropping two soft, homemade marshmallows into her mug of hot chocolate...