At my mall-Santa job, I sometimes pick out carols and seasonal favorites on the one-octave toy xylophone during the rare moments when I'm not occupied with visitors. I don't sing, I just pick out the melodies.

"Rudolph" is of course a big fave among the kids; I always start off with the introductory "verse" since one little guy insisted that I not leave it out. ("You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen / Comet and Cupid and Donder and Blitzen / But do you recall / the most famous reindeer of all?")

"Joy to the World" fits perfectly in tht one little major-key octave. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (a personal favorite) can be faked, with a couple of notes "jumped" an octave, in the relative minor key (i.e, Am, assuming that the xylophone in tuned in C).

But my far-and-away favorite, the one tune that almost always draws a fresh supply of little kids and young mothers, is "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." This particular tune, far more than any other, really seems to have an immeidate effect whenever I play it -- I call it my "subliminal advertising." One slow Saturday morning last year, nice and early, before the masses descended upon us, I picked up my little mallet and got about two measures into this one when my photographer co-worker piped up: "Don't summon them!"

I went ahead and called them on in; what the hell, Christmas comes but once a year, right?

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You traditionalists: anyone know this old one, that my late father passed along to us from his Irish-immigrant parents?

"Christmas is coming / the goose is getting fat
Who'll put a penny in the old man's hat?
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you!"