Yes, if I'm going to send a post about
songs for Christmas,
OF COURSE I will refresh an older thread to do it --
The songs of the season always generate discussions and opinions.

I was just recalling how whitewashed my childhood was,
in a small town in the Rust Belt near the Great Lakes
(not saying which lake).

There was this television Christmas special
hosted by Herb Alpert -- right, I AM that old --
and he sang Mel Tormé's Christmas Song;
it was the first time I ever heard the piece.
Which is to say,

Nat King Cole's Christmas album was
persona non grata
in my extended family circle,
to which the holidays were confined.

Also, the first time I ever heard "Santa Baby"
was when -- heaven help us all --
Madonna sing-song-overdid her way through it,
because
Eartha Kitt was also persona non grata.

Let alone
Ray Charles and Betty Carter duetting with a big band on
"Baby, It's Cold Outside"
(Charles singing 'listen to that fireplace RRRRRRoaRRRRRR --' !).

Well, what's past is past.
The bright side to it all is that
in my adult years, outside the funny farm that was my birth-family,
I get to hear all these eminent song-writers/performers
in those well-beloved recordings
and appreciate them for the first time,
with no baggage from my past attached to them ...

which cannot be said of Bing Crosby and White Christmas, of course.