Christmastime: Christmas Blues/Blue Christmas Edition

Bob Dylan: Christmas Blues

[purchase]

Heart: Blue Christmas

[purchase]

Screeching in under the wire once again, in an attempt to meet the midnight deadline - we're on the road for our annual family holiday trip to South Carolina and Georgia, with limited time and spotty internet here at the Knight's Inn in Aiken...

I empathized when Anne posted about having a hard time getting excited about Christmas this year... mine for a completely different, but equally valid, reason - this is my first time back to the Atlanta area since Mom's passing in mid-July, and I seem to be paralyzed... with sadness... and fear... and numbness. I really just want to stay home and hibernate until 2010, and am trying to find the proverbial silver lining - there will be so many triggers of grief, but there will be equal sparks of memory. We will uphold previous traditions and make new ones - Mom's spirit will give us the strength and the serenity to navigate this first major holiday without her... but, right now, the blues prevail... and the two songs above run through my heart and mind...

Much has been said about Bob Dylan's venture into Christmas music... and it is very hard to take seriously - however, the fact that "all of [his] U.S. royalties from sales of these recordings will be donated to Feeding America, guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to more than 1.4 million people in need this year's holiday season" goes a long way toward lending credibility to the project (wonderful interview here)...

I've always loved the Very Special Christmas series and, no matter how many people cover Blue Christmas, my favorite will always be the one by Heart on Volume 2 - "won't be the same, dear, if you're not here with me" indeed...