Christmas with Ogden Nash

"Christmas with Ogden Nash is Caedmon's answer to the spate of pink-spun-cotton-candy presents, bathetic baubles and glum glitter grimly given and gotten each Yuletide. It is well known that the word "Yuletide" itself is simply a corruption of the ancient self-admonition, "Well, you'll tide the season over with more mousy mementos this year, but NEXT YEAR, dammit, you'll give the most sophisticated, original Christmas presents of which anyone can conceive!

"For if Nash, at other times restores the gizzard to life, only think of the joy he puts back into Christmas as he deftly defoliates the festooned thickets of commercialism, uses the dropped needles to puncture globs of bubble-gum sentimentality, then bathes all in bracing spirits of turpohydrate to remove every remant of stickiness." -- from the back cover.

It appears that the war on Christmas had already started by 1970. This album was a lot more interesting than it first appeared to be. The stories were cute, sarcastic and clever, and found a way to end on an upbeat note (plus improve your vocabulary). I've never read or listened to Ogden Nash before, but now I consider him next to Gore Vidal for humor with a bite. This was a fun diversion from the typical Christmas story.

Christmas with Ogden Nash (1970) 
The Christmas That Almost Wasn't
An Untold Adventure Of Santa Claus

The Boy Who Laughed At Santa Claus
A Carol For Children
I'm A Pleasure To Shop For
I Remember Yule
The Miraculous Count-Down
Nutcracker Suite
Sugarplum Dance
Russian Dance
Arabian Dance
Chinese Dance
The Flutes
The Waltz Of The Flowers