A CHANGE IN OPINION

Posted on December 19, 2011 by michaelweening

This year the hub-bub is all about Michael Buble’s new album. Of course, it was my first choice as the once a year Christmas CD purchase and it is good. Traditional music, in his jazzy style. But it won’t make it into my all time list. Not unique enough.

A contender for one of those slots is the A Very She & Him Christmas from She & Him. Featuring the quirky actress Zooey Deschanel (Think the sitcom New Girl, and the elf in Elf). I cannot get Christmas Wish out of my head … I find myself humming it all the time. Great album (I happened upon it at Starbucks).

I will add one holiday link. If you want to send a great Santa video to a child or to a friend for a laugh, one of the best of the season can be found here.

Enjoy!

IF YOU CAN’T SMILE AT THIS TIME OF YEAR ….

Posted on December 19, 2011 by michaelweening

I love this time of the year. Holiday music is everywhere .. the food seems to be better. Sure, there are the year end pressures but there is also opportunity at every turn to find something fantastic. How can you not find yourself smiling?

I found myself wondering about that question at a recent lunch. I was early and observed a smiling rep and his Blackberry carrying, email sending, frowning manager. The customer arrived and the rep engaged but the manager/executive never broke the frown. Had I been his client, I would have simply expedited the lunch to get out of there. It looked painful. I felt like walking up to him and saying ‘Smile, it is the holidays and this is your customer!”

I remember when I first moved to the UK, I had someone comment that they thought it was odd that I smiled so much. We control our mental state … so why not smile? Especially at this time of year.

Smile.

A NEW HOLIDAY LOW

Posted on December 19, 2011 by michaelweening

Today I received an e-holiday card from an old client and colleague from Europe. On a personal note, I am not a big fan of e-cards simply because my email is cluttered enough and it lacks the personal – handwritten touch. But to each his own.

What sets this e-card apart was the sent from header in the email.

(His assistants name) on behalf of (The individual).

He didn’t even care enough to invest the time to send it out himself. I am not sure how it could be even more impersonal and in this case, I would recommend not even sending it.

The holidays should be about sincerity, a little extra effort ….

A CHRISTMAS MENTIONABLE

Posted on December 2, 2011 by michaelweening

Not a tradition, but worth a post. We also booked out Stuart McLean’s Christmas show for a couple weekends from now and cannot wait. For those of you who don’t know Stuart, he is a Canadian storytelling icon. Sure, there are some who find his stories too sentimental, but in an age where the sense of community is quickly disappearing, it is a nice reprieve.

You can catch his podcasts here, or consider his Christmas CD filled with heart warming stories and humor or if you are in Canada, catch his tour … seems like he goes everywhere.

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

Posted on December 1, 2011 by michaelweening

We have a few of traditions that have developed slowly over the years, the most important being that we ignore all Christmas music or references until December 1st, the day after our son’s birthday.

A few other elements which are becoming traditions:

A pantomime. This started in England and continues. This year we are seeing Ross Petty’s troupe perform The Wizard of Oz. It does not matter how old you are, a great family affair and I will always be one of the loudest ‘Booooers’.
A Christmas Story. Sure, there are lots of great Christmas movies. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf, The Sound of Music (They escape during Christmas don’t they?) and of course those ones from our youth, Charlie Brown .. Rudolph … Little Drummer Boy and many others (Although animated, rubber character holiday shows seem to no longer be in vogue). But I always come back to this one. Every Christmas … it makes me laugh; the Red Rider BB gun with mom’s warning echoing through the house “You’ll shoot your eye out” and the double dog dare. A true classic … irony being that I had a BB gun and my mom wouldn’t let me keep it in the house for that exact reason (smile).
Great music. I have referred to a few of my favorites in the past and every year I buy a new CD. This year it is Michael Buble Christmas. We will see if he can stack up to my number two, Harry Connick and my favorite .. BNL.

Let the music begin .. and let the snow stay away until the 22nd (smile).