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Do You Hear What I Hear? Give It A Listen This Year.

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Do You Hear What I Hear? Give It A Listen This Year.

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The greatest playlist of Christmas songs you could possibly hear emanating from your AM, FM or internet dial comes via a rather unexpected source, a Jewish writer and part-time radio host spinning the tunes from the studio of a Dallas sports-talk station every December 24.

Robert Wilonsky’s Annual Holiday Music Spectacular on The Ticket in Dallas (1310 AM or 96.7 FM in North Texas and theticket.com worldwide) from 9 p.m. to midnight on Christmas Eve is the music snob’s Christmas show, just what you’d expect from a former alt-weekly music editor. It’s an expertly curated selection of traditional, original, cover and novelty holiday songs from a wide range of artists representing rock, country, hip-hop, jazz, folk, funk, R&B and beyond.

Wilco and Billy Bragg’s “Christ for President,” Run-DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis,” Freddie King’s “Christmas Tears,” the Jive Turkeys’ “Get Down Santa,” Willie Nelson and Norah Jones duetting on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” Kurtis Blow’s “Christmas Rappin’” and so on, and so on, and so on, from the obscure to the universally beloved. There’s a good chance you’ll hear the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” (embedded above) and Robert Earl Keen’s “Merry Christmas From the Family,” which for my money are the two greatest Christmas songs ever written. This year will be the 13th iteration, and yet he still manages to find ever more holiday tunes that capture the joy, sadness, surprise, nostalgia, melancholy, humor and every other emotion the winter holidays evoke.

After the clock strikes 12, Wilonsky sticks around for as long as he wants and expands beyond the holidays with an equally eccentric repertoire of tuneage – great local songs, B-sides, shoulda-been hits, one-hit wonders’ forgotten tracks, deep album cuts, psychedelic head-spinners and lovely classics that all pair perfectly with a spiked eggnog as you wrap the gifts and stuff the stockings.

The one tradition my wife and I insist on keeping every holiday season began the first Christmas Eve we spent together as a couple, when we drove around Kessler Park and then up to Highland Park and Lake Highlands and then just aimlessly through the night listening to the Annual Holiday Music Spectacular With Robert Wilonsky as we admired Christmas lights and decorations. Every year we do the same, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes with my two kids and now, since his 2018 first Christmas, our little Malcolm, who is mesmerized by bright colorful lights. On years when we celebrate Christmas Eve at my mom's, we do our light-gazing early, listening to recordings from Spectaculars past.

You can stream or download last year’s show here, and I hope you tune in with my family and me this year while Santa is doing his thing. --Jesse Hughey

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The Pogues -  Fairytale Of New York (Official Video) [HD Upgrade]

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Most of my family's traditions revolve around what food we eat! Every Christmas Eve, my family has a seafood-themed dinner featuring shrimp cocktail, oysters, anchovies and lobster as the main event. With dinner we have my grandma's pickled watermelon rind (it's actually really good) and salad, and dessert is my grandma's peppermint chocolate ice cream pie. I honestly look forward to this meal more than I do Thanksgiving! My grandparents also always gift all the grandkids (now full grown adults) with a beautiful hand-painted ornament each year so they can put it on their own trees as adults :) - Amanda Smiley

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Most of my family's traditions revolve around what food we eat! Every Christmas Eve, my family has a seafood-themed dinner featuring shrimp cocktail, oysters, anchovies and lobster as the main event. With dinner we have my grandma's pickled watermelon rind (it's actually really good) and salad, and dessert is my grandma's peppermint chocolate ice cream pie. I honestly look forward to this meal more than I do Thanksgiving! My grandparents also always gift all the grandkids (now full grown adults) with a beautiful hand-painted ornament each year so they can put it on their own trees as adults :) - Amanda Smiley

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In Latin culture, Christmas is celebrated with loved ones on Christmas Eve! Often referred to as Noche Buena (and other variations), which all translate to a good night. In our family, everyone puts on their best clothes, cooks the best food and meets up with the entire extended family to dine together, spend time together before opening presents at midnight. Depending on how many young kids are in the family, most of them can't wait that long, so usually happens earlier. Over my lifetime, I have gotten to experience Puerto Rican, Ecuadorian, Colombian, and Mexican Noche Buenas. My family is Colombian/Ecuardian and there is an extended tradition for Colombians called Dia de las Velitas (Day of the little candles), which is on Dec. 7th and this marks the day to place lights leading up to your house, on the windows, etc. All fun traditions to put us in the holiday spirit! - Melissa

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My wife and I like to order pastrami from Katz's Deli in NYC for the holiday season. We'll serve it on Christmas Day if we have family in town. If not, we usually save it for a New Year's Eve celebration with friends. I believe my wife actually has a reminder on her google calendar, so we don't miss out. (One pound, pre-sliced servings are almost always available, but they often run out of the 5-6 pound servings well before Christmas.) This is a special treat our family looks forward to every year. If you decide to give this a try, I would also recommend adding a few potato knish to your order. They are fantastic!

-Aaron Anderson

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Every Christmas Eve since the early 90s, we have watched Christmas Vacation as a family. I remember opening presents at my grandmother's house, going home, watching this movie, and then waking up to celebrate Christmas in the morning. Brings me so much joy to hear my two kids howling with laughter at all same parts that I used to laugh at when I was little. Growing up, they used to refer to our family as the "Griswolds" so it's a very fitting tradition.

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My brother and I have been playing “Pass the Fruitcake” since 1987 with the SAME fruitcake. It is hard as a rock now. One time mold grew on it but was gone by the next year. Some of the ways I’ve “disguised” it was by putting it in a book (stayed up late Christmas eve cutting the pages out of an old computer book from Half Price Books to tuck the fruitcake inside), layering it inside another cake, and hiding it inside a pillow I made. It’s my turn to receive it this year and there’s no telling what form it will take especially since my nephew is part of the game now. - Annabella Chan

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It's never too early to teach kids to gamble

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It's never too early to teach kids to gamble

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If you've played this game before, you understand how it can become unnecessarily intense. It's a game for all ages of current and future gamblers and a gateway drug to a family Christmas at the Winstar Casino and Resorts.
Our family plays where each brave soul begins with three one-dollar bills in front of them, one for each die. We play where the youngest goes first, and she rolls all three dice. If she rolls three dots, she keeps her cash. If she rolls an "L" then she has to move a dollar (for each "L") to the person to her left. If she rolls an "R" then the dollar (for each "R") goes to the right. These dollars are still in play.
However, if she rolls a "C" the dollar goes into the center pile and that builds the winner's bank. Once a dollar goes into the bank, it's gone.
You can only roll a die per dollar, so if you have one dollar, you roll one die. If you have five dollars, then you roll the three dice available to you. You play until only one person has money in front of her and the winner collects the entire bank.
The beauty of the game, especially with the younger ones who you're training to grow old in front of a slot machine on payday, is you're never out of the game until someone wins it all. Even if you don't have any money in front of you and can't roll, someone might roll enough "Ls" and "Rs" that a dollar or two winds up back in front of you and game on. With a table of 10 people, it's pretty amazing how intense and competitive it can get over a $30 bank while celebrating the birth of baby Jesus.
Last year I introduced a new wrinkle. Instead of one-dollar bills, I exchanged them for one-dollar lottery scratch off tickets. When the game was over, the winner had X amount of one-dollar scratch offs, and I gave the winner the option of keeping the tickets (could win $5, could win even money, could win $100, who knows?) or as the house I'd buy them back and give them equal cash. The winner kept the tickets and instead of winning $36 cash wound up with $12 in scratch-off winnings. True gamble.
I've proposed upping the ante to five-dollar bills instead of one-dollar bills, but my family isn't ready for that juice just yet.
You can buy the dice online or at any local pharmacy. Have fun, make up your own rules, share what you come up with, and I'll see you down the road at the check cashing line before we hit the craps table together as a family. - Brandon May

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In Mexican tradition, we always have tamales for our Christmas feast. For the most part, this is really the only time of year we eat tamales since they are made in bulk (it is a lot of work lol). This year will be the first year I host on Christmas Eve (another tradition, we really prioritize Christmas Eve over Christmas day) so I am going to attempt to make tamales myself. Wish me luck! -Alejandra Torres

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It's our family tradition to put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. The second my husband brings in the tree, this is the first song my Dad plays. He starts reminiscing about his life, all while singing and rocking side to side like he's one of the Temptations! Although he's played this song since I was a child, it wasn't until I had children of my own that I truly appreciated the joy and the memories over the years! A true classic! - Nicole Overton