Setting up the LRG Christmas Eve jukebox

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone(and happy holidays to those who enjoy other festivities this time of year) and I hope you all will have a good time with your loved ones. One of my blog traditions is to set up a few music videos that share my sense of the spirit of the season, not to mention leave you with some entertaining as I take a mini-break.

Let's start off with a modern day classic from Run DMC. "Christmas in Hollis" is just flat out fun to listen to. Back then, no one could have predicted the lasting power of this funky tribute to Santa or that Run would end up with a show on the Cooking Channel(which is pretty cool culinary watching,btw) but some future pleasures are best appreciated with a touch of surprise:

 Next, we have a double dose of Jimmy Fallon that begins with this unexpected singalong from his SNL days. When this musical skit first aired, it was just seen as a one and done but amusement factor from fans was so high that "I Wish It Were Christmas Today" has been replayed quite a few times.

The simple charm of Fallon, Chris Kattan, Tracey Morgan and Horatio Sanz with their trusty keyboard and guitar plucking is what makes this silly song a true holiday traditional tune:

Fallon's love of music has carried onto his Tonight Show gig, with him and The Roots taking up classroom instruments to join in with many of the musical guests. For the holiday season a while back, Mariah Carey sat in with them to belt out "All I Want for Christmas is You", one of her signature songs that plays out very well in this setting:

For something slightly different, we turn to 80's icons Hall & Oates as they have a little house party to share with friends a bit of that "Jingle Bell Rock".

Not only does the song hold up well(as it should, given the numerous cover versions of JBR) but the mock hokey tone of the video here really adds to the fun:

Again, I wish you all a happy holiday and LRG will be back before the new year begins, with a couple of preview posts and some New Year's Eve tunes too.

For now, we will close out with the heartfelt joy of a "Patrick Swayze Christmas" and be delighted that one good thing that we can count on is a return of Mystery Science Theater 3000(hooray for the Kickstarter campaign success!) some time in the new year: