Merry Elvis Christmas recollections

In celebration of the recently published biography, Elvis Presley: A Southern Life by Joel Williamson, I thought I would share some memories of Christmas past. In the 1970s we listened to Elvis on vinyl. Every December when it was time to decorate the tree you could hear the deep dulcet warbling of Elvis coming from the hi-fi. Some of my favorite Elvis renditions of Christmas songs follow.

With the tree up and ready to be decorated we’d pop on the Elvis to kick off the Christmas season with “The First Noel”.

In the kitchen we’d often hear my mother sing along to “Winter Wonderland” as she made stained-glass window cookies to hang on the tree.

One of my dad’s favorites was “Silver Bells”. He’d sing along so that it sounded like Elvis was his backup singer.

My best friend Tracy had an artificial, all-white tree bedecked in tinsel and lit solely with blue lights. In the evenings we’d just sit in her living room watching the tree as she and Elvis sang “Blue Christmas”.

Now that I am older, I still like to listen to Elvis when I decorate for Christmas. Then when I have everything just the way I want I like to get a crackling fire going, turn down the lights, plug in the tree, toss back a few slugs of egg nog, settle into a comfy couch with someone special, and listen to Elvis’s “Merry Christmas Baby”.

Here’s hoping your stocking is stuffed with Elvis this season. I find he makes the holiday merry.

Headline image credit: Elvis! Photo by Kevin Dooley. CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.