It's a marshmallow world in the winter

✯ Day 363 of Vintage 365 ✯

There's a certain absolutely fabulous sense of excitement and joy that bubbles to the surface in the days between Christmas and New Year's. We're in the midst of that holiday season period when no one really feels like putting their shoulder to wheel at work or focusing on anything too worrisome – and I love it!

For as long as I can recall, I've treasured and looked forward this week - captured as it is between two of the biggest holidays of the year - and especially enjoy the fact that it's still filled with oodles upon oodles of Christmas songs being piped through speakers, radios, and even MP3 player headphones everywhere.

Upbeat, splendidly festive tunes always help to put me in a giddy, care-free mood, and without a doubt one the songs that excels most at that is the lively, marvelously fun vintage song called (It's a) Marshmallow World, which was written back in 1949.

Though it's been preformed by scores of artists over the years, for my money, it's hard to beat the exuberant, joyful version that Frank and Dean first serenated the world with decades ago.

 

 

I could - and often do - listen to this song several times everyday during December. No matter if the sun is shinning or a howling blizzard is roaring away outside, the jubilant picture this holiday tune paints is positively perfect for this week that is nestled cosily between the hustle and bustle of Christmas and the spirited gaiety of New Year's.

As I hit the play button on this song, for at least the fifth time this morning, I cannot help but smile, take a tranquil breath, and delight in the cheerful spirit that's inherent to the festive tail end of the year.

After all, regardless of if there's snow outside of not, there's a sweetness to the holidays that really does make life feel like it's a marshmallow world in the winter, and that is definitely worth being happy about.

Celebrating Frank Sinatra's birthday with some of his best Christmas songs

✯ Day 346 of Vintage 365 ✯

On this, the 19th to last day of the year, back in the dark WW1 filled times of 1915, one Francis Albert Sinatra was born to hardworking Italian immigrant parents in the town of Hoboken, New Jersey. The couple's only child, Francis - better know to the world and his legions of adoring fans as Frank - would go to become one of the best selling, and most beloved male recording artists of all time.

A singer, who like men as diverse as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Michael Jackson, needs no introduction, Frank Sinatra immerged onto the music scene in the midst of big band and swing dance fever to quickly skyrocket his way to a wildly successful solo career (though he did, on many occasions, sing with other stars such as Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, and Luther Vandross).

With a voice as a smooth and alluring as satin and a certain marvelous charm that translated well both through music and on the big screen, it’s incredibly easy to see why Frank - whose piercing peepers earned him the nickname Ol' Blue Eyes -  rose to popularity during the crooner-loving days of the 1940s and 50s (his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, was released in 1946, though he’d already been on the music scene for a few years before then).

Though many may think that Sinatra reached his pinnacle during the 40s and 50s, he weathered the following decades and was able to ensure his career flourished well into his final years of life (he passed away on May 14, 1998), with some of his best known and most iconic songs, like the 1977 gem that is New York, New York, being recorded in the second half of the 20th century.

In celebration of both Frank Sintra's birthday and the fact that today makes just twelve quick days until December 25th, I thought it would be wonderful to enjoy a selection of beautiful Christmas songs as delivered by Frankie himself.

Sit back, light a crackling fire, snuggle up in your favourite vintage sweater, and unwind for a spell with these terrific Frank Sintra songs that are bound to put you even more in the holiday spirit.

 

{Let it snow}

{Santa Claus is coming to town}

{Jingle Bells}

{White Christmas}

{Oh little town of Bethlehem}

{Silent Night}

{Have yourself a merry little Christmas}

 

Thank you for the stellar Christmas songs, Mr. Sinatra. Today, on your birthday, and always you are endlessly missed and forever loved by music and vintage fans the world over.