{"id":31045,"date":"2020-07-07T11:57:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T17:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=31045"},"modified":"2020-07-07T09:10:27","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T15:10:27","slug":"christmas-anniversaries-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/christmas-anniversaries-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Anniversaries 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every year for <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> in July we recount the anniversaries of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> \u2013 literally a history of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> history. The amount of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> to recount in 2020 is amazing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>~ <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> 25 Years Ago (1995) ~<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the amazing things about <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> is that a <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> movie doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be about <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> to be a <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> movie. In 1995 such a movie was made in <em>While You Were Sleeping<\/em>, a film that has since become a, well, <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> classic:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VtUahfylu1U\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>Mannheim Steamroller kept rolling with their <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> hits with this runaway rendition of <em>Joy to the World<\/em>, released 25 years ago:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uBuuOBUTMcs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>Other <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> releases of note in 1995 include Luther Vandross\u2019<em> Every Year, Every <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a><\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Santa<\/a> I\u2019m Right Here<\/em> by Toby Keith and this classic by Joe Diffie:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iIdnYAkqSes\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><strong>~ <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> 30 Years Ago (1990) ~<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Two notable <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> classics were produced 30 years ago. The first was written by David Foster and performed by Natalie Cole, called <em>Grown Up <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> List<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QLZ9skvw1gY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>But far and away the biggest hit of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> 1990 starred a kid being a kid \u2013 in the now-classic <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> move, <em>Home Alone<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S7OWoc-j8qQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><strong>~ <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> 40 Years Ago (1980) ~<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The year 1980 was a tough year culturally but <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> did receive a gift from a more obscure offering from Jimmy Stewart. This late-in-career production starred Stewart as Willie Krueger, in a brief story that would gain fame through continuous replay on television for decades:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YoCjJCZHM-4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>This scene of Stewart at the manger of Christ was done in one take, with Stewart evidently telling the director, \u201cI hope you got it, I\u2019ve only got one of these in me\u201d. The movie is called <em>Mr. Krueger\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>~ <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> 50 Years Ago (1970) ~<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fifty years ago <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> on Television was as big an influence on anything. The famous Rankin Bass production of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Santa<\/a> Claus is Comin\u2019 to Town<\/em> was telecast on December 14th, 1970. It has re-run every year without stopping since and sold millions as stand-alone video copies:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cHiG-G4NTPI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>It was a huge year for <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> music too with the release of <em>Feliz Navidad<\/em> by Jose Feliciano, the Jackson 5 <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> album, and the hit single <em>Merry <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> Darling<\/em> by the Carpenters.<\/p>\n<p><em>A <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> Carol<\/em> had another classic adaptation released in 1970, a musical called <em>Scrooge<\/em>, starring Albert Finney:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Dkq7WZTzkLQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><strong>~ <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> 75 Years Ago (1945) ~<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> 1945 was epic and everyone at the time knew that it would be. It was the first post-WWII <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> and everyone couldn\u2019t wait to get home.<\/p>\n<p>Bing Crosby continued his extraordinary <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> superstar run in 1945 with the release of his classic album, <em>Merry <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a><\/em>. This album was put out by Decca and included <em>White <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a><\/em>, the best-selling <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> single of all time. The compilation of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> hits would be released over and over again. It has gone on to become the 2nd best-selling <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> album ever, only eclipsed by <em>Elvis\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> Album<\/em> of 1957.<\/p>\n<p>Bing wasn\u2019t done, though. In 1945 he repeated his Oscar-winning role as Father Chuck O\u2019Malley in a movie called <em>Bells of St. Mary\u2019s<\/em>, considered by many to be a <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> movie. The Bells of St. Mary\u2019s is one of the most profitable movies ever made.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2HKDseSyDMM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>The year 1945 also brought another <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> classic in <em>Let It Snow<\/em>, made famous first by Vaughn Monroe:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RWTQqpYBHQ8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><strong>~ <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> 100 Years Ago (1920) ~<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The year 1920 was one of recovery. At last removed from the wars and pandemic of the previous decade America was looking to heal and move forward in 1920. It would bounce back in several ways.<\/p>\n<p>Manufacturers were free from war-time limitations and rations \u2013 so shoppers could once again buy a full assortment of products from toys to furniture.<\/p>\n<p>The hot sellers were \u201ctalking machines\u201d \u2013 the phonographs and radios that would bring full time entertainment right into the home.<\/p>\n<p>Kodak Brownie cameras, at just $2 each, were huge sellers as people everywhere were looking to take advantage of the ever-easier way of taking pictures themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Another hot gift of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> in 1920? Think cars. Listen to this episode of the Merry Little Podcast about the epic <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> of 1920:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-31045-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/mmc-220a5.kxcdn.com\/mlp\/mplepisode47.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/mmc-220a5.kxcdn.com\/mlp\/mplepisode47.mp3\">https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/mlp\/mplepisode47.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Here\u2019s a visual look at <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> 100 years ago:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vv6ep0OOtpg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every year for Christmas in July we recount the anniversaries of Christmas \u2013 literally a history of Christmas history. The amount of Christmas to recount in 2020 is amazing. ~ Christmas 25 Years Ago (1995) ~ One of the amazing things about Christmas is that a Christmas movie doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be about Christmas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":31046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":20,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,36,3],"tags":[821,286,820,817,308,288,815,819,754,259,818,814,816,813,512],"class_list":["post-31045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-features","category-christmas-history","category-christmas-past","tag-bells-of-st-marys","tag-bing-crosby","tag-brownie-cameras","tag-david-foster","tag-home-alone","tag-jimmy-stewart","tag-joe-diffie","tag-kodak","tag-let-it-snow","tag-mannheim-steamroller","tag-natalie-cole","tag-santa-claus-is-comin-to-town","tag-toby-keith","tag-vaughn-monroe","tag-while-you-were-sleeping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}