Video Vault Thursdays!

“Bah, humbug!” No, that’s too strong
’Cause it is my favorite holiday
But all this year's been a busy blur
Don’t think I have the energy

So, I tried really, really hard this week to find a holiday themed entry into Video Vault Thursdays, unfortunately the two tunes I wanted to put up for this week don’t have videos!!!

The song is as much about a harried lifestyle and trying to make connections as it is about Christmas. And that’s a lifestyle Butler knew well as a musician and songwriter trying to break big in New York in the early 80s - a lifestyle that has mellowed in middle age. He may never have cracked the Top 40. But so what? He’s made it to age 56, continues to make music, is a husband and the father of a 6-year-old son.

One of those tunes was by The Waitresses, it was their very special holiday hit Christmas Wrapping. However, they never did get around to making a video for the song!

"Christmas Wrapping" (sometimes misspelled as "Christmas Wrappings") is a Christmas song recorded in 1981 by The Waitresses. It was first released on the 1981 various artists holiday compilation album A Christmas Record on ZE Records. The group then included the track on their 1982 EP I Could Rule the World if I Could Only Get the Parts. It has since been included on numerous holiday compilation albums, including Now That's What I Call Christmas!: The Signature Collection.
The song is narrated from the point of view of a busy single woman who is adamant that she will try to sit-out the exhausting Christmas period, not participating in the traditional Christmas activities (except for making dinner, see below).
She reveals that, during the course of the year, she has attempted to meet up with a man she encountered in a ski shop the previous year. Despite the couple’s attempts to meet, a succession of mishaps conspires to keep them apart.
Finally on Christmas Eve, while the protagonist (after stating that A&P provided her with “the world’s smallest turkey”) is doing last-minute shopping for cranberries at a local convenience store, ends up running into the man after discovering that he, too, forgot to buy cranberries.
This coincidence seems to hint that the narrator, and therefore the listener, shouldn’t completely abandon their faith in the magic of Christmas.

Like I said though, The Waitresses never did make a video of the tune and somehow I think if they had it would have been a hit. In the meantime, this week we’ll go back to The Waitresses other big tune, the one that bought them to fame - “I Know What Boys Like.” Not Christmas Wrapping but it will have to do: