January 31, 2015 -- This entertaining documentary features a lot of lovable eccentrics, people who fell in love with Christmas music that is way outside the mainstream. You can sometimes spot them digging through the vinyl and CD sales bins at record stores, looking for that hard-to-find Christmas record or CD. Sometimes it is off-the-wall stuff like “Santa Came On A Nuclear Missile,” by Heather Noel.

Everybody knows the regular Christmas songs, “White Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “The Christmas Song” (composed by Mel Torme) and many more. This movie isn't about those songs. It is about the kind of Christmas music that most people have never heard, like “Back Door Santa” by Clarence Carter, or “Winter Man” by Clarence Reid.

Director Mitchell Kezin is the pied piper of this musical journey. He confides that his Christmases weren't very merry as a child with a largely absentee father. He got tired of Christmas music about the kinds of Christmas experiences he did not have. Finally, he did hear a song that he could relate to, “The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot,” performed by the immortal Nat King Cole.

When Kezin heard this song, he knew there must be other songs like this out there somewhere, so he went searching and found them. During Kezin's journeys in this film, he introduces us to others like himself who seek out alternative Christmas music for their own reasons, like record promoter Bill Adler, who could never get into traditional Christmas music, which is at odds with his religion (he's Jewish) but he likes other parts of the Christmas tradition. He became drawn to non-traditional Christmas music.

According to the film, one of the main reasons these collectors of off-beat Christmas music are so fascinated with this music is because of their childhood memories of Christmas. These childhood memories of Christmas are tied to the music of Christmas as much as it is to anything else. For them, these underground Christmas songs capture the spirit of their Christmas memories more than traditional songs do.

Other fellow non-traditional Christmas music fans in the film include such well-known people as rapper Joseph “Rev Run DMC” Simmons, noted movie director John Waters (“Hairspray”) recording artist Clarence Carter and, of course, Dr. Demento (Barry Hansen) noted L.A. disc jockey and musicologist, doctor of all music wild and wacky.

I've been down this road part way, and if you look for obscure Christmas music there is some truly awful stuff out there. Kezin admits as much in his film, and he admits you just have to take the bad with the good when you are digging through those bargain bins at the music store. But is there any good underground Christmas music in those bins? Oddly enough, yes there is, and you hear some of the best of the obscure Christmas music in this film, along with some not-so-good stuff.

Some of the featured songs in the film include music by Run DMC, jazz legend Miles Davis, Nat King Cole, Clarence Carter, James Brown, The Mighty Sparrow, The Free Design and others. Among the little-known facts in the film includes a discussion about an anti-war Christmas song, “Shepherds and Wisemen” included on a very rare Navy recruiting record made during the Vietnam War.

Kezin is overcome by emotion late in the film when a recording studio agrees to record a calypso version of “The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot,” performed by The Mighty Sparrow with Kezin present at the recording session. It is a dream come true for Kezin. The movie comes full circle, back to the first song that got Kezin fascinated with this musical sub-genre.

Kezin and his little community of fellow Christmas music collectors are like other collectors, but unlike some collectors they also like to share their music with other people. A tradition shared by several of them is to make tapes or CDs of their favorite Christmas songs and send them to their families and friends as Christmas presents. That's the real spirit of Christmas. Andy Cirzan does one better than that, by co-hosting an annual show called “The Christmas Club” on WDCB radio. This show effectively opens and closes the film.

Movies like this are a labor of love. Often, they don't work, but this one does. This is a fascinating musical and cultural journey through a unique aspect of Christmas. This is a group of people you won't see anywhere else. They share a love of music and a love of Christmas that is different than most of the rest of the world. These are people that are worth getting to know. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2015 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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