Mince Pie Mondays – are these vegan?

What’s going on?  Isn’t Mince Pie Mondays a bit like Solstice Songs Thursdays, a last-minute attempt to use up the late-arriving seasonal songs so no one feels like the child that Santa forgot?  A sort of desperate last-minute attempt – like petrol station wine and chocolates?  Well…maybe it was a bit that way in the past, but here in the shiny future it’s an acknowledgment that we’d have needed to start Jingle Bells Friday in October if we were going to manage to fit everything in so that no one feels like the child that Santa forgot…

As a bonus, and to get your festive week off to a truly…umm…festive start we’re going to make Mince Pie Mondays an especially rich mix, as befits this finest of seasonal tasty treats.  We love a mince pie…actually, we also love a mini-Christmas cake slice, a thumb-sized portion of rich fruit cake topped with a ridiculously large amount of marzipan and icing.  Now you’re talking.  And if you feel the same grab a coffee and, if you have one, a mince pie and let’s get festive!

And what better way could there be but with Amy Speace?  The lauded singer-songwriter has but one request – she’d like an old-fashioned Christmas, with all the traditional trimmings: “I want all the old cliches / mistletoe and pumpkin pie / carol under snowy skies / Waiting up for Santa’s sleigh.”  Cliches we have, and yes…mistletoe.  Pumpkin pie – that’s a no, snow..maybe…Santa’s sleigh, for certain.

And since we’ve only partially delivered on that wish list, we’ll make it up with Amy Speace’s other seasonal song – taken from her new album ‘The American Dream.’  On ‘First United Methodist Day Care Christmas Show‘ Amy Speace recalls the pinnacle of theatrical productions which included “Three wise men, plastic Jesus and fake snow.”

Irish singer/songwriter Annika Kilkenny did have us wondering if there was a double meaning to ‘Snowflakes In Town‘ which was co-written with Emily Phillips.  But, from what Annika has said of the song we can probably just take it at romantic face value: “Emily and I set out with the intention of capturing the feeling of falling in more ways than one… We wanted to replicate that nostalgic feel of the music you’d find in a childhood music box, so we wrote this delicate descending motif on the piano to tie in with the concept of the lyrics. Paired with its beautiful production by Ant, I think the track feels like a warm hug.”

Continuing her own, perhaps inevitable, Christmas tradition Sara Noelle has released her annual Christmas single.  It’s a two-sider of course with the new ‘Little Dove‘ and a version of ‘Silent Night‘.  Speaking of the former Sara Noelle has said: “Little Dove” was inspired by a mourning dove that lived outside my window for a couple of months. I loved the routine of waking up every morning to check on her, noticing her patterns throughout the day and seeing her mate and hatchling born and eventually leave the nest. I love the sound of their call (what you hear in the song is actually her!) Feeling the kinship with animals is a grounding feeling – reminding us that we’re all connected on this earth – their behaviors aren’t that different from us humans. I liked the idea of writing a holiday song about her and viewing her as my “Christmas angel” like the song sings.” 

And if all that has gone before has been a little bit too pretty and sweet (blimey, you’re hard to please) we close out this run of songs with something a little more rocking:  based in Nashville but raised in Colorado, Sophia Scott has released a couple of seasonal songs – and this cover of ‘Winter Wonderland’ pushes the decibels a little higher than standard renditions with Scott’s powerhouse vocals set against a soulful Country-Rock backdrop of rowdy electric guitars, hard-driving drums, and pounding piano melodies.