Holiday Gift Guide: Ring in the Holidays with Here Comes Christmas!

It’s only November, but my family is kicking off our holiday season early with Here Comes Christmas!, the latest CD by Greg Page, famous as the original Yellow Wiggle in the beloved Australian band for children known as The Wiggles!

Greg’s new 22-song CD includes familiar favorites like Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman. It also has some tunes that make his CD a more unique holiday choice, such as Jingle Bell Rock, Dominick the Donkey, and Feliz Navidad.

When it comes to “new” songs for the holidays, I usually think, “What’s the point? Just sing the ones we know and love!” But Greg opens his CD with three Greg Page/Alec Miller originals, and they ended up being some of my favorite songs on the album!

The first song, Here Comes Christmas! bursts into an energetic chorus that brought my family right into the holiday spirit. We were pretty much ready for some tree-decorating, mistletoe-hanging, and Santa-watching before the song had finished. Two additional songs, Christmas Bells and It’s Christmas, round out the original selections. The upbeat songs and positive lyrics got us dancing around; there’s no way to listen without even the most stolid among us tapping our feet along with beat!

Bayla (6.5) and Katy (8) posing with their new CD

My whole family agreed that we liked the songs the best when Greg did something different to make it “his own,” rather than singing it the way we are used to hearing it. He had us using our hands to make reindeer antlers during Rudolph, and we ended with quite a menagerie by the end of his imaginative version of The Twelve Days of Christmas (which will have you looking up “axolotl” on Google!).

Since first hearing Greg’s new album, my daughters have given it the ultimate stamp of approval: they now listen to the CD every single night as they are falling asleep!

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In addition to getting a preview of Here Comes Christmas!, I also got a chance to correspond with Greg through his agent, Elizabeth Waldman Frazier at Waldmania! He told me that he’s always wanted to do a Christmas album because he loves so many Christmas classics. He writes, “I think the most appealing thing about a Christmas album is the sense of hope and love that is contained in the lyrics for the majority of the songs. Hope that the world can be a better place through the love that we show to one another at Christmas time, and the love that we feel every day for our family and neighbors!”

Greg is proud that his band, the Wiggles, has had such a positive influence on so many children around the world. He said that when the band started back in 1991, they never imagined such a long-lasting and influential career. In 2006, Greg retired from the band because of a medical condition known as orthostatic intolerance, which causes dizziness, tremulousness, blurred vision, and fatigue. Though Greg is no longer part of the band, he says that the Wiggles continue to create music for children built on “a solid foundation in understanding children and what is good for them to grow up listening to.”

In addition to creating a foundation to raise awareness and funds for research into orthostatic intolerance, Greg is also working with Yellow Entertainment, an imprint of Butterscotch Communications, which he hopes will be able to bring families closer together through its music, videos, and literary works.

On a personal note, I found out that Greg has an impressive collection of Elvis artifacts—one of the largest collections in the world, in fact! I asked him to name his “coolest item,” and he told me that it’s hard to pin down a favorite. Top contenders include: Elvis’ 1956 white Lincoln Continental, which Elvis bought with his first royalty check; Elvis and Priscilla’s marriage certificate; a gold nugget ring with 10 carats of diamonds that Elvis gave to a fan during a concert in 1975; the original cape made for Elvis’ white jumpsuit for his ‘Aloha from Hawaii’ concert in 1973; and the very last Cadillac that Elvis bought for himself in 1976, just 8 months before he passed away. Greg’s web page (www.gregpage.com ) has more information about his remarkable collection.

Check out Katy’s review of Greg’s CD!

Knowing about his amazing collection, I asked Greg to tell me what will be the coolest piece of Greg Page memorabilia that will be in some collector’s home or museum someday. He responded, “Hmmm, that’s an interesting one! Maybe an original Yellow Skivvy (shirt that is!), with sweat stains from one of our live shows!”

Many thanks to Greg for being such a gracious interviewee! Enter to win your own copy of Greg’s holiday CD below:

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And many thanks to Greg also for creating a Christmas CD that is familiarizing my girls with so many Christmas classics, and getting them excited for the upcoming holiday season!

Here Comes Christmas! is scheduled for release November 24, and will be available from iTunes and www.butterscotchtv.com.

Disclaimer: Thank you, Waldmania! PR for my complimentary CD to review. All opinions in this review are mine and my family’s alone.