Maybe I'll Clear My Junk, Maybe I'll Just Get Drunk

I am not one of those people who complains when she first starts hearing Christmas music in stores...I am a person who smiles when this happens. I LOVE Christmas music. I know it's mostly nostalgia for childhood memories and happy hopefulness for that mythical and elusive "Christmas feeling" but I have no problem with that!

Not all of my favorite Christmas songs are jolly and joyful, though. This one is very dear to me: Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton. I first heard this on her RCA greatest hits collection and I had no idea until recently that it was written by someone else for Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I guess the girls get together and sing it, which I suppose is fitting since it's a song about regrets and trying to move on, things I imagine working girls (especially those in a musical) ponder quite a bit.

"Maybe I'll dye my hair/ maybe I'll move somewhere/ maybe I'll get a car/ maybe I'll drive so far they'll all lose track/ me, I'll bounce right back." Yep, it's a Christmas song and I think its touchpoints are really accurate. Another year is coming to an end, you're thinking about all you've done and haven't done and how you could change everything. "I'm barely getting through tomorrow/ but still I won't let sorrow bring me way down."

This song really complements Dolly's "Light of a Clear Blue Morning." I think I have the album it appears on, 1977's New Harvest...First Gathering, on vinyl. Doesn't she look gorgeous on the cover? If you haven't heard either, you should indulge yourself in both.