Make It Christmas -- Rodney Carrington
By Martha Kleder

I have tears in my eyes but this time I’m not laughing. Instead, I am listening to Make It Christmas by musical comedian Rodney Carrington. What you hear when you hit the play button is smooth vocals and classic arrangements of traditional Christmas tunes -- “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” “Grown Up Christmas List,” “Oh Holy Night,” “Mary Did You Know,” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” and “White Christmas.” Describing Rodney as Michael Bublé in a black cowboy hat would be pushing it, but you get the idea.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Wide-eyed children around the world will be hearing from Santa's "elves" at the North Poll after all.

During Christmas seasons for decades, these dedicated elves responded to thousands of letters addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole."

All that was ending with a U.S. Postal Service decision to discontinue the program based in the small Alaskan town amid privacy concerns.

The elves from Santa's Mailbag vowed to fight the decision, while North Pole residents voiced outrage.

A reversal of the Postal Service move was announced Friday.

"We never wanted to spoil people's Christmas," said agency spokesman Ernie Swanson. "It was just a decision we had to make based on privacy concerns, and it is labor-intensive. But it's still nice that we're able to resume this and still make people's holiday."

The letters will now be answered under tightened privacy rules implemented nationwide by the Postal Service in response to security concerns that arose in a similar program in Maryland last year.

"It's great!" said chief elf Gabby Gaborik of Santa's Mailbag.

The group also has been assigned a specific address that will allow its volunteers to run their own alternative program, bypassing the stringent new rules and perhaps lessening the Santa letter load for the Postal Service. The restrictions don't affect privately run letter efforts. Children can write to Santa through that program at: 1 Santa Claus Lane, North Pole, AK 99705.

At least 100 volunteers are expected to help in both letter efforts, Gaborik said.

Members of Alaska's congressional delegation hailed the decision to resume the Postal Service program, which brings as many as 150,000 letters to Santa from children worldwide. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Democratic Sen. Mark Begich and Republican Rep. Don Young sent letters this week to Postmaster General John Potter expressing their concerns.

"This decision today by the Postal Service brings the Christmas spirit back to Alaska," Murkowski said.

"This is a perfect Christmas present for Alaskans and children across the country who love to write to and get a letter back from Santa," Begich said.

People in North Pole, a town of about 2,100, were disappointed by the idea of losing a beloved holiday tradition. The town prides itself on its Christmas identity, and signs of it abound, from striped light posts curved like candy canes to streets with names like Kris Kringle Drive. The biggest attractions are the post office — where tourists can get their postcards hand stamped with the North Pole postmark — and Santa Claus House, a store featuring everything Christmas.

The Postal Service implemented the tighter restrictions after a postal worker in Maryland recognized a volunteer with its Operation Santa program as a registered sex offender. The worker intervened before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the agency viewed the scare as a reason to tighten security.

The Postal Service had already restricted its policies in such programs in 2006, including requiring volunteers to show identification. But the Maryland episode prompted more changes, such as barring volunteers from having access to children's last names and addresses. The agency instead redacts that information from each letter and replaces the addresses with codes that match computerized addresses known only to the post office.

Postal Service officials, who consider the North Pole effort part of the agency's giant Operation Santa program, originally said the Alaska district had too few resources to deal with the time-consuming new rules and was therefore opting out.

The first thing you notice about “If On A Winter’s Night” this work is that Sting sings in a lower register in these works than in his pop work. His deeper, richer vocals are paired with the acoustic instrumentation of guitar, harp, violin, Northumbrian Smallpipes and other traditional instruments from the British Isles. The musical selections span centuries of carols and lullabies embracing the winter season, from 16th century pieces to recent works penned by Sting.

Sting’s interpretation includes traditional songs, new works, and a surprising blend of new and old where Stings lyrics are set to music penned by J.S. Bach and Franz Schubert.

While clearly not a Christmas album – Sting admits to being ambivalent to the holiday – a number of the selections hearken to the birth of Christ, including a new recording of “Gabriel’s Message,” along with “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” Seasonal charity is celebrated with Paul Stookey’s “Soul Cake,” intertwined with the melody of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” However, this recording’s focus on the winter season will carry the listener through the quiet, melancholy, months that follow the festivities.

“If On A Winter’s Night” is the perfect seasonal follow-up to Sting’s 2006 album “Songs From The Labyrinth,” featuring songs by Elizabethan songwriter John Dowland, which debuted at the top of the classical charts in both the U.S. and Britain.

Released by Deutsche Grammophon on both CD and beautifully picturesque DVD, this release will make a wonderful Christmas gift for lovers of classical, folk and Celtic music.

By Martha Kleder, CB Staff Writer

Not much has been said about this album yet, so I hope to be able to inform those curious if Trans-Siberian Orchestra's new album is worth purchasing.

Fans of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, including myself, have been eagerly awaiting this album for some time. Expectations were high, for a variety of reasons.

For one, their previous two albums (Beethoven's Last Night, and Lost Christmas Eve) had been their best to date. Beethoven's Last Night, in particular, had been stellar because it was good year round instead of just around Christmas time. Furthermore, it had had a better story than any of their Christmas album, and arguably their best music and vocals. It had truly been an inspired album, and it was what lead me to this band and made me interested enough to buy each and every one of their Christmas albums, although none of them were quite as good as it was.

This one, not being a Christmas album, was also an exciting feature.

And on top of that, this album had been pushed back over a year so they could continue to perfect it and make it better.

It's that time again! We just received word that Secret Santa will be here at Christmas Broadband.com to give away free Live365 VIP passes for the holiday season! Stay tuned for more info!