This morning, having woken up in a particularly good mood, I decided to play the mix CD that my friend Stuart had kindly (and unexpectedly) made and sent me with my first Christmas card of this year. The first track was the wonderful Nos Galan, by the Treorchy, Morriston Orpheus & Pontarddulais Male Choirs with the Band of the Welsh Guards. The song is more well known in English as Deck The Halls, but in Welsh the lyrics don't translate as having anything to do with holly, and in fact is a celebration of Nos Galan, or New Year's Eve.

I pinged a note to the Clwb Malu Cachu mailing list about it, to see if anyone knew of any other Welsh carols, and it turns out that one of our regulars actually sang on this recording of Nos Galan! Cool!

Anyway, I got into a mood for a Christmas carols, so we started to look for a Christmas internet radio station. Well, there are dozens of them. Trouble is, they all seem to be out of America and playing that sort of 30s/40s schmaltz that is fine for a while but then soon starts to sap your will to live. Not that I don't like Bing or Frank, but after too many White Christmases the only chestnuts I want to see roasted over an open fire are theirs.

Kevin thinks I'm being tetchy, but really, what I wanted to listen to was just traditional Christmas carols. Y'know, O Little Star of Bethlehem, or Silent Night, or Good King Wenceslas (who, when I was a kid, I thought was Good King Wences, who last looked out... I couldn't figure what had happened to him after the Feast of Stephen, no matter how hard I focused on the words). I really wasn't after God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Sung with Big Swooping Strings and Added Saccharine, but the usual choral versions I used to sing when I was at school.

But apparently it's not to be. Hours later and we can't find a single station that actually plays carols. Well, none that haven't been soaked in high fructose corn syrup and covered in chocolate sprinkles, anyway.