Decking the Halls

Takes on a quite literal meaning in the the apartment building where we live in Nashua, NH. It was formerly home to The Nashua Manufacturing Company, a (very large) textile mill. 

This post is so titled as there are a lot of hallways in two very large mill buildings. The main hallway on the 3rd floor, which connects the two mill buildings, is a quarter of a mile long. Each building also has five floors which run the length of the individual buildings, but do not connect.

Many residents decorate apt interiors and others, like ourselves, also decorate their apt exteriors, just as we do, seen here. (Decorations are allowed, the only exceptions are non-decor items, like shoes and boots, which are strongly discouraged.)

Last weekend, I took an indoor walk and saw trees of various sizes, shapes and colors along the hallways as shown ↑ above. Unfortunately, as noted in a previous post, live trees are no allowed as of this year, due to fire and insurance regulations. (I always enjoyed the live trees of my childhood Christmases, but perhaps now it's best that trees remain in the environment, as a fellow blogger noted in his comment.) That said, I spotted some live evergreen wreaths on a few doors (not many) as currently there's no restrictions on those.

Santa Claus has already made an early appearance here. There was no shortage of Clauses displayed on exterior apartment shelves or the floor.

Snowmen are another seasonal favorite and many were spotted in various displays, either alone or with a companion. Some of these may stay around all winter season.

Santas and snowmen aside, there was an assortment of other colorfully garbed figures, including a very large moose and many soldiers. These are a few of them.

And, the reason for the season, was also represented in several variations of manger scenes. Although I didn't see as many Nativity scenes as other decor, residents may display these within their apartments. We do the same as the set has been in the family for years.

This week's weather forecast is for warmer temperatures with no additional snow forecast; however, the remains of last week's 11-inch snowfall remain. There's a possibility of snow showers on Thursday, Christmas Eve, which might give a new dusting in time for a White Christmas. 

Since we've nowhere to go, that's a hint about what follows, here are some facts about one of my favorite tunes, not just at Christmas, but throughout the winter season. 

Have you guessed the song title by now? 

Yes, it's Let It Snow . . . which has become a regular part of holiday playlists.

It doesn't mention Christmas: Unlike similar holiday tunes, this one has no reference to Christmas in the lyrics, but does include mention of a fire, popcorn, and winter weather, none of these are unique to Christmas. The 2019 video does an overkill on working a Christmas theme into this tune (as you will see below).

It was written during a heat wave: In July 1945, on one of the hottest days in southern CA heatwave, lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne skipped a day at the beach and instead wrote a song that recalled winter when they were growing up (Cahn in NY and Styne in London).

The song's full title is in triplicate: The tune was originally released under its full title, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, which has been shortened over the years.

It went to No. 1 75 years ago: Singer Vaughn Monroe was the first person to record it in 1945 and it went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts in late January 1946. 

This isn't the most familiar track: A 1966 cover done by Dean Martin is considered the classic version of this tune. After being played through decades of Christmas seasons, Martin’s version finally entered the Billboard Top 100 in 2018 — the first time in 49 years that one of his songs made the list.

An official music video debuted in 2019: Another milestone was in November 2019 when an official music video of the song was uploaded to YouTube. The animated version includes Martin crooning and celebrating with a cartoon cast of family and friends. They're in a cabin decked out with Christmas decorations, a tree and Santa Claus (not in the lyrics). The video was released by Universal Music Enterprises which previously did animated videos for classic holiday songs such as Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (Brenda Lee) and Jingle Bells (Frank Sinatra).

It has a warm weather counterpart: Cahn and Styne also wrote The Things We Did Last Summer, a tune about warm weather nostalgia in which the singer relies on warm weather memories to get through a cold winter—a reversal of what led to Let It Snow. In 1946, this tune was a top 10 hit for Jo Stafford and a version by Frank Sinatra also charted that year. In 1962, Shelley Fabares had a hit cover on the pop charts. It's been recorded by many others including (ironically) Vaughn Monroe, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and The Beach Boys.

Hope you enjoyed seeing more holiday decor and reading about a favorite seasonal  tune. This was a timely post as these ↓ window scenes were taken early today after a light snowfall ❄️ on Sunday. It was earlier than expected, a bit more than forecast, and lovely to see.