Do you know what I have noticed, just the past few years? They are playing Dan Fogelberg’s Same Old Lang Syne amidst the Christmas songs. I do not at all object: it takes place on Christmas Eve! And that is a song from my childhood, albeit one that baffled me as a child and baffles me in different ways as an adult (DID THEIR GROCERIES NOT MELT AS THEY SAT IN THE CAR FOR HOURS??? DIDN’T THEIR RESPECTIVE PARTNERS WONDER WHERE THEY WERE??? THEY SHARED A SIX-PACK AND THEN DROVE???).
But what I mean is that I don’t remember hearing it as a Christmas song before a few years ago. Now, I could be misremembering. This could be an early-onset neurological thing. But…I listen to Christmas songs a LOT, starting as soon as Thanksgiving is over. And it is a VERY childhood-associated song for me. So if they HAD played it on Christmas radio before, I feel like I WOULD HAVE NOTICED, because the FIRST time they played it on Christmas radio (…that I remember…) I was jaw-dropped RIVETED. I remember I was taking a shower, and as it started playing I just stood there listening with that weird feeling of “This is so incredibly familiar but also I don’t know what it is.” Once I recognized it, it was interesting listening to the song’s story as an adult rather than as a child.
Also: that song is OVER FIVE MINUTES LONG.
I am in that middle range of Christmas shopping. I had a bunch of things in various online carts, and some of those things went on sale over the several weeks of Black/Cyber/Friday/Monday and I bought them, and some of those things I decided not to buy. I have more things that I would like to buy, and it’s hard to know if I should wait for a sale. And I have a lot of gaps to fill: in some cases I have several ideas and am waffling among them; in some cases I have tons of ideas that all seem Good Enough but I’m worried I’ll choose some and then find Something Better; and in some cases I don’t have any good ideas and am not sure when to start thinking about it for real, rather than waiting for ideas to come to me on their own. So after a flurry of packages, there is a lull.
I thought of a good idea for Rob, but the execution of it would be challenging. There is this particular local store-brand pizza sauce that he likes far more than any other sauce. [Edited to clarify: local TO ME, I mean; Rob can’t buy it where he is now.] There is no way, as far as I can tell, to buy it online and have it shipped to him. But I could go to considerable effort and expense to do it myself. The trouble is: do we think it will work to ship glass jars of pizza sauce, or do we think this shipment is more likely to break, leaking terribly staining sauce over many people’s holiday packages?
I thought I could start by asking a grocery store employee if the sauce comes to them in a nice sturdy case. Like, I’m imagining it coming to them in a box with cardboard dividers between each jar. Perhaps they would sell me an entire case with the packaging.
Still, even if it DOES have that packaging, that’s only designed to protect it from a truck ride, where everyone involved in moving it around is being relatively careful. It is NOT made for being dropped or thrown. It would be so disappointing to go to the trouble/expense and then have it arrive worthless.
I HAVE successfully shipped him a single jar of the sauce: I was sending some sort of box to him already, and the flat rate box was the better price but was only half-full, so I was trying to think of what to put in there. I wrapped the jar in that big-bubble bubble wrap and put it in a gallon ziploc just in case, and it DID get there safely. So even if I don’t brave a case of it, I’ll bet I could send a jar or two in the Christmas box I’ll already be sending. And one does want to be careful not to deluge one’s adult children with things they USED to like but maybe have since found acceptable replacements for and no longer feel strongly about. A jar or two can be fun and appreciated no matter the situation; a case might be “ohhhhhhh noooooooooo.”
1) I think it will be fine. (Evidence, my dad is a professional glassblower and VERY casual about transporting glass because if it’s going to break, he wants it to break before someone buys it. Glass mostly breaks when it hits something hard at a weird angle. Some basic due diligence putting something not hard between the jars and packing it all tightly enough to avoid clanging around is probably fine)
2) If you want to avoid the guilt potential of it breaking and ruining other people’s packages, you just need a waterproof layer that goes around all the jars. Maybe line the box with a sturdy trash bag first? (I assume Rob is not passionate about gift aesthetics).
I remember hearing that song on the radio as a Christmas song when I was about 10 so around 2001. I was HIGHLY confused by it lol
I am here to sympathize with you about the carts and the what-to-dos?! I am in my own spiral of wanting to order a book as a Christmas present but it isn’t being released in the U.S. until next summer so I would have to pay for shipping form Europe (or buy it from The Evil Empire, which is a no from me for books), and it’s worth it if the kid loves it but if not, I basically torched 12 bucks, but there are so few ways to surprise my minimalist kids HELP MEEEEEE
I would feel comfortable shipping several jars of the sauce, packed carefully. But then, I shipped a kid the components of a layer cake for his birthday. (I dig this stuff. It’s the paying other people for shipping that trips me up)
Did you check Blackwell’s Bookshop in the UK? They offer free shipping to the U.S. and I order from there a few times a year when I prefer the UK cover of a book, or want a book before it releases here. Fingers crossed for you!
Oh, I was so excited to see! And alas, Blackwell’s isn’t (or aren’t, if we’re going to be British about it) shipping this one to the U.S.
I assume it’s publisher related, and now I will return to my self-pity.
But thanks for the idea! Swistle’s readers are the best.
Drat! Well, now you know it’s REALLY not available, at least. Good luck finding some other things for your minimalist.
I’ve always considered Same Old Lang Syne a Christmas song! (I’m in my mid-50s). I distinctly remember hearing it on Christmas Eve in the late 90s at a restaurant while with my husband and 3 small children and bursting into tears because it reminded me of a high school boyfriend and I could TOTALLY see how that could happen down the road. (It has not. Yet.)
I vote a jar or two. I have never heard that Dan Fogelberg song as part of Christmas music before. Maybe they thought it went with The Waitresses’ Christmas song?
Presumably if a case shipped from the company it would not be wrapped for Christmas. So if it’s the Having of the Sauce that you want, not the gift to unwrap, maybe you could order an local-to-him instacart delivery? Like people did for their elderly relatives during the beginning of the pandemic?
Oh, oops, I’m going to fix my phrasing in the post: it’s local to ME, but not to him.
I have successfully shipped glass jars of salsa that survived the trip intact. I used a Hello Fresh box, including the interior packaging lining. Then individually wrapped each jar in bubble wrap, and then put each bubble wrapped jar into it’s own gallon ziplock bag (just in case something did break, it would hopefully be contained. Packed it tightly, used balled up craft paper to fill the voids. Shipped it via UPS. It cost far more to ship the salsa than the salsa cost, but pregnant friends get to indulge their cravings.
I just love the idea of the special jar of sauce! What a fun gift. I think if you pack it carefully and then maybe ziploc bag it it’s fine? Very clever idea, Swistle!!
I had completely forgotten about that song, but yes, I remember it. What a blast from the past.
I think that song is up there with “Hard Candy Christmas” which is from Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Here’s all these “ladies of the night” packing up because the brothel is closing. There’s really nothing Christmasy about it, but it gets played all the same. (And yes! Both songs do bring a tear to my eye.)
I lovvvvvve Hard Candy Christmas!
Kara gave great advice above. As someone who gets all groceries via amazon, fedex or ups I want to add that with fedex and ups handling many times pasta sauce jars would pop open. I guess they got enough complaints because now the sellers put two strips of sturdy tape over the jar lids and that does the trick.
I have not paid particular attention but these might be pop-up lids and if your particular products come in screw on jar the tape will probably not be necessary.
Swistle! I grew up in the 90’s not listening to a lot of contemporary music but I did listen to all varieties of Christmas music, and I have never in my life heard that song! I started playing it via the embedded video and couldn’t stop! It’s so compelling!
What a fun idea, the pizza sauce! Useful and consumable, I am sure he’ll love it!
Same old lang syne! My husband HAAAATES that song and I secretly sort of like it so we listen to it periodically during the holiday season and I like to sing, “and the snow…turned into…RAIN” dramatically at the end which he does not appreciate at all.
Well the mere thought of it made me laugh, so THERE, Allison’s husband
I live in Dan Fogelberg’s hometown and was pleasantly surprised to find an article stating it is based on a true story, and they named the now defunct store they think it happened in. I think of it as a NYE song, regrets about past years, and the way the instrumentals wrap up with auld lang syne.
If you need a packing box like you described, try your local liquor store. They have ton of those boxes with the dividers and ours (Fryer Tuck) is usually giving them away from a pile by the door.
I have always considered “Same Old Lang Syne” part of the Christmas music canon…it was commonly played on the Christmas radio stations when I was a kid, and I believe I’ve also heard it on the Sirius holiday stations. I’ve always liked it.
And yes, with enough padding and plastic you can totally send multiple sauce jars!
I first started hearing that song around Christmas probably 5 years ago. My teenagers think it’s hilarious to sing along to dramatically. I put it in the “so bad it’s good” category, along with the Christmas shoes song.
I like that song but I have the same questions!!! A 6 pack, did they split it equally? Did she have 2 and he had 4? How long were they in the car? Was she safe to drive afterwards? For some reason I always imagined him traveling away on foot, hands deep in the pockets of a shabby overcoat, and maybe somewhat tipsy. Also, it was Christmas Eve for goodness sake! Didn’t she have somewhere to be? Who has time to sit in a car and reminisce on Christmas Eve?
And, like, she was GROCERY-SHOPPING on Christmas Eve evening, which seems like something you only do if you HAVE to run out and get something urgent. So was her husband just…waiting for her to come back, and panicking? THIS WAS BEFORE CELL PHONES!!
Well, she was married to an architect, so he was probably totally wrapped up in the details of some project and didn’t notice how much time had passed.
I want to know what’s so hilarious about spilling your purse that people would laugh until they cried.
I WISH TO KNOW THAT AS WELL. Like, I know I have laughed over things that would not have seemed funny to others. But.
My first job (mid 90s) was at a grocery store. During the christmas season, they would play a mix of odd and or terrible songs. That was in the mix along with little drummer boy, Dominic the Donkey, I’m getting nothing for christmas (is that the title?) and the very worst renditions of the classics that could make you hate jingle bells. I had never heard the song you mentioned until then and hearing it now immediately brings me back to that grocery store – laughing with friends and lifting heavy turkeys and returning carts in the snow and slush.
Definitely a Christmas time song:
In 1975, Dan Fogelberg returned to his parents’ home in Peoria for Christmas Eve. To make Irish coffees, Fogelberg went out to buy whipping cream.
Meantime, his high school sweetheart, Jill Anderson, also had returned home to visit relatives. At the request of her mother, she headed out to buy eggnog.
With almost no stores open that night, both happened to arrive around the same time at a convenience store. After running into each other inside, they split a six-pack in her car while getting caught up on each others’ lives, then went their separate ways. Five years later, the serendipitous meeting was recounted in “Same Old Lang Syne.”
My favorite Dan F. song is is “Leader of the Band” – makes me dissolve into tears every.single.time
Fans of Same Old Lang Syne (which I am, 100%! Enough that I know that in real life the woman’s eyes are green, not blue, and her then-husband was a PE teacher, not an architect) might also enjoy A Christmas to Remember, a duet sung by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. It’s all about how two strangers meet in Tahoe and get it on during the holidays. They start out with the chorus, rhapsodizing about their “springtime feelin’s in the middle of December.” Then Kenny sings about the other places he considered going, and Dolly says she had always dreamed of spending a Christmas in just this way (which…going skiing by yourself? And then hooking up with some rando? Okay then). The song is worth listening to solely for Dolly’s delivery of a pun about “slow-burning wood.”
Where I live, the Dan Fogelberg song has been a part of the Christmas repertoire for as long as I can remember. It never fails to make me ugly cry, usually in the car, or sometimes in the grocery store.