Christmas Jazz Jam in twenty years. For the album, Marsalis assembled a group of ten musicians to perform uncredited arrangements of twelve holiday standards. Following "Mary Had a Baby" are traditional New Orleans jazz-style renditions of "Jingle Bells" (James Pierpont) and "Blue Christmas" (Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson). Kirk Silsbee of the "Los Angeles Times" awarded the album three of four stars and called the arrangements "smart yet not ostentatious". In 2009 "Christmas Jazz Jam" reached peak positions of number six on "Billboard" Jazz Albums chart, number nine on the Top Holiday Albums chart, and number nineteen on the Top Independent Albums chart.
Did Christians Steal Christmas? to explain these differences away. Part 3: “Christmas Customs” notes that “In addition to shaping key elements of the Christmas narrative itself, paganism also influenced some of the more secular Christmas traditions” [Footnote: p. 21]. Stovold outlines several such customs (the Pantomime, the Boar’s Head, the Christmas Turkey, and Christmas Evergreens). The booklet had its origins in a 1974 work by R.J. Condon entitled "Our Pagan Christmas" [Footnote: p. 9] but Stovold's 2007 booklet contains additional material, an extensive bibliography and (in many cases) hyperlinks enabling readers to access the cited material for themselves. Did Christians Steal Christmas? Synopsis The