Christmas Mixtape Evolution, Pt. 1

I made my first Christmas mix tape back in, I believe, 1990.  I could be off by a year or two, but I remember what house I was living in at the time and what technology I had at my disposal.  Mainly, a CD player, turntable, and a tape deck to make the tapes.  No such thing (without extraordinary expense) as CD burning at that time.  Timing the music per side, estimating the last song on each side so it wouldn't cut off, manually winding the tape lead to the right point so that the first song wouldn't cut off when I released the "Pause" button...  Ah, the memories.

The first round was a 2-tape set (I think).  I really had precious few Christmas albums at the time.  Bing Crosby's "Merry Christmas".  Mannheim Steamroller.  Maybe Elvis?  Maybe "A Very Special Christmas"?  So, basically, my mix tape(s) were a resequencing onto tape of every Christmas song I had so we could listen in the car.  Everything I had went onto these tapes.  including everything from this:

I got this "Motown Christmas Album" from the old BMG CD Club.  You know, the club where you sign up for 8 CDs for $1, then have to buy 4 more at full price.  Anyway, every song from the Motown Christmas Album went on to the mix tapes, along with Bing and Elvis and Chip Davis.  And they were really just not very good - definitely rookie efforts.  And, I really didn't like the Motown disc at all.  Even the Smokey Robinson cuts on it didn't do much for me.  Nothing against the artists or their performances, but it just wasn't my thing, and I didn't want to hear all of the songs frpm the CD every time I listened to my mix tape.  So, Version 1 of my mix tapes were replaced a year or two later with Version 2.

I don't think Version 1 still exists, unless they are in my basement somewhere.  But Version 2, yes indeed, I still have them for historic archival purposes.  

To be continued...