Harvard Avenue Holidaze: Listen to ‘A Very Allston Christmas Vol. 1’

This post originally appeared on Vanyaland.

“A Very Allston Christmas Vol. 1” cover art / Artwork by Christine Atturio

In recent years there’s been a bit of confusion over actual Christmastime in Allston. Some say it’s in the spring when the students all move out and leave their bed bug-infested furniture and mildly useful garbage out on the sidewalks. Others say it’s in the fall when the students move back in and toss out all the leftover crap left by previous tenants.

For our money, Allston Christmas truly begins the day after Thanksgiving, once the tree lot on Harvard Avenue next to O’Brien’s Pub opens for business, holiday lights sparkle across the grimy land, and drinky joints like the Model, Great Scott, and the Sil get decked out in poinsettia, garland, wreaths, and other jolly-ass looks. It has nothing to do with free shit—and everything to do with the joy of the actual season.

To celebrate the real-deal Christmas and not some made-up holiday based on Dumpster diving, 10 Allston bands have gotten together to release A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 1, a new festive compilation of traditional holiday classics. After first finding chemistry on a 2013 Disposable America 7-inch, Funeral Advantage and Catenine team up once again for a take on Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” and elsewhere on the comp you’ll find the reformed Magic Magic honor Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas”, Big Nice synth out on Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime,” and Saccharine closing things out with an acoustic and choral “O Christmas Tree.”

Listen to it below via Bandcamp, and download it for the nice-price of free, just in time for actual Christmas.