A Little Christmas Music - The Merry Christmas Polka (Dinah Shore)

Dinah Shore, darling of Chevrolet in the 50's achieved fame as a big band singer, an actress on the big screen, and as hostess of variety shows on the small screen. I have an unusual fascination with the polka, so much so that I forced my poor wife to learn the dance and play victim to my poor rendition of it every Oktoberfest. But the biergarten is closed and we're into the yuletide season and it's time to trot out a different, more Fezziwig kind of polka. So, here's Dinah and The Merry Christmas Polka.

Happy Oktoberfest!

A Reassembled Oktoberfest Snapshot from the September 1955 issue of Time Magazine

Happy Oktoberfest! Well, at least here in the Midwest.

Traditionally Oktoberfest (or Wiesn as it’s known in Germany) is held in Munich and runs from late September to the first weekend in October. At its heart, Oktoberfest is a fair but it started its long history as a wedding reception for Prince Ludwig and his bride Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. On that auspicious day in 1810, the citizens of Munich were invited to attend a celebration in the fields outside the Munich city gates. There was drinking, food, and horse racing and over the centuries Oktoberfest grew to become the celebration it is today.

So raise a stein of extra-strong beer and strike up the band, there’s a polka to dance and sausages with sauerkraut to eat tonight!