Carol of the Beers

Garmin's not the only one making something commercial out of Carol of the Bells.

This version is performed on harp, picked up as some royalty-free music (odd how royalty-free music is only free after you buy a license to use it.) By the by, one of the funniest takes on this Yule song came from Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s, the vocal part sung by a stressed-out son as The Carol of Intimacy on the Dysfunctional Family Christmas album: "Leave me alone! Please go away! I'm doing fine! Just get away!

Our idea to incorporate a beer motif was easier said than executed. The four-note drone was simple enough to set a new lyric to – Christmas is here, drink Jersey beer – but things got a little dicey with the part just before Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas refrain. No rewrite we came up with off the lyrics seemed to fit the tempo. (Trans-Siberian Orchestra has nothing to worry about.)

Oh well, what we have is close enough. Just don't try to sing along without a brew.

Yuletide is here, drink Jersey beer.