Christmas Present: Swedish Chef’s ‘Christmas Smorgasbord’

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This year we kick off Christmas Present with a character near and dear to my heart: The Swedish Chef. While most people are familiar with the John Denver/Muppets Christmas album, a more recent one came out in the mid-2000s that expanded the holiday ouerve from the Muppets.

Christmas Smorgasbord is somewhat nonsensical, but isn’t it always? It’s a fun nugget of goofiness during a holiday full of solemn holiday wishes, and is a perfect counterweight. It’s not one you’ll have on heavy repeat, but it’s good for a laugh.

Additional listening

Off the same album, Miss Piggy tackles the classic Eartha Kitt song, “Santa Baby,” in the way she only can. The version above tweaks it a bit as it’s from a TV program, but the album version has some of the same gags.

While we’re on the Muppets, we have to look back to the original classic Muppets album with John Denver. The core track, of course, is the 12 Days of Christmas, which takes the unique Muppets style and blends it to a song that never hurts to have a bit of humor in it. Again, the above version isn’t the same as album as it was from the TV special (the most obvious missing element is Beaker’s “mi mi” during the tail end of the verses), but it’s still enjoyable. Check the Spotify playlist for the originals.

And one more from the John Denver collaboration. It’s just over a minute long but it packs in a few gags in a short amount and is still one of my favorites.

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