Information/Write-up
Christmas, released in 1970, is a record born not from careful planning but from pure, accidental alchemy. Bob Bryden, fresh from the ashes of Reign Ghost, had gathered a loose, eager band of musicians in Oshawa, Ontario—meeting over coffee at the local Simpson-Sears, dreaming of something new. The project was originally conceived as a quick-and-dirty "12 Top Hits" covers album for a bargain label. But once the band started jamming in the studio, something unexpected happened. The producer scrapped the cover version concept altogether and chose instead to press the band’s sprawling, improvised sessions to vinyl. What came out wasn’t a commercial record—it was a raw document of a band inventing itself on tape.
The music on Christmas doesn’t try to win you over with polish or precision. Side one delivers a mellow, hazy drift through loosely structured psych-pop, the kind of songs that feel half-asleep but oddly reassuring. There’s an unhurried charm here, a kind of dreamy languor that gently unfolds track by track. It’s not until the final track of side one, “Oasis,” that Bryden’s guitar work really steps forward, offering glimpses of clarity and tone that feel almost revelatory. But it’s side two that defines the album’s cult appeal. “Jungle Fabulous,” a side-long, 20-minute jam, is both mesmerizing and indulgent—a wandering, often weightless trip into the band’s collective psyche. Echoes of the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” are unmistakable, though Christmas is far more primitive, less self-aware, and all the more genuine for it.
What makes this album truly fascinating, beyond the music itself, is the mythology surrounding it. Reportedly released without the band’s full knowledge, the record barely made a ripple at the time. Copies were often misfiled in store bins with Christmas music, and outside of Toronto, it received almost no airplay. But in the decades that followed, it gained traction among deep collectors of Canadian psychedelia. Today, original pressings of Christmas are considered among the top five most collectible albums ever released in Canada, with mint copies fetching several thousands of dollars.
This isn’t an album for everyone—it meanders, it resists hooks, and it was never meant to be a career-defining statement. But it captures something rare: a moment of artistic honesty that slipped through the cracks of the industry. In that way, Christmas is not just a relic, but a quiet monument to the strange, beautiful accidents that sometimes happen when a band is left alone in a room with tape rolling.
-Robert Williston
Bob Bryden: guitar, vocals
Robert Bulger: guitar
Tyler Raizenne: bass
Rich Richter: drums
Gary Squires: vocals
Wolfgang Hryciuk: vocals
Written by Bob Bryden (A1–A3)
Written by Bryden, Richter, Bulger, Tyler Raizenne (A4)
Written by Bryden, Richter, Bulger, Raizenne (B1)
Produced by Bill Bessey and Jack Boswell
Art direction by Jack Umpleby
Cover art by Joe Gallant
Photography by Richard Chomko
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