We’re currently riding through the mountains listening to Def Leppard, so it should be no surprise that, as we pass the rich golden hues of the autumnal trees and hear the festive tones of "Rock of Ages," our thoughts turn towards the upcoming holiday season.

In this spirit of holiday cheer, we have just finished recording a Christmas song: "You’re All I Want For Christmas." This little ditty, recorded by Bing Crosby in 1949, was chosen for it’s quality as well as for it’s relative obscurity. My mom said she was familiar with it, but I wasn’t, and I know it isn’t as popular as "I’ll Be Home for Christmas," which was what we thought we’d do at first.

We had tried to work it up the night before we went in to record, but hadn’t made much progress. My original idea was to turn it into a rock/metal ballad a la Whitesnake. Change the lyrics to something like, "As the sweat pours down, I’m burnin’ for you, woman! My north pole is rising HIIIIIIGH!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to stuff your stocking, mama, cuz yer all I want for Christmas, ROCK ON!!!!!!!!" But somehow that didn’t exactly capture the spirit of the song. So Jay beat me.

As we went into the studio, Overdub Lane in Durham, we were still practically idea-less. We had started on some preliminary harmonies for an intro, but had no idea what the meat of the song would sound like. Jay started coming up with a riff that seemed to work well and Jonny and Evan joined him to lay down the main rhythm tracks. Then we set out to do the slow introduction with harmonies by Jay, Jonny and I. I, of course, was right on pitch perfectly from the first take. It took Jay and Jonny a while to catch up, but after I gave them a few helpful tips, they finally got it.

Matt and Jay then put down their basic vocal tracks so we could see what else the song needed. After listening to what we had, everyone agreed what had to happen next. So I got my cello, and started to play. After only 20 minutes, everyone was in tears in the control room, on their feet and clapping their hands vigorously.

Matt said, "I’ve never been so moved by a cello performance!"

"It’s moments like these that remind me why I started playing music!" cried Evan.

Our engineer/producer, John Plymale, remarked, "Wow, that was perfect! It doesn’t need any EQ, reverb or processing of any kind!"

Jay apologized for beating me and sang, "For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow."

"Chicken!" belched Jonny.

The next morning, Jay and John Plymale went to the studio early to meet our guest harp player who spiced up the intro and the outro with her Disneyesque arpeggios and flourishes. Matt and Jay played some keyboard parts and perfected their vocal tracks while Evan, Jonny and I killed insects with our minds. By the end of the day, Jump, Little Children’s version of "You’re All I Want for Christmas" was born!