Santa's Land x6

One of my big projects this season is to share out a whole bunch of singles. Mostly small 7" records that spin at 45 RPM (though I've got some 12" 33 RPM singles in the mix here and there, too), these records are largely unexplored territory for me as a Christmas blogger. There are many, many singles out there that never appeared on an LP proper, so this year I decided to take a few months and devote my recording energies to the boxes and boxes of Christmas singles I've accumulated over the years. I tried to pull out the things that I'd never seen elsewhere, things I'd never heard of before, just something different than the usual. We'll see how much of that I can share with you here, but I've got to start somewhere, and that's tonight. A set of six singles recorded for and sold at a theme park dedicated to all things Christmas in North Carolina sometime in the early seventies. Santa's Land is still a going concern, though for some reason they seem to be closed during the Christmas season. I guess Santa is too busy to put in an appearance. Several of these records were too obscure to even show up at Discogs, so I entered in four of them that you see over there. Not long after I did that, someone added a seventh record that I don't have, so there's something else on my long, long want list. (The catalog number of that 7th record indicates there are still more to be found!) There's also an album that collects up ten tracks from Santa's Land, and as near as I can tell, eight of those are covered by this collection of singles. So that's something else I need to get...

Santa Land Singers-Santa Claus's Band b/w Jingle (Santa's Land 7" 45 RPM 101, Stereo)
Little Jo-Dear Santa b/w Ruff-Buff-Elmo-Stuffy (Santa's Gnomes)-I Can Hardly Wait For Christmas (Santa's Land 7" 45 RPM 102, Stereo)
Ray King-Christmas Dreaming b/w Old Time Christmas (Santa's Land 7" 45 RPM 103, Stereo)
Ruff-Buff-Elmo-Stuffy (Santa's Gnomes)-Santa's Land b/w Christmas Magic (Santa's Land 7" 45 RPM 104, Stereo)
Dena Lee-How Santa Got His Name b/w What If Mama? (Santa's Land 7" 45 RPM 105, Stereo)
Jeris Ross-Hiding Behind The Christmas Tree b/w Joy The Snow Flake (Santa's Land 7" 45 RPM 106, Stereo)

MEGA

Couple notes: I actually spoke to Jeris Ross, who had a career in country music for a while, and she confirmed that she's the one singing on the records credited to her. She said they played these things to death at the park, and were recorded by a gentleman who went on to make records that sound remarkably similar to song-poems to me, but I could be wrong. She also mentioned that she recorded some of these alongside a young Jimmy Buffett, who sang any of the male kiddie vocals you might hear. No way to verify that, unless I can get Buffett to respond to an email or two, but if anyone can confirm that, it'd be pretty cool. Also, if you look close, someone has handwritten BMI in on all the labels, except the lone promo version. I guess they changed rights companies at some point.