A Christmas Record is a holiday compilation LP originally released in December 1981 by the avant garde New York label ZE Records. Widely known informally as the “ZE Christmas Album,” it is considered by many holiday music enthusiasts as the first ever alternative Christmas album.
The compilation served as the commercial launchpad for The Waitresses’ hit single, “Christmas Wrapping”, written specifically for the record.
ZE Records began in New York in 1978 under the direction of Michael Zilkha and Michael Esteban, the labels name taken from the first initial of both their surnames.
Initially it was their intention to record the new music emerging in New York and elsewhere from a fusion of punk, disco and new wave. Much of the music produced by the company later became categorised as either “Mutant Disco”, a title used for one of ZE’s early compilation albums or “No Wave”.
Within a short time, ZE Records became one of the hippest labels of its time, signing up such new talent as James White and the Blacks, Was (Not Was), Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Lydia Lunch, The Waitresses, Bill Laswell’s Material, and Richard Strange as well as established artists including John Cale and Suicide.
At the time, many of its new releases were premiered at the Paradise Garage club in New York, ground zero for the newly emerging Garage House music scene in America in the 1980’s.
Early on ZE Records developed a wholly independent and surrealist aesthetic identity. In 1980 renowned British DJ John Peel called ZE “the best independent record label in the world”, followed by Paul Tickell in The Face who called them “the world’s most fashionable label” in 1982.
In 1981 ZE Records founder Michel Esteban tasked the label’s roster of post punk, new wave, and avant garde artists to record original Christmas music. The idea was highly unusual for a label home to underground, anti-commercial acts.
In 1981, the initial tracklist for A Christmas Album, included contributions from notable ZE Records artists including:
- The Waitresses
- Was (Not Was)
- Suicide (Alan Vega)
- Material (featuring Bill Laswell)
- August Darnell (of Kid Creole and the Coconuts)
- Cristina
The Origin of “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses
The Waitresses’ guitarist and songwriter, Chris Butler, initially hated the concept of making a Christmas album, dismissing it as “festive nonsense”. Forced by label head Michael Zilkha into booking studio time at Electric Lady Studios, Butler wrote the instrumentals during a summer heatwave and completed the lyrics on a taxi ride to the studio.
The song’s title is a three-way pun referencing holiday gift paper, the fast-paced “rapping” vocal delivery style popularized at the time by artists like Kurtis Blow, and the narrative wrapping up neatly with a happy ending.
Lead singer Patty Donahue famously ran completely out of breath recording the final verses due to how densely packed the lyrics are.
Though the band quickly forgot about the track to focus on their main single “I Know What Boys Like,” “Christmas Wrapping” became a massive breakout hit on the radio that winter, overshadowing their planned releases.
Reissues and Revisions
The original LP evolved through several editions over the decades:
- 1982 Special Edition: Reissued just a year later with a revised track listing.
- 2004 CD Release: Remastered and expanded under the title ZE Xmas Record Reloaded 2004.
- 2016 Deluxe Reissue: Remastered again and restored to its original 1981 cover artwork and title.