If you or someone you know is not in the holiday spirit because of a recent divorce or break-up, there is a song, or several, geared just for you. 'Merry Ex-Mas: Holiday Songs for the Divorced and Soon-to-Be' includes eight parodies of Christmas classics, such as 'Frosty, My Ex-Wife,' 'Santa Claus Is Foolin' Around,' 'The Twelve Days of Christmas (My True Love Took From Me)' and 'Hark, the Hell Has Just Begun,' among others, as well as a pair of originals, including 'See Ya Santa.'
Will Robinson came up with the idea for the collection when he was going through a divorce during the holidays in 2002. His friends, and noted songwriters, Mike Reid and Don Pfrimmer, tried to cheer him up when they changed the lyrics to a few favorite Christmas tunes at a holiday party.
"We were sitting around having our Christmas cheer and talking," Will explains to The Boot. "It was a tough time, and there were Christmas carols on in the background, and it's a great time of the year. I was a little blue, and we were lamenting that there weren't any Christmas carols that might deal with more blue subjects like 'Blue Christmas,' and things like that, and in this sense, a divorce. On the spot, we just started to come up with some crazy parody titles and we were cracking ourselves up laughing and probably into the Christmas spirits a little bit. Then the next day, I was driving home to New Orleans, where I'm originally from, and I called Mike in Alabama somewhere on I-65. I started to say something, and he goes, 'Yeah, I know. That was a good idea, wasn't it? That wasn't just the alcohol talking, was it?' I said, 'Why don't you, me and Pfrimmer sit down and write some Christmas divorce songs or Christmas break-up songs?'"
