The final weekend before Christmas always reminds me of a song. It isn't even a Christmas song, although it was released at that time and was in the charts for the holiday.
I'm reminded every time I hear it of one particular occasion when I played it on the radio. Saturday, December 19th 1998, just after the start of the regular sports updates show I presented on local radio at that time. Not long after it had finished the studio phone rang. On the end was a lady who informed me she had just parked up to do her last Christmas shopping and wanted to thank me for the song I'd played because it had made her feel so happy.
It made me happy to hear that too. And so every time I hear the song (far less often than I should) I think back to the day it just happened to catch someone in the moment, made them feel their life was worthwhile and inspired them to share that with the local radio disc jockey who helped. Even if all he did was line up the CD that his computer printout had told him to.
So when I hear this song I always think of the final weekend before Christmas. Always have, always will.
