‘Merry Ex-Mas’ Is a Fun Alternative to Classic Christmas Tunes

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?'"

"Our criteria was if we didn't laugh, like really laugh, at something then we would throw it out," he adds. "Now, we had to throw a lot of things out because they were too unacceptable, even for the demented humor that we had. It felt too wrong to go there."

The CD makes a great stocking stuffer for those in the midst of ending their relationships. "Our motto on the CD cover is 'Sometimes You've Got to Laugh ... to Keep From Crying,' and that was sort of the way we were looking at this," he continues. "Unfortunately, there's no shortage of potential recipients of this as a gift item, and we all know people every year who are divorced or getting divorced or even breaking up, so we thought what a great gift item to make them laugh."

The songs on the disc are sung and performed by a group of stellar vocalists called The Irreconcilables (Joanna Cotton, Perry Danos, Fred Knobloch, Paige Bainbridge, Mike Reid and more). "We sat around one night and thought of all these names and then we finally came up with The Irreconcilables, because most divorces always seem to list irreconcilable differences, which is just a generic term for 'time to get divorced.'"

Will, Don Pfrimmer and Mike Reid, the masterminds behind 'Merry Ex-Mas,' have collectively penned numerous No. 1 hits for artists such as Reba McEntire, Prince, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw, Ronnie Milsap and more.

The Merry Ex-Mas Track list:

1. See Ya Santa

2. Christmas, Every Single Day of the Year

3. Santa Claus is Foolin' Around

4. Frosty, My Ex-Wife

5. I'm Taking Back My Name Dear

6. Let Her Go

7. Single Gals

8. A Lot Like Ex-Mas

9. 12 Days of Christmas (My True Love Took From Me)

10. Hark, the Hell Has Just Begun