Name: Hard Times in Toyland
Duration: P00H04M30S
Description: Modern times are challenging for all of us, even the magic ones. Santa is dispirited and Mrs. Claus has cashed in. What’s left to do but to mourn the loss, survive as best we can, and stand with our brothers til the end…

Hard Times in Toyland

from Christmas in the Temple by Midnight Mess

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Modern times are challenging for all of us, even the magic ones. Santa is dispirited and Mrs. Claus has cashed in. What’s left to do but to mourn the loss, survive as best we can, and stand with our brothers til the end…

lyrics

Hard Times in Toyland (written by Jack Bashwiner)

Snowflakes are falling my friends
And the old elves have loaded up the sleigh
And when we fly with Santa across the winter skies
It’s pink slips in the workshop again

The work’s all in China and all the magic gone
The delivery jobs are all with Amazon
And ice tracks are melting all across the northern towns
It’s dark days for sled teams again

Well it’s hard times in Toyland my friends
And Santa is drinking again
Mrs. Claus is staring in Hallmark movies in LA
There’s just no reason for us to stay

I found Dasher in a bar in New Orleans
Working summers on the rigs to feed the fawns back home
He said Prancer is a dancer in a club in San Antone
Just trying to make hay on his own

All the rich folks down South don’t need magic
And the kids grow up way too fast
They don’t hear the hoof beats on the rooftops these days
So the spirit and the jobs fade away

Well it’s hard times in Toyland my friends
All the elves are locked up again
The candy canes and the whiskey don’t take the pain away
There’s just no reason for us to stay

The last time I saw Rudolph was in Boston
Where his red nose won’t give him away
He said it was hard to get by all alone everyday
But he needed the work anyway

Well it’s hard times in Toyland my friends
And the sparkle may be gone from our eyes
But when Christmas time comes we’ll go home for one more run
Brothers ‘til it all fades away

credits

from Christmas in the Temple, released November 29, 2021
Jack Bashwiner: lead vocal, guitar, bass
Jimmy Cowan: harmonica
Tom Monaghan: drums
Steve Runyon: keys
Bill Karcher: mandolin
Matt Sullivan: guitar, tambourine, backing vocal arrangement, backing vocal
Ray Gehringer: pedal steel guitar
Jeanette Rudy: backing vocal
Gabrielle Garofalo: backing vocal

Recorded and mixed by Gerry Griffin at the Temple of Tuneage, Verona, NJ

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Midnight Mess Verona, New Jersey

Debuting in 2021, Midnight Mess is an original Christmas music project by New Jersey musicians, Jack Bashwiner and Jimmy Cowan.

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