45 Years of Tabletop Roleplaying Plus Christmas in Middle-Earth

Dec 25, 2024

My favorite childhood Christmas was in 1979 when I was 11 years old. It was the year I received the Holmes blue box for Christmas. Below is all I have left from my original set:

I had played D&D for the first time a week earlier. Throughout 6th grade, we were required to keep a journal, so I have a record of what my initial impression of the game was:

Dec 19, 1979

Yesterday Ron, Ryan, Billy and I played Dungeons and Dragons. I just learned how to play. It’s really fun. You try to get as much treasure as you can. You meet up with monsters and have battles. You gain experience points to become a higher player.

I love that my teacher wrote “Who decides who gets the points?” when reviewing my D&D journal entry!

I remember that I told my mom that night how much fun the game was. She was a hip public librarian who had already bought it for me as a Christmas present. We spent the week of vacation playing D&D all day and all night. My tabletop RPG journey had begun.1

Christmas in Middle-Earth

For season-appropriate listening, consider Christmas in Middle-Earth by Brendan Dalton and the 1740 Boys Choir. Here is a description from the project’s webpage:

Christmas in Middle-Earth, the brainchild of 8 years worth of Tolkien fanaticism, was the result of a drunken joke that just never ended. “What if they celebrated Christmas in the Shire and sang drinking songs about it in the Green Dragon? What if we wrote one? Wouldn’t that be hilarious?” It wasn’t, but we did it anyway. And thus, an unhinged bit was born that went on for way too long. 8 years to be exact.

It began as a sporadic release of demos – because who needs regular album drops anyway? Then came an epic plot twist: 2020's quarantine united our fictional band to 'fix, remix, and remaster' the entire album. It's like 'The Two Towers,' but with mixing boards instead of towers! ...too far?

Our quest took us from apartments to cozy home studios all along the East Coast from 2012 to 2020, with generous contributions from musical magicians who also happen to be LOTR aficionados. Because, let's face it, who wouldn't want to rock out to Middle-Earth?

Disclaimer: This is pure parody. We're just geeking over J.R.R. Tolkien's genius, the folks behind the films, and the epic musical stylings of Howard Shore.

The song “Gollum’s Christmas” from Christmas in Middle-Earth has a fun official video:

H/T to Noldorin Spy on Bluesky for calling my attention to this project.

I will conclude this week’s newsletter with a holiday wish for all of you:

“May your days be Merry….and Pippen!”

Last night (Christmas Eve), I read more of my 6th grade journal entries to my young adult children. We all got a kick out of seeing my early experiences playing D&D. You can see how the game spread throughout my school that year as more kids joined our games. If any of you are interested, perhaps I can share some more of the entries in another newsletter.