Every December I get together a group of my favorite people and we do a kind of “Hey Kids, Let’s Put on a Show” Christmas Special live at The Hideout in Chicago. We cover the songs of Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas (written by the brilliant Paul Williams), and we invite other bands, like the Tiny Cover Band, to play their most precious holiday tunes. It is one of my favorite things of the year. I love it, and I love everybody on that stage and everybody singing along with us in the audience. This year, I get a chance to write about why it means so damn much to me in the one of my favorite places, The Sunday Rumpus. All the thanks in the world to Martha Bayne and Zoe Zolbrod for publishing this ode to children’s books, growing up poor, and relying on found family to save you in the dark winter. You can read Frances and Emmet Find the Yes on The Sunday Rumpus page.