Winter now, and still the weather defies the season: the Christmas Eve temperature in New York City = 72 degrees.

Lucky for us, there’s Bruce Springsteen, himself season-defying at age sixty-six, here to ring in another Christmas.  

There he was on Saturday Night Live with Paul McCartney (whose ace plastic surgeon he evidently shares), leaving Tina Fey star-struck as he worked through “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” one more time.  

There he is in the artisanal grocery, where the staff member manning the Square register is playing the new box set of alternate takes and outtakes from The River – and releasing a free hour’s worth of live tracks from the tour in support of The River through his website.  

There he is on the Concert Vault, performing the Winterland show (San Francisco, December 15, 1978), that is the source of the “Santa Claus” recording still played on the radio.

And on YouTube, where you can see a video of Bruce singing “Santa Claus” at the Capitol Theater in Passaic on September 20, 1978 – more than two months before the day itself.  

Why is it that Springsteen owns Christmas?    

It may be simply that Roy Bittan’s glockenspiel sounds Christmasy.

It may be that the release of The River in late October1980 and of Live 1975-1985 in November 1986 sealed the deal, as we asked for, received, and listened to those records at Christmas.  

And it may be simply that the virtues of Springsteen’s live shows, and his records too – as all those outtakes make clear – are ones we associate with the holiday: community akin to family, enlightened paternalism, abundance to the point of excess, joy and exultation despite dire circumstances and perilous times.    

Here he is at the Winterland, alongside Miami Steve Van Zandt, looking back on the Christmas they spent together in Asbury Park in the dark ages seven or eight years prior: “We were walking down the boardwalk.  Now, it was snowing like crazy. He was carrying the guitars and somehow, I was carrying the amps.  I dunno how I got to be The Boss but I’m carrying the amps …”

I dunno how you got to be Father Christmas, Bruce, but you did.  

Now all you need is a beard like your buddy Jon Stewart’s.    

Have a very merry.