For whatever reason this holiday compilation has been highly sought after. At times it’s been hard to find and even sold for ridiculous amounts on the secondary market, until it was re-pressed for the countless time. Even during the summer months, when Christmas is the furthest thing from most people’s minds.
Let’s get this out of the way before we dive any deeper. This is not a traditional soundtrack or score. It features songs off the Home Alone and Home Alone 2 Soundtracks and Scores, thus making it a compilation. This comp does include the iconic “Somewhere In My Memory” composed by John Williams featured in the Home Alone film. There are other tracks by John Williams, but overall this is an eclectic track listing that features Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, Alan Jackson, TLC, Darlene Love and Mel Tormé.
I mentioned above that Home Alone Christmas has not only gone through quite a few pressings, but in rapid succession. It’s currently in its sixth pressing, which came out in September of this year. The first pressing was released in 2019. The first five pressings were released by Real Gone Music, who licensed it from Fox Music (part of the 20th Century Fox umbrella because the films were released by 20th Century Fox) and Sony Music Group. For whatever reason, likely due to the contract running out, the current pressing (featured in the photo gallery below) was not released via Real Gone Music.
Only a handful of the pressings have pressing info released, but thankfully they were all done on only one color. The first pressing was limited to 1500 copies on “holly” green. Apparently the powers at be have never seen a holly bush, because the green the first pressing turned out being was an opaque Kelly green. The leaves on holly bushes are an incredibly dark green. One nice aspect of the first pressing is that it comes with a color coded hype sticker that says how many copies were pressed.
The second pressing was also limited to 1500 copies, this time “in” red & white “candy cane” vinyl. I say “in” instead of on because that is what the hype sticker erroneously states as part of its verbiage. Once again the hype sticker is color coded and says how many copies were pressed. Well, it’s at least party color coded because there is no white. The white portion you see is part of the bar code area, which was done the same way on the first pressing, and is an intentional design feature to have the barcode be more visible. The red & white “candy cane” actually turned out matching a candy cane very well. The color is essentially a white w/ red splatter, which does have some blending of the red splatter into the white, creating some pinkish areas.
The third pressing, the only one released in 2020, throws the color coded hype stickers into a loop. This is also the first of the pressings to not have pressing info officially released. So there is an unknown amount of copies on “Santa” red. The aforementioned hype sticker is white and red striped, which would have gone much better with the second pressing. The fourth pressing continues the trend of not having pressing info released. The first pressing to be released in 2021, it was pressed on clear with red & green “Christmas Party” This color actually turned out being translucent yellow with red and green swirl/smoke. I want to point out the fact that Discogs has this color listed as a swirl, but that is not part of the official description given anywhere for this pressing.
For the fifth pressing, Newbury Comics was chosen as an exclusive retailer. So needless to say, as of posting this, there are still lots of copies left because Newbury overprices all their vinyl, but especially their exclusive variants/pressings. There were 1,000 copies pressed on “Christmas Slush” vinyl, which is simply white. This is also the first pressing to have a hype sticker that differs from what essentially amounts to a stock hype sticker used on all the previous pressings. It’s the typical Newbury hype sticker.
I already touched a bit on the most recent pressing, which is the sixth overall and featured here. It’s the only pressing to be released in 2022, and it’s a Walmart exclusive on translucent red vinyl. Which leads me to believe that the third pressing on “Santa” red is opaque. To be honest I can’t tell if the third pressing ins translucent or opaque based on the few photos of it I’ve seen. Pressing info has not been, and most likely never will be released for the sixth variant.
All copies, regardless of variant come housed in a single pocket jacket. And that’s it. It’s just single LP stuffed into a jacket. This is about as no frills a released as you can get. This comp was initially released in 1993 on CD only. It took almost 30 years for it to be pressed on vinyl.
Prices on this are tough to pin down. There is definitely a seasonal swing, as the closer it gets to December you can see the prices start to climb higher and higher. But prices still remained high (just not a premium price) in the warm weather months as supply could not meet demand What I will say is that retail price on all the pressings, except for the fifth (thanks Newbury Comics) is $25. The fifth pressing costs a whopping $40. So no wonder why that is still sitting around over a year after it was released, despite the high demand for this comp and all the previous pressing selling out. But with that said, the demand has started to get watered down as more and more copies get pressed.
The high mark for this comp was set at a little over $100, which was for a copy from the first pressing that sold in 2021. Copies from the second and third pressings were not far behind, as the high mark for them was $100, again in 2021. After the first three pressings, prices on the secondary market plummet off a cliff; literally sliced in half. Sadly though, there are some idiots who are paying more than retail price for the fifth pressing, which is still readily available from Newbury Comics. I hope, but I have my doubts, that most of those buyers are from overseas and it’s the only and/or cheapest way they can get a copy for whatever reason.
I want to add one last tidbit about this record. I wanted a copy ever since it was first released, but refused to splurge on it. Simply hoping it would be discounted after the holidays, come like June when most Christmas related albums get marked down. That never happened for whatever reason(s). Then the first pressing went OOP and I saw prices soar. Same thing happened with the second pressing. And then once I saw a third and then fourth pressing announced/released, I decided to just wait it out. I hedged my bets and it paid off. I didn’t care which pressing I bought. I’d obviously prefer as early a pressing as I could get, but price was the main determining factor. Fast forward to November 2022, when Walmart ran another $15 sale on all vinyl in their physical stores, which was only on their exclusives online. I cleaned house the last time Walmart ran this sale two years ago, and while I didn’t do as well this time, I did hit several Walmarts and one of the records I left with was this comp; for $16 (yay taxes)!
Stitches and Grooves 