Each year my two daughters and a soon-to-be-son-in-law get together to record a Christmas song, which we use to raise money to aid the homeless in our town of Lancaster, PA. This season marks our 8th consecutive holiday release!

This time around we went full on country, covering an old Buck Owens tune called “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” This is NOT the same song as the wildly popular Mariah Carey song of the same name, although we did pay homage to Mariah’s classic with an accordion solo.

As in past years, all donations and proceeds from this release will go to support the outstanding work of Dave Costarella and his organization- Hand Up Partners. Dave began his work years ago, collecting and distributing garments and toiletries for those living on the streets of Lancaster. Then he started making them food, with grocery help from local stores. A few years later, he began offering the people $20 for an hour or two of work cleaning up city parks and public areas. The initiative was very successful and proved very important in the lives of the people it served. This created another problem- funding to make payroll! Dave was able to connect with some other community minded people and form Hand Up Partners- an official 5013C non-profit. This has allowed Dave’s work to expand, help more people, get access to funding more easily, and quite literally change people lives. Dave recently received a community service award from our local TV station, WGAL TV8. This video does a good job of telling Dave’s story and showing what he does:

On the music side of things, this year’s version of the Fulginiti Family Band includes 2 new members! The band is typically my daughters Bailey and Ally, my future son-in-law Tom, and myself; but this time we convinced my wife Tammy to dust off her flute and join in. We also have a special guest on accordion- Lars Pottieger, (who is also a stellar jazz pianist).

Ally sings lead on the track, with Bailey on background vocals, Tom on bass, guitar and banjo, and myself on percussion and a little muted trumpet. All I Want For Christmas Is You is available for listening on all major streaming platforms (Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music….).

Please accept our offering of music by donating to Hands Up Partners through our Give A Hand link: CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

We are grateful for any help you’re able to give by sharing this post or the GoFundMe link with others.

To hear past Fulginiti Family Band holiday recordings, follow us wherever you stream music, or visit us at my website. You can also find all of our music on this YouTube playlist.

Thanks for reading and listening! For more of my writing, music, photos, etc… please see the self promotion center below 😁

Follow/subscribe to Five O’Clock Shadow for my writing and photo journals.  I’m also available for freelance writing jobs- contact me and let’s talk about it!

Listen to my music on any streaming platform (Spotify, Apple, Amazon, etc.) under the following artist names:
Todd Fulginiti- cd available
The Cat’s Pajamas Old School Jazz Band- cd available
Fulginiti Family Band
Holiday Horns

For info on my live performance music events, bands and ensembles, booking, etc– visit toddfulginiti.com (there’s a blog there too for related writing).