The holidays are a time for wishes.
Tonight’s wish …
All I want for Christmas
All I want for Christmas
All I want for Christmas is world peace
That wish comes all the way from 1987, when Pat MacDonald and Barbara K — the husband-and-wife duo that performed as Timbuk3 — looked around with some dismay at the holidays. Under the tree, they saw toys glorifying war and battle. They also saw lots of questionable pop culture content.
Thus that simple wish.
“All I Want for Christmas (Is World Peace),” Timbuk3, 1987, from the 45 single.
Timbuk3 was together from 1983 to 1995 (or 1984 to 1996, depending on the source), founded in Madison, Wisconsin, then based in Austin, Texas. The end came when Pat and Barbara divorced.
Pat MacDonald grew up here in Green Bay. For the past 20 years, he’s been based in Sturgeon Bay, about an hour away, where he runs the Holiday Music Motel and has organized the Steel Bridge Songfest, a benefit concert and songwriting festival. Now in his early 70s, he performs as pat mAcdonald, insisting on that quirky spelling.
Barbara K also grew up in Wisconsin and still lives in Austin. She remains active, with four records released in the last 25 years, three of them on her own label.