Moo! A Very Loose Cattle Christmas

Michael Cerveris and Loose Cattle celebrate “The Day it Snows on Christmas.”

- Cree Mccree

It’s a bright sunny afternoon in late October at Hansen’s Sno-Bliz, and with temps in the mid-70s, the line of folks waiting for sno-balls would normally stretch around the block. Instead, the sound of a fiddle and horns wafts through the open doors on Tchoupitoulas, where passing drivers do double-takes at the skinny guy in a Santa suit tugging a fake beard next to a sweet white pooch sporting reindeer antlers.

Welcome to the video shoot for “The Day It Snows on Christmas,” Loose Cattle-style, where band co-founders Michael Cerveris and Kimberly Kaye are lip-synching their hearts out in a location that’s not only season-appropriate but very dear to their hearts.

Back in 2017, when Loose Cattle were recording their instant-classic holiday album, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Hansen’s was a refuge that provided both physical and spiritual sustenance.

“We were recording the album uptown at The Parlor in the middle of August,” recalls Kaye, who was battling a host of chronic life-threatening infections amid a heatwave that spiked to 112 degrees. “So we’d go to Hansen’s for sno-balls to keep us motivated to keep recording.”

“’ Cause it would feel like Christmas if we got sno-balls,” interjects Cerveris, who first proposed they make an album of covers for his own favorite holiday—and Kaye’s least favorite holiday—when she was at death’s door in the hospital.