Christmas tunes

My son Jack really gets into music. He has been wanting Christmas music. Last week, I made him a copy of a really neat sampler we got free from Target in 2004. Very danceable Christmas music.

The old mix tape producer in me didn't want to stop there though. I had to go and make a full-on Christmas mix for the kids.

Here's what I came up with.

1. Holiday Road by Matt Pond PA. I can't listen to this song and not think about the original Vacation movie, but it mentions Christmas, so it counts.

2. O Come O Come Emmanual by Belle & Sebastien. It is nice to hear something traditional by a contemporary artist. I would never have expected this from them.

3. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Deathcab for Cutie. A very faithful, if somewhat slower rendition of the original. Not so 50's-like.

4-7 come from A Very Indie Christmas. I need to go back and re-listen to these to make sure I'm not feeding my kids something inappropriate. Amazon has the album tagged as EXPLICIT, and I do remember hearing a few foul words, but not in these songs.

Happy Christmas (War is Over) by The Polyphonic Spree
Christmas at the Zoo by The Flaming Lips
Tyco Racing Set and a Christmas Story Fifteen Times by Kind of Like Spitting
Father Christmas by The Kinks

8. Frosty the Snowman by the Cocteau Twins. Best Frosty cover ever.


9. Oh! What a Christmas by El Perro Del Mar. Pure bubblegum Christmas pop at its best.

10. Fairytale of New York by The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir. The link is to the Pogues' version, which is considerably less clean that the Gospel Choir rendition. I've loved this song for years because it's as catchy an irish tune that you can find. And when the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir sings it, it doesn't conjure up images Shane MacGowan spitting into my ears as he sings it. (There is a time and place for that.)

11. Thanks For Christmas by XTC. Let's end this with something fun and mellow eh?



Merry Christmas everybody!