Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

Have you been good boys and girls this year? Well then Santa will share a little present: some of his favorite holiday songs. All my little elves have gathered these together and given them proper mp3 tags so that they’ll import nice ‘n’ pretty into iTunes.

These songs are from all different styles from all different eras, but each is one of Santa’s favorites.

• Glad – Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light (1:16)
• Dar Williams – The Christians and the Pagans (3:03) a song Jenn introduced to us
• Ann Margaret & Al Hirt – Baby, It’s Cold Outside (3:30) a wonderful version of a fun song
• Loreena McKennitt – Coventry Carol (2:19)
• Chanticleer – Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (2:17) for Nick
• Tommy Dorsey – March of the Toys (3:18) I love this song! (But then I’m a Big Band nut…)
• Tracy Chapman – O Holy Night (4:30)
• Vonda Shepard with Calista Flockhart on vocals – Santa Baby (2:10) the sexiest Christmas song ever (hint: ‘chimney’ is a metaphor here)
• Jay Wilbur – Santa Claus Express (3:04)
• Soul Coughing – Suzy Snowflake (1:59) Mac and Pam and Kris (and probably you) hate this version, but I love it!
• Caedmon’s Call – What Child is This (2:17) a modern version of what will be always and forever my favorite Christmas carol
• Sarah McLachlan – Song For a Winter’s Night (3:17) peaceful and beautiful
• Everything But the Girl – 25th December (4:03)
• Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas (4:01) as requested by Kris

Ho ho ho! Enjoy!

Santa realizes he should have posted these a week or two ago so that you could all listen to them while baking cookies and wrapping presents and trimming the tree. He hopes you enjoy them nonetheless. Now, if you please, Santa must go watch Love Actually (his favorite holiday film) before loading up his sleigh.

(Perhaps next year Santa will repost these. Sometime Santa will post the CD image for the Christmas mix he made five years ago: it’s a fantastic mix that never gets old. Santa even listens to it during the summer sometimes. Several of the songs here are on that mix.)