Why I Play Lots of Christmas Music (Yuletide Friday)

Since I just did a rehash last week to assuage my bit of guilt at not posting, and because I then wussed out on posting some things this week (being a lazy bastard that still has to edit the 3x2cast), I decided to address something that always needs addressing, because it always amazes people, even at Christmas:


Why would you listen to THAT stuff/shit?!?!?! (Half the people that ask wouldn't put the word "shit" in print, so this is a whole sensitivity thing, or something.)

This definitely applies with my Christmas playlist.  While my home collection (which is currently at 20 CDs, not counting the Nutcracker and the 2-disc of Handel's  Messiah (of which I can sing a goodly portion)) is mostly more classical and choral (the noted exceptions including the Trans-Siberian Orchestra), my list above is an eclectic mix of fun musics, including:

• Choral standards. Again, I make with the Messiah, and anything with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir does, as they tend to be loud.  And I like loud.  And divergent choral parts.  And anything that is a challenge to sing.
• Standards. There's a reason you see names like Judy Garland, Brenda Lee and the Glenn Miller Orchestra.  It's because their music defines eras, styles, and the like.  It's like coming home after talking a long walk.  And part of Christmas is coming home.  
• Modern classics. If you know how I feel about A Charlie Brown Christmas, then you know why you can find 3 songs from it in the list above.  And others, like Sarah McLaughlin and Mannheim Steamroller, are in the process of defining the current musical era.
• ROCK! Yes, I have to semi-yell that.  Because between TSO and my other little finds (the Street Drum Corp's rendition of the John Lennon Happy Christmas (War is Over) is a particulary good one), it's proof that even people who thrash can get into the spirit.
• The funny and fucked up.  Yeah, I have shit from South Park and Weird Al in the list above.  Mainly songs that have not been overplayed (no death my reindeer for grandma), because if you can't  laugh a little about the holiday, then you're a mopey soulless bastard and will probably snuff yourself over the holidays anyway.
• Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song, and anything that's not necessarily Christmas but holiday-y.  Because not all of us rock the tree and such on December 25.  But those are few, since it is a Christmas playlist.

But that's what I have.  And to answer the above question (*pausing for goosebumps because I'm listening to the playlist as I type and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring just came on*), the world itself functions on wondrous variety.  And it is in that divergence of ideas around one holiday (from the sacred to the profane and all miscellaneous stops in between) that we can best appreciate the joy that the Christmas season brings to so many.  So if not every song in the list is to your liking, give it a minute, or at worst, hit the skip button and find out what is next.  Because, like the debate over the holiday we have every year (the "War on Christmas") we argue about what should be kept and what should be thrown out.  I'm not the type of person to throw it out unless it really sucks.

And in that task, I again ask for suggestions.  Just drop a song title and artist, and if I can find it (which is not a 100% guarantee) and it doesn't suck Kenny G's balls (and is in no way Kenny G (who must have his lips removed for the good of music)), then I may just add it.

That's pretty much it.  I'm now going to clean up the mess that the kids have made with my decorations.  Yeah, we put up the tree last weekend, and I still have buckets of decorations laying about. Go ahead.  I'm waiting for the "what a lazy bastard" chorus.  It is me, after all.

So to leave you, reach up, pause the playlist, and enjoy another song (nod to @Repsac3 for this one):