I’ve been very carefully building a Christmas playlist for over a decade. I only add one song a year, and I only listen to the songs on the list between Thanksgiving and the Epiphany. There are now sixteen songs on the list.

  1. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love
  2. “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley
  3. “The Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues
  4. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland
  5. “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby
  6. “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” By Dean Martin
  7. “Christmas Time is Here (Instrumental)” by Vince Guaraldi Trio
  8. “The Christmas Song” by Nat “King” Cole
  9. “Here Comes Santa Claus” by Elvis Presley
  10. “Baby It’s Cold Outside” by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan
  11. “What Christmas Means to Me” by Stevie Wonder
  12. “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon
  13. “What a Wonderful World” by Joey Ramone
  14. “Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy” by David Bowie & Bing Crosby
  15. “Father Christmas” by The Kinks
  16. “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade

This year’s addition is “What a Wonderful World” by Joey Ramone. I guess Louis Armstrong’s version is definitive but I just really like Ramones’s version. Also I’ve done a little bit of work on the sequencing of the songs. After the first few tunes things drop back to the 50s and move slowly forward. I don’t really want all the heavier rock songs to be toward the end but I like the flow of the more classic stuff in the middle. Bowie and Bing break things up a little bit at least.