Ladies and Gentlemen, I Present A Very Mustoe Christmas: Platinum Edition

Starting in high school, back in the Napster days, I scoured the Internet, the airwaves, and the archives of western music in search of the best Christmas songs for a little compilation I like to call- A Very Mustoe Christmas.

You see, I am a Christmas music phene. I could listen to it all year round, as a child I actually did. You know when you're in stores like Old Navy and they're blaring some awful techno mix of "feliz navidad" and you're thinking "Man, I'm pretty sure they use this as torture at Gitmo" well, I secretly am enjoying it...

So I realize I'm tooting my own horn here, but I consider myself somewhat of an authority on the subject of Christmas music. Every couple years I try to update my ultimate Christmas playlist, and this years is now complete. Over the years there has been some great new additions (this year in particular) and we've seen some songs like "Mary Did You Know" be dropped altogether.

The list contains some songs that are actually quite bad, after all, part of the greatness of Christmas music is that it is so cheesy. Some songs might actually make you gag, but don't leave any comments talking about how terrible such and such song is. I don't want to hear it. If you don't like it, go sit in your tower and make your own list! I tried to limit instrumentals as well. So some of these are meant to be funny (like the first one), some are for nastalgia, some are classics, some are remakes of classics, and there are some really really really great songs here, like, make-you-get-a-little-weepy-great. The one rule I have is that there are no repeats, which makes for some tough calls, but I hope you can enjoy these songs as much as my family and friends have:

(artist/song, in alphabetical order)
Aaron Neville / Silent Night
Aretha Franklin / O Christmas Tree
The Beach Boys / Little Saint Nick
Bing Crosby / White Christmas
Bing Crosby / Mele Kalikimaka
Blues Traveler / Christmas
Bobby Helms / Jingle Bell Rock
Brenda Lee / Rockin Around the Christmas Tree
Bruce Springsteen / Santa Claus Is Comin to Town
Choir from Home Alone / O Holy Night
Counting Crows / A Long December
Dianna Krall / Jingle Bells
Frank Sinatra / Let It Snow!
Georgy Moravsky / Angels, We Have Heard on High
(from a CD my Grandma got me like, 6 years ago called "Acoustic Christmas Reflections" it's awesome)
Harry Connick Jr. / Ol' Saint Nick
James Taylor / Go Tell it on the Mountain
James Taylor / In the Bleak Midwinter
Jamie Cullum / Next Year, Baby
Joe / This Christmas
John Denver and the Muppets / The 12 Days of Christmas
John Legend / Jesus, What a Wonderful Child
Jose Feliciano / Feliz Navidad
Keith Sweat / Be Your Santa Claus
Luthor Vandross / O Come All Ye Faithful
Mariah Carey / All I Want For Christmas Is You
Martin Sexton / I'll Be Home For Christmas
Martin Sexton / Little Drummer Boy
Martin Sexton / Silver Bells
N*Sync / Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays
Nat King Cole / The Christmas Song
Nat King Cole / Deck the Hall
Nat King Cole / Caroling, Caroling
Perry Como / It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas
Ray Charles / This Time of the Year
Relient K / I'm Gettin Nuttin For Christmas
Tony Bennett / Winter Wonderland
Trans-Siberian Orchestra / Carol of the Bells
U2 / This Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Various Artists (Jack Johnson) / Rudolph
Various Artists (Barenaked Ladies & Sarah Mclocklin) / God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Vince Guaraldi Trio / What Child Is This?

So there it is. In terms of Christmas albums, here's some favorites:
John Denver and the Muppets, A Christmas Together.
(from my childhood, and STILL on my iPod!)
Martin Sexton, Camp Holiday
Relient K, Let It Snow Baby...Let It Reindeer
Nat King Cole, The Christmas Song
James Taylor, James Taylor at Christmas
Vince Guaraldi Trio, A Charlie Brown Christmas