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I’m a man who loves Christmas music. I’m also a hardline no-Christmas-until-after-Thanksgiving seasonal separator. So the few weeks between Christmas and the new year are filled with wall-to-wall Christmas music for me. Over the years, I’ve amassed quite a collection, and I’ve become something of a connoisseur of original Christmas songs. A good Christmas song has elements of classic Motown, strings, bells, and balances the continuum of joyous and sacred. The lyrics can’t be too generic or cheesy. Sufjan Stevens excels at this—there’s one of his tracks on here, and some tracks from his friends and cronies, as well as 19 other Christmassy tracks that will make you feel right at home for the holidays even if you’ve never heard them before.
1. George & Jonathan – The Best Christmas
2. Joy Electric – Lollipop Parade (On Christmas Morn)
3. xmas movie soundtrack – Boxing Day
4. I Was A King – Over Mountains
5. Candy Claws – Snow Face
6. Monster Rally – Christmas in Dreamland (Santa’s Hula)
7. Half-Handed Cloud – Öh, It’s Christmastime Again
8. Via Vegrandis – Christmas Date
9. Starflyer 59 – A Holiday Song
10. Los Campesinos! – A Doe To A Deer
11. Parenthetical Girls – Rejoice! Rejoice!
12. DM Stith – I Stay Still
13. Sufjan Stevens – Jupiter Winter
14. Create (!) – Hymn for St. John of Shanghai
15. Aaron Roche – the the the snow
16. Ash Reiter – Christmas in California
17. The Rosebuds – Thru That Door
18. Firebreather – Peppermint Delight
19. Coconut Records – It’s Christmas
20. Rosie Thomas – Why Can’t It Be Christmastime All Year