Rather than upload a collection of music files, I decided to be a little lazy and just slap together a YouTube playlist. I’ll bet you’re wondering why I don’t just create a Spotify playlist. Aside from not wanting to join Spotify (or any other similar service) when I’ll use it only once a year, a good number of these pieces are probably NOT going to be found there.

Sometimes you WANT the video, so you can actually see the artists performing the songs.

Again, I wish I could do something about volume levels and extraneous material in the videos. Such is life.

Here’s the playlist:

Continue reading →

It’s that time of year again.

This year, I thought I’d do something different – and make a playlist of songs about people who aren’t that keen on the holiday, for whatever reason. Or songs to that effect.

There’s nothing gross. Aside from being overplayed, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” is pretty sick, when you get right down to it. Nothing depressing here, either. They may be great songs, but Stan Rogers’ “First Christmas” and Tom Waits’ “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” are rather bleak….

I also note that animated TV shows have been doing some fun things in this vein; I’ve included three songs from that medium.

Oh, and to heck with Festivus, and Krampus is already tired. If you want to do something different for the holiday season, there are plenty of other non-standard Christmas traditions out there – like Wassail – that are available for you to try.

Continue reading →

Let me be honest. I’m getting tired of digging through and dredging up all the Christmas music out there. I’ve already shared the holiday tunes I thought were worthwhile, and had to dig around near the bottom of the proverbial barrel to fill up the last holiday mix (or two).

So the heck with it. This year, I’m just going to go through my collection, and without curating or even ordering the choices, just toss out every single version of “Jingle Bells” I have.

Take it or leave it. Continue reading →

Well, here I go again. Another hour-plus of holiday music, both new and old, that you’re probably not familiar with. With this one, I’ve pretty much taken care of all the songs I originally felt like including way back in 2013. I can’t think of anything else that absolutely must be included. So if I post one again next year, I might just reissue that first mix.

Anyway, the track list and link are below the jump.

By the way, I think I’ve managed to balance the sound levels properly this time. Found a freeware music editor that lets you “normalize” sound files in a “batch process”.

Continue reading →

Well, it’s that time again.

I’ve kind of fallen into the common trap with these collections. You gather all your favorites, and find you have too many for one collection. So you pick a few to go in Volume 1, and then add a few that didn’t quite make the cut to the batch for next year. And then the next year, you find you’ve got only a few “favorites”, so you do your best to pad out the collection to make something worth putting together and sharing. Then, you realize you somehow forgot a few, but four or five songs do not really make a “mix tape”, so you pad it out with general stuff that you hope people like…

Well, there it is. I’ve got a few more (three or four) that I could toss out next year. Kind of like stocking stuffers when compared to the big gifts. Or I could just repost the first Mix from 2014. We’ll see what I feel like next November, when I start thinking about this.

Anyway, here’s the link:

http://www.dropbox.com/s/lcdt2075r2ln0ka/Chirstmas%20Mix%204%20-%202017.zip?dl=0

And here’s the list of songs:

Continue reading →

This could turn out to be a habit. I’ve collected so much Christmas music over the years (around 7 GB worth!) from various places around the Internet, including many music sharing blogs, that I feel rather compelled to share some of my favorite finds with you.

Here’s this year’s collection.

Over an hour of holiday, well, cheer – I hope.

The list after the jump.

Continue reading →

Another collection of holiday music that you may not hear anywhere else…. Still haven’t figured out how to balance the audio levels…

http://www.dropbox.com/s/3yzp0ux8u1lj0fd/Christmas%20Mix%202015.zip?dl=0

By the way, if you can’t get enough of that good holiday music, I recommend these blogs:

Christmas A Go Go
FaLaLaLaLa
Merry and Bright
Mistletunes
Music You (Possibly) Won’t Hear Anyplace Else
Stubby’s House Of Christmas

They’ve provided me with much of my collection over the years. Check them out!

List of songs in this year’s collection and notes below the jump:

Continue reading →

Over the years, I’ve been collecting Christmas music from all over the Internet. Last time I checked, I had over 3 GB of music. Most of it was obtained through the courtesy of other bloggers; some of it I have no clue where I got it.

A lot of holiday music is rather bland. There’s only so much you can do with “White Christmas”, after all. And radio stations don’t even try to have a little variety – they can’t even break out of the same three or four “novelty” songs. It’s a little sad, since there’s really a heck of a lot of good, fun stuff out there.

Here’s a sampling of some of my favorites, with notes where I have something to note.

If I were better at music editing, I’d probably merge these all into one single MP3 file where the volume levels are perfectly balanced. But I am not, so I beg your indulgence for any sudden shifts in tone.

By the way, the zip file also contains a couple of “playlist” files in different formats. I hope at least one of them will work for you.
Continue reading →