Christmas Music Selections

by editor Michele Catalano

I’m a sucker for Christmas music. I start listening right after Halloween and will usually let it linger until New Year’s Day. My listening covers a wide expanse; I love the standards (the Drifter’s version of “White Christmas” tops my chart), but I also love a treasure trove of covers of those classics (Bright Eyes has an amazing Christmas album with covers) and original holiday songs by a variety of rock, punk, emo, alternative bands and musicians (Sufjan Stevens does it best). 

I have collected some of my favorites on vinyl and today I’ll share with you the three favorite Christmas albums in my collection.

BERT KAEMPFERT - CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND

I love this album for both musical and sentimental reasons. I was introduced to the wonderful world of Bert Kaempfert by my brother-in-law Matt when he played this album for me at his house in Rhode Island while I was visiting. I instantly fell in love with it. The music is joyful and reminiscent of the music my mother would sometimes listen to as we decorated the tree, or the music they would play at the firehouse Christmas parties we attended every year. 

Two years later we were visiting Rhode Island again and my sister took us to some garage sales. Imagine my delight when the first record I saw in a dusty bin was Christmas Wonderland. And the owner only wanted a dollar for it! He was sort of amused at how overjoyed I was to find Bert among the remnants of someone else’s life that he gave it to me for free (I picked up several other records from him). Just a little yard sale serendipity, 

This is now the first Christmas record I play when the season starts for me on November 1st, and instantly go into holiday mood. The music is warm and jolly and joyous, what more could you want from a Christmas album? 

CHRIS FARREN - A GIFT FROM GOD OR WHATEVER

I discovered Chris Farren many years ago when I was dabbling in Jeff Rosenstock and they felt like a bonded pair. I finally got to see Chris live a few years ago in a very small venue in Brooklyn (Elsehwere) and he was such a dynamic, engaging, fun watch that I went all in on the Chris Farren experience. That included this incredible Christmas album.

Chris is a funny guy. It’s one of the things he is known for besides his music. So I don’t know what I was expecting from this album, but I certainly did not go in with the expectation that it would be charming and sweet and sincere and just beautiful. It’s not just good music, it’s good Christmas music, which is pretty hard to come by these days.

This is everybody’s favorite, right? It’s not Christmas season until you hear the familiar tune. No matter where you are - in your car, in Walgreens, at the dentist - when you hear “Linus and Lucy” you sort of stop what you’re doing, a smile playing at the corner of your mouth, something like joy stirring inside your heart, and you think, ah, it’s Christmas. No holiday season is complete with A Charlie Brown Christmas. 

I have a pretty large Christmas playlist on Apple Music; it’s got everything from New Found Glory to Nat King Cole, but it plays mindlessly while I do tasks. Putting on an actual record - purposefully picking it out, taking it out of the sleeve, putting it on the turntable - is really part of the joy of listening. The sound coming out of my stereo, filling the house in a way that playing music on my laptop can’t is joyful and necessary. 

Happy holidays.