This year, I am really excited to break out my Christmas music playlist. Since right now I have a pretty long commute, I have plenty of time to enjoy my music.

While I can’t stand Michael Buble and even I have a limit on Mariah Carey, below you will find some of my favorite Christmas songs. Enjoy!

1. This Christmas – Joe

This is a song from my Dad’s Christmas collection and I absolutely love it. It does a great job of capturing the sense of community and love that grows among us at Christmas. This song is rare, difficult to find and a true diamond in the rough.

2. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year / Grown-Up Christmas List / Emmanuel, God With Us / Tennessee Christmas / Love Has Come / The Christmas Song / To Be Together / Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song) / Welcome to Our World / ‘Til The Season Comes Round Again – Amy Grant

For me, Amy Grant is the voice of Christmas. Her voice sounds like a warm fire, full of richness and emotion. While all of these Amy Grant songs are special to me, “Til the Season Comes Round Again” is heard at the end of my all-time favorite Christmas movie, Snowden on Ice.

Read more about Snowden here: https://wordpress.com/post/exploringexperience.wordpress.com/32

3. O Come, O Come Emmanuel – Bette Midler
4. O Come, O Come Emmanuel – Casting Crowns

If you skim through this list, it will become obvious that “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is one of my favorite Christmas songs. I enjoy listening to how different artists produce their own variations of this song, changing the verses and tempo to match their own style.

5. O Holy Night – Celine Dion

I haven’t listened to much Celine Dion, but when I found this version of “O Holy Night” last year, I was amazed. This song is a testament to Dion’s diverse vocal range, which includes both softness and strength. Turn the volume down at the end because the last notes might just blow your head off.

6. Ave Maria – Chris Mann

I watched The Voice the season that Chris Mann was on the show and my mom and I became big fans. In this song, Mann’s operatic training works in his favor, enabling him to access nuances and ranges that would not be available to others.

7. O Come O Come Emanuel – Francesca Battistelli
8. Love Came Down at Christmas / God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen / Drummer Boy / I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day / God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Jars of Clay

I have been listening to Jars of Clay since I was in middle school and to this day they remain one of my favorite Christian bands. Their recent albums are absolutely awful, but their work from the late 1990s / early 2000s presents Biblical truths with humility and heart. Their production value was fairly low in those days, but I think that it works in their favor, giving their music character and charm. Jars of Clay gives these classic Christmas songs their signature spin through the use of bells, chimes and other quirky instruments, thus taking them in decidedly creative directions. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs and Jars of Clay does a fantastic job. No, that’s not a typo that you see above. They have two versions of the song that are available, which are slightly different from one another.

9. What Child is This? – Josh Groban
10. Carol of the Bells – The Last Bison

A friend of a friend introduced me to the thoroughly hipster band The Last Bison, which has a really cool instrumental version of “Carol of the Bells”. Dominated mostly by strings, this interpretation had almost a country vibe.

11. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence – Ryan Sakamoto

One of my favorite memories of college was sitting in the student union building and listening to people play the piano while reading, studying or just thinking philosophical/existential/spiritual thoughts. This was one of the songs that students would often play there. I just discovered a few weeks ago that the name of the song was “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”, so I added it to my playlist. If you listen closely, you can almost picture snow falling outside.

12. Mary Did You Know? – Michael English
13. Christmas Day / Almost There – Michael W. Smith
14. Crying for a Christmas – Scott Krippayne

This song is simple and speaks a truth that sometimes we would rather not admit: our world is broken and we still need a savior. That’s why, even today, our world still cries for a Christmas.

15. O Holy Night / Born in Bethlehem / What Child is This? – Third Day
16. Christmas Time is Here – Vince Guaraldi Trio
17. The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole
18. I’ll Be Home for Christmas / Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas / White Christmas – Bing Crosby

I will call this our classic Christmas section, which opens with the beloved “Christmas Time is Here” from the famed 1965 animated Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas. For me, the crooning voices of Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby round out the “classics” section, giving us a little taste of times gone by.

19. Remember Love on Christmas Day – Thornetta Davis

Thornetta Davis is one of my Dad’s favorite blues artists, so he has many of her other Christmas songs on his CDs. This was the only one I could find on Spotify, but it’s one of her best. We get so wrapped up in the going/doing/buying part of Christmas that sometimes we forget to truly cherish our loved ones. This song reminds us that in the end, money and gifts mean nothing in comparison with showing genuine love to one another at Christmas.

20. Santa Claus is Comin to Town – Bruce Springsteen

With another hit from my Dad’s collection, Springsteen gives this classic Christmas tune his rugged, all-American flair. Featuring an extended saxophone solo and Springsteen’s gritty vocals, this interpretation takes this Christmas classic to another level.

21. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen – Manheim Steamroller

A couple of years ago, I scored a Manheim Steamroller CD from a white elephant gift exchange. In my opinion, this track stands out from the rest, but maybe that’s because it’s one of my favorite Christmas tunes.

22. Christmas Eve / Sarajevo (Instrumental) – Trans-Siberian Orchestra

In my opinion, this track from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra could easily be considered the ultimate Christmas song! It makes any mundane Christmas prep task straight up epic. Perfect for head-banging with friends in the car, intense baking or hardcore Christmas shopping.

23. Angels We Have Heard on High / Can’t Believe It’s Christmas / While By My Sheep / Ring Little Bells / Away in a Manger / Go Tell It on the Mountain / Feliz Navidad / The Eight Polish Foods of Christmas / O Christmas Tree – VeggieTales

I grew up watching Veggietales, so I have fond memories of The Toy that Saved Christmas and the Veggietales Christmas Spectacular. In the latter episode, Bob and Larry are set to host a Christmas variety show but Jimmy and Jerry Gourd lose the film (the film is later found in a pizza box). When Pa Grape warns Bob that the network is going to pull the plug on the show and run Bonanza instead, chaos ensues. We also had a tape of VeggieTales Christmas songs that we would listen to in the car when I was growing up, which is how I remember the island-inspired version of “Feliz Navidad” sung by a Jamaican palm tree and the Polish Christmas foods song.

24. Same Old Lang Syne – Dan Fogelberg

I ended the list with this song because of how much I adore it. In fact, I wrote an entire blog post about it, which you can read here: https://wordpress.com/post/exploringexperience.wordpress.com/705

Merry Christmas!