A Spilt Milk Christmas

A downloadable mix of Christmas music to add some wonder to your holiday; also, holiday drums and the Royal Sonesta lights its balconies tonight.

Yesterday, I explained away much of the hostility some have for Christmas music in 10 paragraphs or less (though I respect the stance of Erin McKeown, who recorded the excellent F*ck That, her album of anti-Christmas songs). I'm pro-Christmas music in most of its incarnations. I want it nostalgic, ironic, sincere, cynical, beautiful, shabby, contemporary, antique and all points in-between because they all touch in one way or another on some aspect of the holiday. With that in mind, here's a downloadable Christmas mixtape, an hour and a half that I hope illustrates why and how I love Christmas music. My favorite find in this mix is "Santa Claus Hides in the Phonograph," a track recorded on a wax cylinder by Ernest Hare when the idea of sounds and voices coming out of a machine was a miracle. 

1. The Three Stooges
2. Rudolph's Trumpet - People Like Us
3. Christmas Chopsticks - The Mike Sammes Singers
4. Christmas Love - Rotary Connection
5. Christmas Day - Detroit Junior
6. Promenade en Traineau - Herman Apple
7. Christmas with the Superfools - The Superfools
8. Every Christmas We Know - Lois Lynn
9. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Lew Charles and the NBC Pipe Organ
10. Santa Will Find You - Mindy Smith
11. Party This Christmas - Rockin' Sidney
12. Joy to the World - The Roller Disco Orchestra
13. The Mistletoe Kiss - Margaret Whiting
14. Drummer Boy Phonic - Gypsyphonic Disko
15. Groovy Christmas and a Happy New Year - Pee Pee Dynamite
16. Santa's Factoree - Line Material Co.
17. Deck the Kremlin - Doctor Octoroc
18. Santa Claus is Comin' to Town - Andre Kostelanetz
19. Escuchad Los Angeles Canta - Waldo de los Rios
20. O Tannenbaum - 11 Acorn Lane
21. Space Age Santa Claus - Gus De Wert Trio
22. Senor Santa - Y La Bamba
23. Tis the Season - Dam-Funk
24. Santa Claus Hides in the Phonograph - Ernest Hare
25. Hark the Herald Angels Sing - Mistletoe Disco Band
26. Santa's Got a Bag of Soul - The Soul Saints Orchestra
27. Love for Christmas - The Gems
28. Christmas Time is Here Again - The Flirtations
29. Donde Esta Santa Claus - Toni Stante
30. Away in a Manger - Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
31. Ain't No Chimneys in the Ghetto - Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
32. Soul Christmas - Count Sidney and His Dukes
33. We Three Kings - The Gaylads
34. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas - Machine Man Band
35. Christmas Tree - Lady GaGa
36. The Great White North

Thanks to those out there who are in the process of digitizing Christmas Past. This year's framing sound bites come from Check the Cool Wax

In other Christmas news, tonight Tonight at 6 p.m., The Royal Sonesta will light its balconies in a "Motown Christmas" with live music, tours, Saintsations and more. And at Tulane's Dixon Hall, New Orleans Center for the Gulf South presents "Rump-a-pum-pum: A Holiday Drum Summit" featuring Shannon Powell, Johnny Vidacovich, pianist Larry Sieberth and Cuban percussionist Alexey Marti. They'll filter sounds of the holiday through the musical traditions of New Orleans and Cuba, and the show is free.