Our weekly deep dive into the world of Christmas music is back for season three.

On the first Wednesday after Labor Day, we launched season three of My Spilt Milk’s Christmas music podcast, “The Twelve Songs of Christmas.” During a time when not only the news but daily life feels dramatic and exhausting, “Twelve Songs” is 45 minutes about something easier.

So far this season, we’ve traced “Hard Candy Christmas” from the original Broadway cast to Dolly Parton’s beloved version to RuPaul and Tracey Thorn’s brilliant versions; we’ve talked with Ernie Haase of Ernie Haase and Signature Sound about faith and putting his music in the hands of Tony Bennett’s arranger Billy Stritch; and we’ve talked with chart historian, critic, and podcaster at Slate.com Chris Molanphy about how changes at Billboard made it possible for Mariah Carey to lead a brigade of Christmas hitmakers from decades ago into the Hot 100.

We’ve tried to cast our net wide for Christmas conversations to get different takes on how the music fits into our culture and marketplace since we launched in 2018. New Orleans’ Panorama Jazz Band has talked about the value of being able to play Christmas songs, and indie Americana duo Loose Cattle has defended sad Christmas songs. Chris Butler and Mars Williams remembered recording The Waitresses’ “I Know What Boys Like” and Isaac Hanson of Hanson reviewed the brothers’ thought process when they revised Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.” 

Rodney Crowell told us what Christmas song made him decide to record a Christmas album 40 years into his career, and Americana artist J.D. McPherson reveals that he wrote the songs for his Socks album by trying to imagine the songs that Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller should have but never wrote for The Coasters. Members of Nashville’s The Ornaments explain why they take Decembers off from their other gigs to play the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas nightly, and break down the intricacies of Vince Guaraldi’s compositions. New Orleans’ Boyfriend helped us make peace with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” while critic David Dennis walked us through OutKast’s “Players’ Ball,” a different kind of Christmas song. We’ve talked with Norwegian duo The Darling West about Norwegian Christmas music traditions, and why some of the more triumphant Christmas carols don’t work for the acoustic duo Lowland Hum.

We hope you’ll join us this season by subscribing to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast content. New episodes will drop every Wednesday between now and Christmas, and we’ll likely have some bonus content along the way. We’ll also track Christmas music news at the Twelve Songs of Christmas Facebook page, where we have already posted previews of Christmas albums that will be released this season by Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, Meghan Trainor, and the Goo Goo Dolls.