Hot Christmas

Allow me to share a lifelong obsession with you

An Annual Tradition

Every year for the past…oh, at least 20 years, December has been hunting season for me. What have I been hunting for?

Christmas music.

There are a lot of opinions about Christmas music. Everyone has their go-to. And I’m a fan of a lot of the most popular stuff — there are days where all I want to listen to is Nat King Cole’s “The Magic of Christmas,” and there are other days when I can’t get enough classical and choral renditions of classic carols.

But what I truly want, every Christmas, is to discover new stuff. And I’m not talking about some cynical new album by the pop star du jour — I’m talking about heartfelt, inventive, high quality covers and original songs.

I’ve been doing this long enough, and obsessively enough, that I’ve managed to put together quite a collection. A few years ago, I decided to start organizing this collection into hour-long playlists on Spotify, to make it easier to share the wealth.

Here’s the first, created in 2020:

And here’s the second:

Finally, here’s the one I finished for this year — and I think this is the best one yet:

Enjoy! And remember, this is the season for sharing, so…