The management of holiday music is a responsibility I take seriously. I am Director of Entertainment in our marriage, after all, and making sure I make the most of this vital but limited time holiday opportunity matters a great deal to me.

It’s tougher job than you might think.

First, there are all the songs you love because they’ve traveled with you Christmas to Christmas for lo these many years. (Like the entire Kenny Loggins album, December, which is Christmas to me.)

There are the actual classics you have to hear because they actually make Christmas Christmas. (Bing Crosby need I say more.)

Then there is the gigantic wild card of all the new songs/albums recently released.

• Beloved artists and bands singing new versions of those classics, with enough je ne sais quoi to find their way to The List?
• Totally new songs that are just, by golly, so good they earn a spot?

Then you have to add to that complicated equation–this.

Where is that music anyway? In the box of albums in the closet? That stack of CDs you never organized or put away last year? Lost in your iTunes library or Amazon Music or some downloaded folder, for heaven’s sake?

Plus this.

Does the daggone CD player even work anymore?

Well friends, I’ve got the solution, and I am happy to share.

The Beloved Spotify playlist.

It’s so easy to create one.

It’s so easy to edit. (If, perchance, you do something, like, say, add one too many Hanson songs.)

It’s so easy to simply hit PLAY.

I’m sharing mine, below, and would be joyful if you find it to your liking and/or want to use it as a starter for your own. I created this curated version from a larger Holiday Playlist in which I included full albums–some of which I am still working my way through. Do let me warn you: TDG HOLIDAY TUNES is a little eclectic and in no particular order, with a bend toward softer and slower but with other stuff thrown in, with very few classic classics since they are everywhereallthetime anyway. (But for Eartha Kitt’s Santa Baby, which deserves to be on every holiday playlist allthetime.) I did try to not repeat songs with different artists but I may or may not have been able to accomplish that.

Please enjoy! And please please please–if you’ve got something you just know I should add, please leave me a comment! It’s a big job I’m holding down here, and I’ll take all the help I can get.

XXOO

#30 Days of Joy