Christmas music is strange. We don't listen to it all year round, but then spend the better part of a month and a half listening to nothing but. And because the Holiday season tends to be many people's favorite time of the year, we get really selective about what music belongs in our Christmas music playlists. Christmas music is indeed the most cliquish of musical genres.

For the most part, everyone agrees on the classics. Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song," Bing Crosby's "I'm Dreaming of White Christmas," and Gene Autrey's "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" (to name just a few) are songs that nearly everyone has on their playlists, but I think its fun to find new songs to add to the list. Here are some of mine:

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All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey

I generally find Mariah Carey to be beyond annoying, but I think this is a great song. Unlike a lot of other Mariah Carey songs, I don't think she tries to oversell the song with her pipes and lets the song do all the work. It has a retro sound which makes it feel very timeless. When this is on, I usually prefer to sing the back-up parts more than the melody. It's all the Beatles training, what can I say?

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Christmas Time Is Here Again by the Beatles

"O-U-T spells out." The Beatles' throwaway songs would have been other artists' hits. With different words, this song would have probably been another hit record from the Fab Four. It's not a conventional Christmas song by any stretch of the imagination and it can be a bit jarring to hear this song come on after Charlie Brown's similarly titled "Christmas Time is Here," but it does always bring a smile to my face when I hear it. I also love the outros because it sounds like it was recorded during a time when the Beatles could still stand being around each other.

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Silent Night by Boyz II Men

Like the Mariah Carey song above, the boyz don't oversell this song with their vocal skillz and inztead let the song do all the work. Itz a pretty simple arrangement for a pretty beautiful song. Its a good one.

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Christmas at Ground Zero by Weird Al

We all know that nothing goes together better than the nuclear apocalypse awaiting us all and the happiest time of the year. Weird Al doesn't get enough credit for crafting some great original songs, such as this gem. Again, its kind of jarring in between Bing Crosby and Burl Ives, but it always makes me laugh. I particularly like it when the air raid siren comes in on the same pitch as the backup singers.



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Christmas Dreaming by Harry Connick Jr

I really dig this song. I think its an original song, but I could be mistaken on that. Very simple and old-school. Plus, it has a trombone solo in it, so that's reason enough to make it a classic. You don't hear too many of those these days.

That's all I have folks. What are your "new classics?"

- Matt