The Holiday Playlist

By Jacob E. A.

December 17, 2021

Martha Stewart dictates that it’s declassé to play Xmas music until the day after Thanksgiving. Color me redundant, but I think she could stop at the first part. 

Before I get canceled by woke elves, let me explain that I also find myself singing along to those most basic inane melodies, the relentless 1/6/2/5 chord progression and dumb lyrics crammed like stuffed stockings full of commercialism and questionable morality.  I have spent a lifetime trying to reconcile an internal struggle between knowing something is metaphorically junk food while literally looooooving every second of it… own my own Santa hat?  You betcha!  Besides, as I told our toddler daughter as she was excitedly heading off to PreK if it’s Ella and Bing and the gang at least it’s kinda cultural.  Sorta cultural.  A hodgepodge of false 1950s Americana post-war fantasy culture.  This is admittedly a weird thing to get excited about as a Jewish American Italian Canadian Costa Rican household.  Seriously, we have 4 passports and are United somewhere between Nations and Colors of Benetton.

So, what’s the “right” Holiday Playlist for KLHS then?  One dare not ignore the standards (Sinatra on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas), nor can we overlook the Black Christmas additions (Hathaway singing This Christmas, Stevie’s What Christmas Means To Me) or LatinoX offerings (Feliciano’s Felice Navidad) or a myriad of others that have made their way into the Happy Holidays™ cannon.  When building that most personal and meticulous Holiday Playlist, it’s always safest to start with the songs your family of origin played following Pumpkin Spice Season and then add in ones from the years when you were in High School (because study after study has proven unequivocally that, yes, we now know the best music of all time is the music from whenever you were in high school, you bastion of great taste!).  Once our daughter was a young teen excitedly heading off to middle school, I explained diversity was the real name of the game; hip hop, certainly, but also indie, of course, and reggae and rock, soul and pop and some Celtic because harp.  And the Hanukwanzamas stocking would be stuffed with biodegradable coal if we left out that oft miscast and misunderstood all-encompassing genre of World Music (which we were led to believe as kids -and still believe to be true- is basically an ever so slightly unPC way of saying NOT IN ENGLISH).  When I was young and there were dinosaurs we had to really be intentional because our medium was mixtapes, which meant real-time choices and edits requiring a not insignificant emotional and time commitment before presenting your gift; hard to explain to Gen Ticky Tocky ‘we only have 8 seconds of creative endurance’, I know.  Sometimes, however, the Greatest Playlist Ever is built upon nothing more than wit, art more than science, a combo of tried-and-true hits, and new-to-you material to share one’s state-of-mind.

And here am I, carpel-tunnel deep in progress reports and disastrously behind in my grading, still teaching and lesson planning, moving houses, and juggling 3 family issues requiring my undivided all the while trying to go slow and pay attention, to treasure this season with our now grown young adult daughter excitedly heading off to college. It’d be so boringly cliché to wax melancholia and wonder how it has all gone by in a blink.  So here instead then, for your enjoyment, with both a dash of nostalgia and a pinch of irreverence, I present a KLHS Holiday Playlist to remind us that maintaining good humor is our best shared cultural asset.

A very warm and happy holiday, filled with family, wonderful diverse food, music, and soul. And laughter, always.

  1. Stevie Wonder, “What Christmas Means To Me”

  2. Erin Nevil, “Very Special Christmas”

  3. Dinah Washington, “Silent Night”

  4. Ella Fitzgerald, “Merry Little Christmas”

  5. Bing Crosby, “Mele Kalikimaka”

  6. Louie Armstrong, “Zat You, Santa Clause”

  7. Eartha Kit, “Santa Baby”

  8. Lee Brown, “Nutcracker Suite Swing”

  9. Vince Gueraldi, “O Tannenbaum”

  10. Tom Lehrer, “Christmas Carol”

  11. Stan Freberg, “Nuttin for Christmas”

  12. Wayne Newton, “Jingle Bell Rock”

  13. Joni Mitchell, “River”

  14. Esperanza Spalding, “Ponta de Areia”

  15. Rosa Passos, “Aguas de Marco”

  16. John Lennon, “Give Peace a Chance”

  17. Sufjan Stevens, “O Holy Night

  18. Dean Martin, “Love to Keep Me Warm

  19. Kimya Dawson, “Alphabutt

  20. Gayla Peevey, “Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

  21. Smokey Robinson, “Deck the Halls

  22. Mose Fan Fan , “Hello Hello

  23. The Temptations, “Joy to the World

  24. Jackson5 , “Frosty the Snowman

  25. Mariah Carey, “All I want for Christmas

  26. Alton Ellis, “Merry Merry Dub

  27. Eek a Mouse, “Ding Dong Bell

  28. Lee Scratch Perry, “Happy New Year

  29. Harry Belefonte, “Jump the Line

  30. Wham, “Last Christmas

  31. Feist, “1234

  32. Sidestepper, “Me Gustas Tu

  33. Justin Bieber, “Only Thing I Ever Get

  34. Mary J Blige, “Christmas Song

  35. Ariana Grande, “Last Christmas

  36. Jessica Simpson, “Have Yourself a Merry Little

  37. Vulfpeck, “Santa

  38. Los Ninos, “Los Peces en Rio

 

Youtube holiday playlist curated by Jacob E. A.