Christmas Mix 2012
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full track listing

This is a mix-CD I burned in 2012. Amazon had been doing an advent calendar of free mp3s for a few Decembers, so that's how I got some of the songs on this CD, while others I bought. Anyway, I obviously like all the songs, or they wouldn't be here. Even so, I don't have anything special to say about all of them, but I can say a bit about some of them.

It starts out with the Glee cast doing a cover of "Welcome Christmas" (from How the Grinch Stole Christmas), which I don't believe is on any of the Glee Christmas albums, which is why I chose to buy it separately.

...Then there are three songs by Kelly Sweet, from an EP that I think had been on my Amazon wish list for several years before I finally bought it to put on this CD.

...There's a medley of "Carol of the Bells/Sing We Now of Christmas" by BarlowGirl, a group I don't think I ever would have heard of if not for this (or something else by them?) being on Amazon's advent calendar. I've always loved the first song in the medley, and this is one of the best renditions of it I've ever heard. And the latter song, I don't recall having heard of before, but I quite like it.

...Another free song was "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" by Shonen Knife, a Japanese band I've vaguely known and liked since the 90s, but I doubt I would have known about this song if it hadn't been a free offering.

..."Here We Come a Caroling" is a song I've always liked, but wasn't really aware of anyone who actually performed it. So I was glad to find this version by Classic Christmas Singers (or something else by them?) as a free mp3. Anyway, this year (2015) I discovered their album isn't on Amazon anymore, so I changed my link for "Caroling" to iTunes.

..."Frosty the Snowman" is one of two songs on Cocteau Twins' now-out-of-print 1993 EP "Snow." (The other song on the EP, "Winter Wonderland," is also on a different CD I have, The Edge of Christmas.) I was probably vaguely aware of the band in the 90s, but I don't think I'd heard of those songs until I heard one (or both?) of them playing during the holiday season at a place I worked in the mid 2000s. Anyway, I decided to buy the "Frosty" mp3 since it would be hard to find a copy of "Snow," but mp3s make finding rare music so much easier (and cheaper), yeah?

..."Toy Packaging" by Sara Groves is something I can't imagine I would have heard of if it hadn't been on the advent calendar, but it instantly became one of my very favorite Christmas songs ever. (Seriously, I cannot even tell you how much I adore it.)

...Jackie Evancho's "Ding Dong Merrily On High" is another song I adore. (I've always liked the song, and I think hers is my favorite version of it that I've ever heard.)

...And the CD closes out with Barenaked Ladies' rendition of "Auld Lang Syne," which is more of a New Year's Eve song, but it's all part of the same season, and I think a good way to wrap up a Christmas album.