An Xmas (or xxx-mas) Gift to You
Naughty and Nice holiday playlists for 2024
I’ve been making eccentric holiday playlists every year or two since 2019. I don’t hold any related beliefs, but perhaps I’m sentimental because my birthday is a couple of days before Xmas. Plus, I do love parties and vacations. People seem to enjoy the mixes, and the process can be addictive: There’s a whole subculture of music collectors and aficionados who focus on seasonal music in and out of season, including a constellation of websites and blogs, a podcast by my friend Alex Rawls in New Orleans, and as usual a music documentary. I don’t want to become one of their number, but I have exhibited some early-warning symptoms: After last year’s playlist, I started stashing newly discovered holiday songs in a folder as the months went by. By early December there were more than 800.
Narrowing them down to a playable set, I found the more sincere emotional songs weren’t mixing well with the darker and weirder ones this time. So I made like Santa and split them into “naughty” and “nice” lists. The nice (but not boring!) list is for great seasonal songs in all kinds of genres that shouldn’t scandalize families or colleagues. The naughty list has a more troublesome edge, with darker moods, dirty words, politics, novelties and aberrations (but some pretty ones too).
Each list runs about six hours. Spin them to suit your moods and circumstances. Or don’t, but I hope you get a replenishing year-end break, whatever you celebrate or abstain from. As the Kathleen Edwards song on the naughty list puts it, ”It’s Christmastime—let’s just survive.”
Yule Be Naughty (NSFW)
Contents vary slightly due to available tracks on each platform.
Yule Be Nice
Again, contents vary slightly etc etc.
Thank you. Merry Christmas!
I can relate. I've been making holiday playlists for decades --first as mix tapes, then CDs. Still have them all (pick hits: "Santa's a Hippie" by Don Sneed Jr. and "Happy New Year to You!" by The Qualities aka Sun Ra). And my birthday is 12/19. I'll be playing Yule Be Naughty at my b-day/holiday gathering this weekend. Thanks.