(Almost) 'tis the season for Christmas music! I showed a little restraint this year and figured I would start this thread after Thanksgiving. (But I finished my Christmas mix on Thanksgiving day, which is the earliest I've ever done so. I'll let you know when it's ready for public consumption.) Feel free to post whatever 2012 albums, EPs, and singles that you come across.

Already out:



Various Artists - Holidays Rule

1. Sleigh Ride - fun.
2. Wonderful Christmastime - The Shins
3. Baby, It's Cold Outside - Rufus Wainwright
4. The Christmas Song (chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) - Paul Mccartney
5. (Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With The Bag - Black Prairie
6. I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day - The Civil Wars
7. Green Grows The Holly - Calexico
8. We Need A Little Christmas - AgesandAges
9. That's What I Want For Christmas - Holly Golightly
10. May Every Day Be Christmas - Irma Thomas
11. Blue Christmas - Heartless Bastards
12. Santa, Bring My Baby Back (To Me) - Eleanor Friedberger
13. It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas - Fruit Bats
14. Seņor Santa (Mister Santa) - Y La Bamba
15. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Punch Brothers
16. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? - The Head And The Heart
17. Auld Lang Syne - Andrew Bird

This compilation is my Christmas album of the year thus far.



Cee Lo Green - Cee Lo's Magic Moment



Sufjan Stevens - Silver & Gold

His latest compilation of 58 old, new, and newly re-recorded Christmas songs. As you can imagine from that sheer amount of Yuletide tunes, some are really great, some not so much.



Various Artists - A Very Special Christmas: 25 Years

1. Joy To The World - Train
2. Something In The Air - Grayson Sanders and Jono, Featuring Lauriana Mae
3. Angels We Have Heard On High - Jewel
4. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Michael Buble
5. Do You Hear What I Hear? - Jordin Sparks
6. I Want You For Christmas - Cheap Trick
7. Mary, Did You Know? - Rascal Flatts
8. Best Christmas Ever - Wonder Girls
9. Tennessee Christmas - Amy Grant
10. Christmas Without You - One Republic
11. Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song) -Vince Gill
12. Please Come Home For Christmas -Martina McBride
13. Winter Wonderland - Jason Mraz
14. December 25 - Francesca Battistelli
15. Christmas Song - Dave Matthews Band
16. O Holy Night - Christina Aguilera

Best Buy has a Deluxe Version with 5 extra songs.



Lady Antebellum - On a Winter's Night

An expanded edition of their 2010 Target exclusive EP.



Colbie Caillat - Christmas in the Sand

The Target edition has 3 more songs.



Christina Perri - A Very Merry Perri Christmas



Rod Stewart - Merry Christmas, Baby



Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas

Remastered and expanded for 2012. There is also a green vinyl pressing of the original version!



Tracey Thorn - Tinsel and Lights



The Polyphonic Spree - Holidaydream: Sounds of the Holidays Vol. One



Various Artists - Isn't This World Enough?? A Nettwerk Christmas

1. fun. - "Believe In Me"
2. Family of the Year - "OMG It's Christmas"
3. Sixpence None The Richer - "Angels We Have Heard on High"
4. Great Lake Swimmers - "Hang A String Of Lights"
5. Liam Titcomb - "Generosity"
6. Ash Koley - "If I Had A Lighthouse"
7. Jay Brannan - "Dear Santa"
8. Joshua Hyslop - "Silent Night"
9. Hey Ocean! - "Tonight It's Christmas Time"
10. The Rifles - "Sleigh Ride"
11. Admiral Fallow - "Isn't This World Enough"
12. Current Swell - "Christmas Alone"
13. Joshua Hyslop - "Winter's Night"
14. Aliqua - "Christmas Angel"



Sugar & The Hi-Lows - Snow Angel



Blake Shelton - Cheers, It's Christmas



John Roderick and Jonathan Coulton - One Christmas at a Time



Kem - What Christmas Means



Twisted Sister - A Twisted Xmas: Live in Las Vegas



Scotty McCreery - Christmas with Scotty McCreery

And of course...



John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John - This Christmas

also, TSO put out a new EP this year.



Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Dreams of Fireflies (On a Christmas Night)

Thanks for posting. Every year I look for a compilation with "Merry Christmas in the NFL" by Willis the Guard & Vigorish. (Buckner & Garcia) A few years back someone here was kind enough to post a link from a Dr Demento show, but still no official release.

Amazon Local has a nationwide "free" voucher to let you purchase a select MP3 album for $2.

I used it to purchase DJLinus' Christmas album of the year thus far

The free Christmas albums, EPs, and songs by indie artists (most I've never heard of before) are starting to pour in over at NoiseTrade:

http://www.noisetrade.com/

Though not new, Over the Rhine's very excellent Snow Angels is offered for free over there, which is an absolute steal. I highly recommend it.

http://www.noisetrade.com/overtherhine

I didn't realize that I wielded such influence. Now I'm going to go mad with power. Hope you like it. I think it's a solid compilation. I'm especially fond of the AgesandAges song. (It's bested the Muppets' version, IMO.)

Expanded? I think not.
It has a Halloween tune and a Thanksgiving track but the release I have (couple years old) has 4 bonus Christmas tracks(all are alternate takes):

Christmas is Coming
The Christmas Song
Greensleeves
Christmas Time is Here

Here's the version I have (2006). However the MP3's for both versions are cheap; $6 for 2006, $4 for 2012.

You should really put that behind NSFW tags.

I was just going by what was listed at another site. I believe a few years ago I upgraded my CD to the one you mention here (I'll have to check). But it is newly remastered - I haven't heard whether it's a good job or not - and is available on green vinyl now.

It's also one of the titles available for $1.99 via Amazon Local that Trevor mentioned.

Travolta's "hair" has really been creeping me out over the last few years.

1. Mittens - Carly Rae Jepsen
2. Mistletoe - Justin Bieber
3. Shake up Christmas - Train
4. Christmas Without You - OneRepublic
5. Christmas Lights Coldplay
6. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Norah Jones
7. Love Is Christmas - Sara Bareilles
8. The Christmas Song - Gavin DeGraw
9. White Christmas - Lady Gaga
10. Christmas Time - Christina Aguilera
11. Oh Santa! - Mariah Carey
12. Winter Wonderland - Selena Gomez & The Scene
13. Wonderful Christmastime - Demi Lovato
14. Jingle Bell Rock - Rascal Flatts
15. Please Come Home for Christmas - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
16. The First Noel - Carrie Underwood
17. Silent Night - Sugarland
18. Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 24/24 - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

I don't buy Christmas music, but out of curiousity for fans, do any of these songs seem to have what it takes to become classics?

I picked up the Holidays Rule on Amazon MP3 and have to say that I like the Punch Brothers song the best.

One of the things I look forward to most every December is dj BC's Santastic Christmas mash-up compilation. This year's mix has just been released. (Free!)



http://www.djbc.net/santastic7/

I've been busy and have fallen really behind on going through all of the new stuff at Bandcamp, NoiseTrade, etc. I intend to comb through that stuff this weekend and I'll post any good finds.

In the meantime, if anyone wants my Christmas mix for this year, speak up and I'll PM you in the right direction.

So far Colbie Caillat's album with the "Christmas in the Sand" single seems pretty good.

The Lady Antebellum is kind of odd--doesn't really seem like their style but I should give it another listen.

DJBC is fantastic! I did a sketch for him once. I also love the Halloween mashups.