Christmas was so tense when I was a kid.

It took me ages to start enjoying it. I think it clicked as friends and family spread interstate and overseas (not because they’re away, because they come back!). So I like it, but it’s got a melancholy I can’t kick. Love, family, friends. Things that’ve happened, years racing past, the distance between people. It’s charged with paradox.

That’s the background to why I’ve got a lot of love for xmas and xmas songs. So for the once a year special there were loads of them. Wholesome, raucous, risque, oblique and beautiful – not all at once though.

Emmy Hennings brought Phil Spector and Sufjan Stevens’ xmas compilations and xmassy songs from Sleater Kinney and The Fall for a festive edition of her segment The Voice.

I played songs from Traffic Sounds’ xmas compilation I Don’t Want Anything For Christmas and Mistletone’s one, Mistletonia. The Desks song comes from the Sydney expat’s downloadable compilation, The Christmasness (available here). And I threw in the Don Burrows version for the Creative Vibes guys, because I used to love their gospel xmas specials on 2SER.

Christmas Decorations – Rough and Tumble
Barrage – Xmas in July
The Knife – Christmas Reindeer
Easy E – Merry Muthafuckin’ Xmas
Alan Vega – No More Xmas Blues
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone – Cold White Christmas
Darlene Love – Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Sleater Kinney - You’re No Rock’n'Roll Fun
The Fall – No Xmas for John Quays
Sufjan Stevens – Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Kid Cornered – Dean Versus Bing
Wayne & Wax – Remix-mas
De La Soul – Millie Pulled a Gun On Santa
Louis Armstrong – Zat You Santa Claus
Belle & Sebastian – Santa Claus
The Mendoza Line – Fox In The Snow (live)
Fountains of Wayne – Valley Winter Snow
Jack Ladder – All You Get’s A Song
The Desks – The Christmas Song
Teenage Fanclub – Christmas Eve
Afxjim – Assassination on Xmas Eve
Parker Lewis – Xmas Carols NYC
Don Burrows – Jingle Bells
Wild Billy Childish and the Musicians of the British Empire – Dear Santa Claus
The Ronettes – Frosty the Snowman

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