Some holiday tunes to set off the season right!

It's become a regular tradition here at LRG to put up a playlist for Christmas and since today is the day before the night before the big event, some seasonal tunes are in order, I do believe.

I also want to wish a Happy Chanukah to those out there who have just begun their celebrations, along with a Happy Winter Solstice greeting which may be a little late there and an advance Happy Kwanzaa(which starts on the 26th).

Yes, this Christmas jukebox post is also a herald for a small blog break but I do intend to have a post or two up before the end of the year(got a nice book preview for early winter 2020 in the works!).
For now, let's put on some music to dance around the tree with:

One of my favorite Christmas songs from the modern era is "Christmas In Hollis" from Run-DMC, a song that not only has a fun video to go with it but fits wells into so many other moments of media.

From being a contribution to the first A Very Christmas fundraising album to popping up on TV shows such as The Office and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and making appearances in holiday themed films like the should-be-undisputed classic Die Hard, this hip-hop tribute to Santa Claus has my spirits chilling just like a snowman:

Speaking of great movies, I felt that having an Elton John number would be the best way to honor one of the best movies that I saw this year(three times, as a matter of fact!).

It's wonderful to see Rocketman get some award show attention so far and hopefully, that will extend to some Oscar love early in the new year. For now, we ought to just be happy enough to "Step into Christmas" with the one and only Elton Hercules John:

I'm not a big podcast listener but this year, I have been enjoying Song Vs. Song  which is co-hosted by YouTube reviewer Todd in the Shadows and SyFy's Dany Roth. The basic concept is that they put up a pair of songs to debate the merits of such as "You Oughta Know" and "Criminal", with folks on their Patreon getting to vote for the winner.

Well, they did a holiday episode and the fight was between "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"(Rudolph won, of course). During their discussion, a number of cover versions of each song were mentioned and while it's oddly interesting to hear Fiona Apple sing "Frosty", I do agree with Dany that Kacey Musgraves has a good take on "Rudolph", very playlist worthy:

Another great cover version of a childhood classic is "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from the Pointer Sisters. Their rendition of the song debuted on the A Very Special Christmas album(the first one was the best, in my opinion) and there are none to rival it.

Yes, I know others have done a good job with this number, even the evergreen holiday diva Mariah Carey, but the energy and joy that singing siblings Ruth, Anita and June gave to the song were hard to beat.

These days, Ruth has teamed up with her nieces Issa and Sadako to continue the group and while it's not quite the same, the heartfelt family vibe is very much alive there:

As an end piece, I went with the closing credits song from Scrooged and while it may not be thought of as a Christmas tune, I firmly believe that it counts. Especially as we are all entering a most uncertain new year indeed, the idea of "Put a Little Love in your Heart" seems to be truly fitting.

So, Happy Holidays, folks and see you all soon before the season ends: