While you’re making your own gifts, or making some baked goods for family and other loved ones during the holidays, you can turn on the radio and find the one local station that plays the same holiday songs for five weeks, or you could turn your holiday playlist into a gift in and of itself. If you plan to have holiday music going anyway, why not find a way to curate your listens and keep everyone around you happy with the best possible tunes? Here are five ideas for sprucing up your holiday music playlist.
Use Holiday Films
You can use the soundtrack section at IMDB.com to find out what music plays in your favorite holiday films, and either buy the full soundtrack, or just select pieces. Often, holiday movies set the tone with their music, and they of course set the tone for our own holiday celebrations. Holiday music is filled with standards, but some movies choose fantastic new covers we don’t hear as much as we do others.
Ask Your Family
Christmas traditions are not just about the things we remember. Like The Christmas Poop Log itself, it all goes back to the things you do with your family. Oftentimes, each family member will have their favorite holiday songs and will be able to pull some very specific memories to go with them. If you put together a family playlist, it can be fun to put everyone’s recollections of them together in a text file, sort of like album liner notes.
Karaoke Holiday
Looking for an unintrusive holiday playlist for the background of a holiday party? Or, are you the kind of person who likes to get up and belt out a classic holiday tune when the party really gets started? Either way, karaoke music can serve both functions, setting the mood without any bias toward a particular cover. Get the party started with casual background music, and build up to inevitable five-person duet.
Go Vinyl
If you want cheap options and you own a turntable, holiday music usually comes cheap at used record stores. For just a few bucks, you can probably start a whole new collection of holiday music, usually from some of the biggest artists of the day, including some really fun compilations. Even better, those old vinyl album covers make for great holiday decorations, all on their own, especially if you have square shelves that fit one cover a piece.
Stick with the Classics
One way to get your holiday playlist together is to use a service like iHeart for your playlists. Music streaming services have most of the classics, and dozens on dozens of different interpretations and translations, which is especially helpful if you have parties with guests from all over the world.
Summary
However you choose to put together your holiday playlist, one big recommendation is to keep it light. Slow, sad holiday songs can be great, and are perfect for reflection, but for a party, you want to keep the BPMs as high as everyone’s spirits.