December Daily: Christmas music

Since nobody claimed today, I'm going to answer the question nobody asked, which was: "What's new in the Christmas music collection this year?"

For those who haven't known me long, I collect Christmas music, and if you hate Christmas music because it's all either shiny shiny plastic or an unseemly show of sentimental piety, I might have a pleasant surprise for you.

My Christmas car playlist is up to 579 songs -- that's with all the instrumentals taken out, and only including songs that either have three or more stars or are brand-new and thus unrated. Every time iTunes upgrades, I have to go looking for another workaround to do what apparently no one but me wants to do, namely: first shuffle a playlist randomly, and then hang onto that random order and play them in that order every time. (Apple's random shuffle is actually random, which isn't good, because when I have a playlist of 579 songs, I get really cranky if I hear the same song twice in one day.)

Download six songs here:

• Jackie Oates, The Halsway Carol. Trad-folk. "Sing for the coming of the longest night."
  
• Joel Mabus, The One-Horse Open Sleigh. Solo acoustic guitar, old-time country feel.
  
• The Miserable Offenders, A Stable Lamp Is Lighted. Because how could I resist a band called the Miserable Offenders? Piano and voices; the music's OK but I chose this one for the words. "And every stone shall cry, and straw like gold shall shine."
  
• Kate Rusby, The Christmas Goose. Trad-folk. Basically a slightly bawdy joke turned to a ballad. (I discovered when I did a search for this that I have six songs with "goose" in the title, and I'm pretty sure they're all different.)
  
• Blast From the Past, Joy in the Morning. A capella choir.
  
• Thea Gilmore, Sol Invictus. A capella voices. Not Christmas, strictly speaking, but don't we all need a song of rebirth this year?
  
  Go here to add your own question.
  
  ( The questions thus far are under here. )