Christmas Discoveries

Nothing sets the holiday mood like the musical ornaments you hang from your speakers, by which we mean your tuneage. Everybody has their time-honoured favourites, and we wouldn't deny you the obligatory pleasure of playing Bing's "White Christmas" again, but we'd also suggest — for your guests' sake, if not your own — you might want to spice up your holiday playlist with our Santafied stocking-stuffer discoveries. Like Elvis, the season's other King, who rolls in from gospelicious Memphis singing in praise of "Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees". In Next Steps, we'll hear from three women with different takes on the sounds of the season.

In the wake of the Three Wise Men and the little Boy who is, after all, the Reason for the Season, women seem to have been given a lump of coal instead of a mince pie, so our Next Steps celebrates the ladies who make a joyful noise. Bette Midler gets us all steamy with her jazzy version of "Baby It's Cold Outside", Martha Wainwright offers some insight into her family celebrations ("Mom's making dinner for 20 of Rufus's L.A. friends") on "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year", and delightful Mindy Smith assures us that no chimney will be left unshimmied with her own composition, "Santa Will Find You". In Deep Cuts, Xmas rocks, Xmas swings, Xmas sobs, and Xmas hits the bottle one too many times.

Our Deep Cuts features a secret Santa surprise package ranging from delighted to dejected, mirthful to melancholic, and high-spirited to heartbroken — the perfect complement for every emotional "gift" you and yours might receive. The Beach Boys leave their surfboards in the garage to "cuddle up in a cosy nook, with a warm drink and a book" on "Winter Symphony", Mel Blanc has a beef with Santa on "The Hat I Got for Christmas is Too Beeg" and Anthony Newley pulls on Scrooge's threadbare nightgown and plays the seasonal misanthrope on "I Hate Christmas".

Before you know it, the holiday season is going to be all over us like a big, red, fuzzy suit, and you'll definitely want to sprinkle in a few new tunes while chestnuts are roasting on the open fire and visions of sugar plums dance in your head. We've sifted through the approximately 13,586,754 Christmas albums currently in release to find some unexpected gifts — the audio gold, frankincense, and myrrh, as it were — that will make you the star everyone follows this year. From Mae West to Marvin Gaye, from Stevie Wonder to Sufjan Stevens, we've got a sleighful of delightful little musical presents, all wrapped up in one big playlist marked "Be Sure To Open BEFORE Christmas!"