Wonderful Winter

According to the bookmakers, the chances of snow falling in London on Christmas Day are around 6-to-1 (Glasgow's a bit tighter at 4-to-1) — but there's bound to be a white-out at some point this winter. And when that happens, our snowbound playlist makes the perfect soundtrack for sledgin' and ballin', icicle-style, especially when Bing sings.

Who cares if it's gone a bit nippy outside? Not Ella Fitzgerald ("I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm") nor Nina Simone, who's going where "Chilly Winds Don't Blow", or Julie London, who uses her "heart that glows like an ember" as central heating on "Warm December". Lovelorn Ziggy Marley tells a different story on "Long Winter".

We give winter a sideways glance in this section of our playlist, which contains a sublime collaboration between Linda Ronstadt and modern minimalist composer Philip Glass ("Freezing"), and one of pop's most addictive doses of melancholy (Mazzy Star's "Flowers in December").

Few sensations beat the enchantment of waking up and realizing that the world's gone quiet, muffled by a thick blanket of virgin snow. For a moment, time appears to stop, so prolong the magic with our Winter Wonderland compilation before you're forced to shovel the stuff from your drive, which means you're late for work and you forget to pack your wellies . . . so your trousers get soaked in a thick grey sludge and the flu's coming on and . . . goddam you, winter — you know where you can stick your snow!