Let your heart be light! The ultimate holiday playlist is here. Your friends at GBH Music, experts in jazz, classical, and Celtic music, hand-picked our all-time favorite festive songs to make your holiday soundtrack merry and bright. Read about our favorite songs, listen to the playlist, and deck those halls - we'll be with you every step of the way.

Cathy Fuller
CRB Classical
I was just a little girl when my father took me and my sister out on a cold December night to hear some Christmas music. We sat in a pew in one of New England’s simple, white-steepled churches. I had never before heard Benjamin Britten’s haunting piece for treble choir and harp, "A Ceremony of Carols," and I’ll never forget the effect it had on me. There was even a full winter’s moon that night, perfectly stationed in a circular window up near the rafters. I noticed it during the harp solo, and my young heart felt very, very full. I even remember wondering whether the harp had somehow aroused a gentle flurry of snowflakes I was seeing in front of that moon.

Britten came up with this magical music while travelling by ship from New York to England during the Second World War. When the ship stopped in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he bought a book of medieval poetry, and the idea for the piece was born.

Now the "Ceremony of Carols" has become a tradition with my two daughters – we try to put it on every year when we have the first snowfall of the season.

Tessil Collins
GBH Jazz
While I am partial to my own Christmas song “It’s Christmastime Again” that I wrote on a Wellfleet beach one summer with my family, my favorite Christmas song would be “A Kiss for Christmas” by Luther Vandross. This song is a rollicking expression of the happiness and hopefulness of the holiday season. Some of my other favorites are “A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas” by the Count Basie Orchestra, Boyz II Men’s “Christmas Interpretations,” and the “extra festive” version of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You."

Laura Carlo
CRB Classical
The song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine for the 1944 Judy Garland movie, "Meet Me in St. Louis," is my favorite secular Christmas tune. It's wistful and wishful..."from now on our troubles will be out of sight," "through the years we all will be together, if the Fates allow..." and holds my every hope and wish to have a peaceful life with loved ones near. That sentiment grows more poignant as time marches on, but the wishes are just as fervent. So many of the old crooners did a great job with it and I love them all for what they brought to the song, but Frank Sinatra steals my heart on this one.

Brian McCreath
CRB Classical
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” is an American classic, with words written by a priest who would later serve as the rector of Trinity Church in Copley Square. But musically I’ve always preferred the setting of Philips Brooks’s words by Ralph Vaughan Williams, using an English folk tune he called “Forest Green.” Like so much of Vaughan Williams’s music, there’s a lilting graciousness and a melody that feels like a circle is complete at the end of every verse. I particularly love the version recorded for the 1993 movie Shadowlands, partly because of the highly idiosyncratic and charming sound of a British brass ensemble. But it’s also because that sound contextualizes a beautiful story based on the life of C.S. Lewis, a writer whose work has long been important to me.

Al Davis
GBH Jazz
Happy Holidays To You - The Whispers. A soulful blend to the holiday season. My favorite from this recording: "The Christmas Song."
Ben Tankard, electronic pianist, with a smooth sound, a nice touch, and a different spin. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," a favorite of mine.
Windham Hill Christmas: The Night Before Christmas - Various Artists. This CD is relaxing: fireplace, family conversation, warm apple cider.

Alan McLellan
CRB Classical
Mel Tormé’s “Christmas Song” brings back glowing memories for me, of Christmas concerts and holiday caroling gigs at shopping malls and nursing homes, back when I was a student at the University of British Columbia. And this is the version we would sing, arranged by the amazing jazz vocalist, Gene Puerling. Chanticleer’s recording is fabulous.

Tyler Alderson
CRB Classical
I’ve sung Vaughan Williams’s "Fantasia on Christmas Carols" countless times in holiday concerts. Some music loses its shine after that many renditions, but something about the "Fantasia" keeps me hooked every time. I think it’s the contrast between stark solos and festive choirs that highlight the best part of the holidays: everyone coming together out of the cold to make the days feel special. The City of London Sinfonia with John Rutter is probably the best recording.

James Bennett II
GBH News, Arts and Culture
What possibly comes close to "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" (besides, maybe, Tomás Luis de Victoria’s arrangement of “O magnum mysterium” or “Coventry Carol”)? Nothing, that’s what. To be fair, nothing about this hymn screams “Christmas” or “Red and Green,” and depending on the hymnal you’re looking at it won’t even appear in the Christmas section. But sing this tune some folks do, come that brumal Christmastide. The roar of those tenors and basses warms the spirit, while the youthful voices fall upon your ears as fresh snow kisses a wearied earth. Give it enough plays and you’ll probably start speaking with an unnecessarily poetic voice, and that’s what the season is about, I guess. That, and the final “Alleluia.”

Greg Ferrisi
CRB Classical
My all-time favorite has to be "Sleigh Ride," with or without lyrics. You'd think it would be because of the joy it evokes, or the nostalgia of winter horse-drawn sleigh rides in my past (none), but you'd be wrong. It's the whip-crackin' sound. And probably the trumpet whinny at the end.
A close second would be "Funky, Funky Christmas" by hometown heroes the New Kids on the Block. (Or NKOTB, whichev.) It's the perfect accompaniment to holiday dance parties with the kids. And this season's all about the young'uns.

Emily Marvosh
CRB Classical
"O Holy Night" is the preferred Christmas song at my house; my sweetie prefers the Celine Dion version, but I love Johnny Mathis's interpretation. My parents wore the grooves off his album Merry Christmas, although they were children when it was released in 1958 (he's STILL performing, by the way!), and we had to replace it with a CD... and now, of course, we can stream it. There's a warm and smiling aspect to his vocals that I don't hear in some more well-known crooners. Great for staying indoors when it's less than a winter wonderland out there!

GBH Alumnae:

Brian O'Donovan
A Celtic Sojourn

One of my favorite Christmas songs is from one of my very favorite Christmas albums. It’s the original English version of "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" (not the typical melody we are accustomed to here).

Certain sounds and smells, even colors can transport me back instantly with beloved holiday memories to my childhood. This song is one. Maddy Prior, who was the iconic voice of the English folk-rock band Steeleye Span, collaborated with The Angel Band, a classical group specializing in music of the Baroque period. Maddy’s approach and the band's accompaniment make for a special selection of Christmas songs indeed.

Eric Jackson
GBH Jazz
The vocalist Mel Tormé wrote "The Christmas Song" and gave it to his friend Nat King Cole to record during the middle of the summer. Nat recorded the song three times. No matter which of Nat's versions of that song I hear, it always makes me think of home, and a lifetime of love with family and friends. Great memories! Warm feelings!

Ron Della Chiesa
CRB Classical
"Christmas Night in Harlem" - Louis Armstrong. Old "Satchmo" at his best!
"The Christmas Song" - Mel Tormé. The best version of this holiday classic by the guy who wrote it.
"A Child is Born" - Tony Bennett. A heartfelt version of this lovely ballad by Thad Jones.
"Joy to the World" - Mario Lanza. The powerful voice of Mario Lanza from one of the all time best selling Christmas collections.
"12 Days of Christmas" - Boston Pops. A fabulous arrangement that always stops the show at the Holiday Pops!
"Adoration of the Magi" from Respighi's Tritico Botticelli - Boston Pops. Another gem from Keith Lockhart and the Pops.
"White Christmas" - Bing Crosby. A classic for the ages!
"The Nutcracker" - Duke Ellington. The best jazz treatment of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece.
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - Judy Garland. Judy sang this in the 1944 movie "Meet Meet Me in St. Louis."
"Songs for Christmas Eve" - Eileen Farrell. The magnificent soprano in a traditional collection arranged by Luther Henderson.
"I'll be home for Christmas" - Frank Sinatra: It wouldn't be the holiday season without "Old Blue Eyes!" I remember hearing Frank sing this on a radio broadcast during World War 2.

Jay Fondin
CRB Classical
I'm not sure if "When the River Meets the Sea" fully qualifies as a holidays tune, but it's definitely the one that makes me feel the most nostalgic. It's from (in my opinion) the world's best Christmas album, John Denver & The Muppets' A Christmas Together, which was on heavy rotation in my family's household come December. The song itself is sad, sweet, and chuckle-inducing - mostly because it's Robin the Frog singing alongside one of the greatest folk singers of all time, and then joined by a chorus of raucous Muppets. I always make time for it when the weather gets chilly.

Chris Voss
CRB Classical
During the holidays I tend to lean more on atmospheric, slow, sometimes broody music: "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Lo How a Rose," etc. And the one piece that always makes me stop and listen is "Coventry Carol." It’s from the mid-1500s, it’s gorgeously haunting, and it feels like a direct line to medieval stone cathedrals with dripping candelabras and endless snow drifts. The version from the The Sixteen is particularly awesome because of its juicy dissonances.