Today I introduce some of my favorite tracks from what has proven to be my favorite Christmas album since I began my “Christmas Present” experiement: Relient K’s “Let it Snow… Let it Reindeer.” (Nice pun.) The Christian band makes Christmas music awfully fun.

“Merry Christmas, Here’s to Many More” is a beautiful addition to the Christmas music tapestry.  The horns and subtle country undertones in the second chorus, the guitar intro… this song, to me, is perfection. Each year, it’s the first Christmas song I deliberately listen to (as stores always try to jump the gun on me), and the one I seek out the most. It has the single most plays on my Christmas Present playlist, and I never get tired of the tune. But while it’s my favorite, it’s accompanied by a batch of other wonderful takes on Christmas music.

Additional listening

“Sleigh Ride” is a nice contemporary take on the classic, with a slight rock edge that makes it pop.

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is a relatively straight ahead take, but it has a warming effect on me.

“Good King Wenceslas.” Falsetto FTW.  And one bass voice for good measure.  It’s the bonus track, and shows the fun they had putting this together.

They rock out on a few of the tracks, such as “Angels We Have Heard on High.”  I actually find these tracks to be the most generic (they just sound like how a random rock band would interpret these), but they do their best to acquit themselves from being too bland, and ultimately they fit within the album’s other tracks well enough to make sense.