This one dates back a bit farther than most Christmas Present selections, but is by a popular artist of the past 15 years, and I actually don’t recall hearing it before this year, so it’s new to me: Rob Thomas’ “A New York Christmas.”

It certainly sounds like a song from that era from him, fitting the Matchbox 20/early Rob Thomas solo sound that he was rocking back then, and is a nice midtempo track that is sure to be a crowdpleaser for the tri-state area in particular, given the subtle shout-outs dotted through the tune.

It rocks a bit more than much of the music, but that’s the point of Christmas Present – break out of the more downtempo malaise that much of the holiday music out there tends to encourage.