"It's comin' on Christmas..."

...and all the ads and store displays that have been up and running since well before Halloween have me burned out on it.

Time to take a deep breath and listen to the music that always serves to get me seriously in a Christmas mood:

• Gustav Holst's breathtakingly gorgeous setting of "Lullay My Liking"
• "Qui creavit coelum," also known as the song of the nuns of Chester; if you can find the Ensemble for Early Music's album Christemas in Anglia, then you have my favorite recording of it and of many other songs--don't miss the trope "Rex virginum amator"
• "Edi beo thu" (Anonymous 4's version is wonderful... but then, Anonymous 4's version of everything is wonderful)
• "Nowell/Tidings True", which is a lovely song of the Annunciation. This and an incredible setting of "Alma redemptoris mater" are on an old New York Pro Musica album of Christmas songs. (The link I give shows up a mistake made in the track listing for the NYPM CD, because one of the links for "Nowell, Nowell" actually takes you to "Alma redemptoris mater"!)
• "Mary Was an Only Child," from Art Garfunkel's Angel Clare album.
• "I Believe in Father Christmas," which I think first showed up on ELP's Works vol. 2. I love the way they use the "Troika" from Lieutenant Kije, and I love the skeptical point of view of the song.
  

I hope all of you who celebrate at this time of year have a wonderful time, be it in First or Second Life.