A Playlist for Christmas Morning

No matter how you like to unwrap it, there’s something undeniably magical about Christmas morning. The house smells like cinnamon and sugar, there’s the crunch and rustle of wrapping paper underfoot, and at some point The Carpenters will croon out, “Merry Christmas, Darling.”

While you’re sipping your hot cocoa, biting into a hot cinnamon roll, or nursing a headache from too much eggnog, crank up this playlist full of new and old holiday cheer.

When I sat down with Austin Powers (my co-pilot for the Thanksgiving playlist) to create this playlist for Christmas morning, we knew we wanted its theme to be nostalgia.

Listen to the Playlist: The Kitchn Christmas Morning Playlist

There are two types of nostalgia for Christmas music: First, the kind that’s outright embarrassing. If you’re like Austin, you never — and I mean never — change the station when Mariah Carey’s Christmas anthem comes on. And why should you? Then there’s the nostalgia for the Nats, the Bings, and the Martins.

This playlist meets you right in the middle with the old classic hits, the modern favorites, and new tunes from Feist, Ingo Star Cruiser, and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. 
Twenty years from now, this playlist will be a peek at the music we’ve always listened to, with the classics holding down the bases, and new discoveries added as the canon of holiday music grows.