With only a few more days left to go until Christmas, are you already fatiguing on Holiday music? I get it, you want to stay in the holiday spirit and not become a total Scrooge, but there’s only so much you can take.
Have no fear! I’ve enlisted some of my fellow Pandora curators and analysts to suggest some of their favorite holiday stations that will add that bit of variety and fun you might need by mid-December.
Yuletide Slay Ride
Affectionally referred to as the Hail Santa! station around here, Yuletide Slay Ride is the perfect soundtrack to your heavy metal holiday, whether you’re a feathered-hair glam rocker, a be-spiked headbanger, or are just curious about an alternate universe where Santa is decked out in worn denim and black leather instead of red velvet and white fur.
So turn it up to 11 and enjoy a selection of spandex’d stocking stuffers from Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, Helix, a handful of holiday metal “classics” from King Diamond and Venom, a few harder and heavier takes on Christmas standards from August Burns Red, Becoming The Archetype, and Type O Negative, and a bit of post metal / metal gaze December-y drift from post-Godflesh project Jesu. The whole thing is then topped off with a super-sized sampling of season-appropriate sonic shred in the form of holiday-adjacent, winter-themed jams from High On Fire, Abbath from Immortal, Slayer, Metallica, and more. HAIL SANTA!
- Andee Connors, Head of Metal and Punk, Experimental & New Age Programming
Tiki Christmas
By the time December hits, and after months waist-deep in every remaster, reissue, Broadway belter, jazz vocalist, swing rhythm, string arrangement, and holiday standard under the sun, I’m running on peppermint fumes. A Charlie Brown Christmas is still my penultimate Christmas pick, but when real exhaustion settles in and all I want is to finish the last few weeks of the year in semi-conscious bliss, I go straight to Tiki Christmas. It becomes my sonic escape hatch. Arthur Lyman’s “Mele Kalikimaka/Jingle Bells” shimmers like a mirage, The Blue Hawaiians ease through “Christmas Time Is Here,” Los Straitjackets surf-shred “Feliz Navidad,” Peggy Lee swings with “Sleigh Bells,” and Martin Denny drops “Exotic Night” like it’s snowing inside a bamboo lounge. It is warm breeze meets tinsel, surf guitar under mistletoe, a little kitschy, a little strange, deeply nostalgic, and exactly the kind of dissociative calm my overworked and over-festive self needs to exhale into the season. It’s not just holiday music. It’s my December survival kit, wrapped in reverb and served with an umbrella drink.
- Michelle Solomon, Head of Jazz, Oldies and Showtunes
Hipster Hanukkah
Hipster Hanukkah is the Hanukkah (Chanukah?) Station to break out when you've had enough Christmas music. Enjoy this light in the darkness Jewish holiday with latkes, your favorite ugly Hanukkah sweater, and some snarky Hanukkah music. This is not your Bubbe's Hanukkah music! (Or is it? Mine had a pretty wicked sense of humor.)
Whether it’s from Erran Baron Cohen’s iconic Songs in the Key of Hanukkah album or the endearing “Can I Interest You in Hannukah?” by Stephen Colbert & Jon Stewart we’ve got your fun, irreverent “I don’t celebrate Christmas” Hannukah music here. Oh, and klezmer, lots of klezmer!
- Jamie Freedman, Head of Classical
Navidad Boricua
In Puerto Rico, Christmastime is a huge party across the whole island. As the classic salsa song "La Fiesta de Pilito" (Pilito's Party) by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico says:
“You don't have any free time from January to November/
There's only time to work/
But don't worry/
Christmas is right around the corner”
The song then goes on to describe all of the food and drink that everyone will feast on and imbibe at this epic, raging party. The kind of party where you have to find some mattresses, or you might eventually get kicked out by the hosts and take the whole party to the next neighbor's house, parranda style, complete with panderos and güícharo, singing outside until they agree to let you in and offer you more food and drink. That kind of party.
And the music of the Christmas season is full of that energy, joy, and celebration. Even Bad Bunny recorded an aguinaldo, one of the traditional jibaro song forms sung around the holidays -he opened up his Tiny Desk concert with "Pitorro de Coco," backed by the traditional cuatro, güícharo, and bongó instrumentation. And the party doesn't end on December 25th. The real celebration is the Dia de los Reyes, celebrated on January 6th, marking the day that the three wise men from afar visited the baby Jesus - a parallel to the three distinct cultures that came together to shape Puerto Rican culture: African, European, and Taino.
If you are ready for a break from solemn, pensive Christmas music, put on Navidad Boricua Radio and get the party started - ¡weeeeeepa!
- Camilo Landau, Product Manager, former Latin Music Music Analyst
Lofi Holiday and Electronic Holidays
Lofi Holiday is the newest addition to the dance/electronic holiday station lineup, joining our more uptempo Electronic Holidays station, which features the likes of Kaskade and Kylie Minogue Christmas bops.
Lofi Holiday blends cozy seasonal nostalgia with mellow beats, reimagining classics through lo-fi production audio winterscapes. Top tracks include laid-back takes on “Jingle Bells,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and more whimsical tracks like “Snowfall Study Beats” — perfect for unwinding, working, or easing into the holidays.
- Ben Harvey, Dance & Electronic Music Programming
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