Christmas spin: Our holiday playlist

Christmas is finally here and so is the decking of all the halls, both at home and at the office.

The staffers here at CBC P.E.I. have assembleda playlist of our favourite Christmas tunes to get your family in the holiday spirit and keep it going all weekend.

Cartoon classics

Island Morning producer Maggie Brown said her favourite Christmas jingles are a collection of songs from beloved holiday specials she watched as a kid.

She said she looks back on the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! to stir up the yuletide spirit.

"When I hear that music now, it conjures up so many things for me, like getting in our jammies and getting on the couch and sitting around with my brothers eating junk food and getting so excited for Christmas coming," she said.

"I don't have to watch the shows. If I hear the music it just brings back all those great kid Christmas feelings and excitement that stays with you even when you're an adult."

An Old Christmas Card

Kevin "Boomer" Gallant warms up with Jim Reeves' An Old Christmas Card, one that reminds him of days spent singing with his mother and watching her do what she loved bake.

"Still when I hear it, I see Mom baking in the kitchen. She bought a little cassette of Jim Reeves and she had a little ghetto blaster there, she would play it as she baked , and she baked a lot ... I get a few chills every year I hear that and every time."

Feliz Navidad

CBC producer Julie Clow said anything from Boney M.'s Christmas Album makes her feel festive, but Feliz Navidadis the essential track.

"It reminds me, I don't know how old I was, but I would go to school one day in December and it would be normal and I'd come home that same day, whatever day it was, and Christmas would've happened in our house," she said.

"And that album would be on and my mom would be hanging something up somewhere, and they were all the same decorations every year my mom would be singing along with it and I'd be singing along with it and it just, it gives me the serious Christmas warm-and-fuzzies every time I hear it."

The Holy City

Radio-Canada reporter Franois-Pierre Dufault said his favourite Christmas song is The Holy City.

"The song reminds me of the bold, inspiring marches that played from old LPs and cassettes when I was a kid."

O Holy Night

Morning web journalist Kevin Yarr said it's no simple task picking a favourite, but the soaring melodies and bold lyrics of O Holy Nightseal the deal for him.

"I guess what really kind of pushed it up to the front of the line, for me, was, some years ago, I heard a later verse in the song I'd never heard before, and it had these lines in it, 'Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother,' and it just really struck me," he said.

"For me, it's just such a great message about how in the face of oppression of others, you need to be brave and that's, for me, a real Christmas message."

The Carpenter's Son

Sarah Keaveny Vos is part of Charlottetown's radio archives team. She credits The Carpenter's Sonby Kenneth Cope with beinga reminder ofthe true meaning of theholiday season.

"When I'm in church on Christmas Eve with my family, I look around and I think, 'There's no where else I'd rather be,' and I feel very grateful for that," she said.

"And so when I hear this song, and especially the line 'I just fall on my knees and give thanks for the carpenter's son,' it brings me to my knees and it brings tears to my eyes because I know that is really the truth of it all."

I Wonder as I Wander

Audette Chaisson, producer of the Island's French morning show, said her favourite Christmas song is Julie Andrews' I Wonder as I Wander.

She said it dates back to a record she picked up during a lonely Christmas break when she couldn't go home to New Brunswick while studying in Montreal.

"So, finally, when I put it on, there was this song, I Wonder as I Wander, it just wrapped my heart," she said. "I was so happy to hear this song, I don't know why, the feeling it got to me, it just gave me so much comfort. I never forgot the song and every Christmas when I hear that song I get back there and I feel good."

A Tender Tennessee Christmas

Country group Alabama's Christmas is one that holds a lot of memories for Angela Walker.

She said her teenage obsession with them carried over into a shared love of the album's festive spirit with her father, and now with her own children.

"Every Christmas Eve we would play through that album maybe once, maybe twice. It did become sort of a Christmas tradition in our family. And so, when I had children, we would always play the Alabama Christmas album," she said.

"It really brought back memories of when I was younger and it was memories that my kids have held onto as well when they hear songs from the Alabama Christmas album."

Christmas in Killarney

Natalia Goodwin, CBC P.E.I. video journalist, said Bing Crosby's rendition of Christmas in Killarneyspeaks to both the fun and family aspects of the holiday season.

"I love the upbeat tempo of it, it just kind of says 'Party!' and it has a special meaning for me because when we used to bake when I was little with all my sisters gathered around, that album was always on," she said.

"And I remember particularly, the sister closest to me, we would be jumping around and doing jigs in the kitchen and so it just sort of says 'Happy Christmastime.'"

Goodwin said the line 'With all the folks at home,' is particularly what Christmas means to her.

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