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Download:
Via Google Drive
Via Box: Tracks.Zip, Tracks folder, Cover art, Track list.

Last Christmas, my bestie Paul Von Elterlein texted me a photo of his family tree—where he had placed a photo of himself at the top,—with the caption “This Christmas be sure to remind your family who is the star.”

I quickly followed.  Am I the star or the angel?  Some seasons it’s tough to wear both halos.

This year’s Hardcastle Holiday Music Mix is all about the evergreen we bring inside and to make the darkest season bright.

Track List:

1. Trim Up the Tree, by Dr. Seuss
   
2. Underneath the Tree, by Kelly Clarkson
3. Wrap Me Up Under the Christmas Tree, by A Great Big World
4. Jingle Bell Rock-Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, by Girl Named Tom
5. Disco Balls on the Christmas Tree, by Fulton Lee
6. You're the Star (On My Christmas Tree), by RuPaul
7. O Christmas Tree, by Tiny Stills Quartet
8. Christmas Tree Farm (Old Timey Version), by Taylor Swift
9. Pick Out a Christmas Tree, by Dan + Shay
10. The Happiest Christmas Tree, by Nat King Cole
11. Christmas Tree, by Zac Brown Band
12. Christmas Tree, by Cassette Deck
13. The Tree, by Peggy Lee
14. My Christmas Tree, by The Temptations
15. O Christmas Tree, by Jacob Jezioro
16. The Christmas Tree, by David Rose
17. Twinkle Twinkle Little Me, by The Supremes
18. Christmas Lights, by Daniel Hudson
19. Big Bulbs, by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
20. The Christmas Tree Angel, by The Andrews Sisters
21. Round and Round the Christmas Tree, by Gene Autry
22. Two-Step 'round the Christmas Tree, by Suzy Bogguss
23. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, by The Brian Setzer Orchestra
24. Bells, by Bows, by Gifts, by Trees, by Todrick Hall
25. Christmas Tree, by Lady GaGa
26. Christmas Tree on Fire, by Tom Heinl
27. There's a Cat Climbing Your Christmas Tree, by Parry Gripp
    

Click here for the 2022 Christmas Where You Are playlist on Spotify.  
Download the CD audio files (.zip) here.  
Track List:

1. Christmas in America, by Melissa Etheridge
2. Christmas in San Francisco, by Jill Thompson
3. Christmas in New York, by Shilelagh Law
4. Christmas in Connecticut with You, by Steve Tyrell
5. Christmas in L.A., by Home Free
6. Over the River, by Pentatoni
7. Christmas in the Northwest, by Brenda White
8. Christmas in Colorado, by Retrotech
9. Christmas in New Orleans, by Louis Armstrong
10. Christmas in My Home Town, by Charley Pride
11. Still Christmas in Nashville, by Lori McKenna
12. Hey Santa!, by Straight No Chaser
13. Christmas in the Mountains, by Larry Sparks & The Lonesome Ramblers
14. Christmas in the Country, by Thomas Rhett
15. Carolina Christmas, by Squirrel Nut Zippers
16. Christmas on the Square, by Dolly Parton
17. Christmas Island, by Ella Fitzgerald
18. Christmas in the Sand, by Colbie Caillat
19. Christmas Time in Jamaica, by Luli Pampin
20. Christmas Time in Canada, by Michele Mele
21. Christmas in Killarney, by Bing Crosby
22. Christmas in Scotland, by Craig Alan Hughes
23. Christmas Eve in Paris, by La Bohème
24. There's No Place Like Home, by Perry Como
25. Christmas is Christmas (Wherever You Are), by Wayne Haun

​While I am no longer sending out physical CDs, I keep the holiday collections to a CD-length (under an hour and twenty minutes).  I was surprised just how many place-based Christmas songs there were to choose from, so also on Spotify you can find an extended playlist (over two and half hours) of Christmas locations, and if you’re curious you can look at an unedited playlist of more place songs I found (I stopped collecting when the list hit nearly 80).
​
May the Christmas Spirit find you wherever you are.

Download collection (click the top download button to save all)
Spotify playlist 
Folder of single tracks (play/save singles, but rather clunky)
CD insert (PDF)
Cover art
Track list

The pandemic is easing up but we are not out of the snowy woods yet.  They are looking lovelier, but still dark and deep.  

While enjoying a tasty, mellow treat we came up with this year's theme of An Edible Xmas, and realized how many holiday songs featured food, and how much nicer the lights can look and how less stressful the holidays can be with the right... edible.  

So for 2021, as those who are near to us can be near to us once more, I offer the following buffet of comfort food and coping mechanisms.  Track list is below.  Listen for the food.  It may be easier to pop over to the Spotify playlist, but it's less fun if you know the real track names.  So download the the audio files, add the album to your devices, and enjoy foraging for the foods.  

Download Collection (click the top download button to save all)
Spotify playlist 
Folder of single tracks (play/save singles, but kinda clunky)
CD insert (PDF)
Cover art
Track Menu

(This letter as a PDF, with links. ) 

​Considering...well, everything...I was not inclined to make a holiday music mix this year. Not just because I need a new printer if I were to make the physical CDs, but this will be the first time, ever, that I will not be with my family for Christmas. I love them enough to protect us both and not travel during the national surge in the pandemic. With the extended isolation, holiday homesickness, and the general state of the world, I have had difficulty finding the holiday spirit.

But then I got a letter. Well, it’s 2020 so I got a text message. For the first time, Tersh and Chappell aren’t taking their family back to Virginia to see their parents either. They cherish the holiday CDs I used to leave at their door and keep the collection where they spend their Christmastime, i.e. in Virginia. They asked if I could could put a new playlist on Spotify. Even with dozens of streaming services with curated holiday music channels, they asked for mine. I started to get the feels. Then I got another message. And another. While my Christmas has not been tinged with such loss since Dad passed, I started to feel the jingle.

I have always been touched by the thank-you notes for the CDs, and I sincerely appreciate that I have become part of so many family traditions. Sometimes it makes me feel like an invisible elf getting to be a part of your holiday. I made my first Christmas CDs when I got one of the very first personal CD burners in 2000; years before iTunes existed or mp3s were common. I made a three-disk set for myself, and two friends. Each took over an hour, track by track. The next year I made copies for my family. The year after that, I started getting requests for discs. I have never sent out Christmas cards because they are too much trouble. Within a few years I found myself making over a hundred CDs and spending a lot of time at the post office. This for a guy who couldn’t be bothered to mail a card. Then CDs became obsolete. And save for those who still requested CDs, the holiday music mix moved to digital delivery—even though I lament feeling a part of the family CD collection brought out every year.

This year, the Hardcastle Holiday Music Mix is available for download and as a Spotify playlist. The app is free and you will be able to follow a link to play to from nearly any computer or mobile device. There was a request to make the historical editions into playlists as well. As I recreated the back catalog, I noticed how many songs I repeated over the years. Some for practical reasons (as I am working from my own finite CD collection), some fit into themes nicely, some are just favorites, and some are repeated on purpose so by their familiarity—like lights in the window or scents from the kitchen—hearing them will make you feel like Christmas.

Recreating these playlists also highlighted the limitations of Spotify. So many of my favorite songs are from artist friends, local bands, treasures I would find visiting Amoeba Records and the library every year, or fun things I found via YouTube. Many of these gems are nowhere to be found on streaming services. The playlists shared online are incomplete and absent many of my cherished favorites. But as with so much of 2020, this Christmas we will make do. 


Seeking inspiration for this Christmas’ theme, I felt very much like I did the first Christmas without Dad: a lament for absent loved ones, having a blue Christmas, and wishing for the happy Christmases we knew before. But I didn’t want to make this year a complete downer, and it was hard to find apt selections for A Dumpster Fire Christmas. The more I thought about it, the more I believed my sentiments of this Christmas are best reflected in the original 1944 “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” from Meet Me In St. Louis, before Sinatra asked that the lyrics be changed to make them merrier. I think by its ingrained familiarity we don’t really hear the words anymore. This was a song of wartime: singing to souls who have endured sustained emotional trauma, singing to souls separated from their loved ones far away, from those who cannot and maybe will never come home. It is also a song of hope. Judy sings to us that, yes, Christmas sucks this year. But we can hope that next year will be better. And for now, we endure and we persevere. And while next year will be better, she wishes us a some form of merry in this moment, even if it is just a little version of the Christmas we long for.

I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.
Next year all our troubles will be far away.

The British might have sung “Keep calm and carol on.”

Listen again:

• Let your heart be light. Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.
• Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the yuletide gay (ahem). Next year all our troubles will be miles away.
• [Next year] faithful friends who are dear to us will be near to us once more.
• Someday soon we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then, we’ll have to muddle through— somehow.
• So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

This, to me, sounds very much like a quarantine Christmas. And my gift for you this little Christmas is the 2020 Hardcastle Holiday Music Mix: Merry Maskmus.

You may have noticed, each year I try to tell a story and the tracks are laid out in a specific order. This year starts with the thesis statement “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and acknowledges in several tracks that “It Won’t be Christmas Without You.” (I could not bring myself to include “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” because I won’t, and listening to it still chokes me up.) I wish that all of us “Keep Warm and Safe This Winter.” And if we are going to make for ourselves a merry little Christmas now, we are going to have to “Accentuate the Positive”—which I never thought of as a Christmas song but it was on Aretha’s Christmas album and if Die Hard can be a Christmas movie then this song can be a carol.

Even though many of us will be spending the holiday alone, still “It Must Be Christmas,” with “Christmas Lights,” “Christmas on My Radio,” and “Christmas Wrapping.” Then I’m going to jingle all the goddamn way, then finally “Count My Blessings,” “Light a Candle,” and appreciate “Christmas as I Knew It.” Which is much better than so many families have ever had, or will have this year.

Until next year—when our troubles will be miles away and those who are dear to us will be near to us once more—I wish for you a merry, if little, Christmas. Now. 

Merrily,
Wilson
Subordinate Claus
​

1. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas; by Judy Garland
2. It Won't Seem Like Christmas (Without You); by Elvis Presley
3. Blue Christmas; by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
4. Christmas Without You; by Trixie Mattel
5. Home on Christmas Day; by Kristin Chenoweth
6. Holiday Daydream (Interlude); by Craig Chesler
7. Just For Now; by Kelly Clarkson
8. Keep Me Warm and Safe This Winter; by Creaky Boards
9. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive; by Aretha Franklin
10. Must Be Christmas; by Band of Merrymakers
11. Christmas Lights; by Daniel Hudson
12. Christmas on My Radio; by Olivia Newton-John
13. Christmas Wrapping; by Kylie Christmas
14. All I Want for Christmas Is Nudes; by Trixie Mattel
15. Jingle Bells; by Barenaked Ladies
16. Happy Holiday / It's The Holiday Season; by Ernie Haase & Signature Sound
17. Christmas Hymn; by Amy Grant
18. Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep; by Diana Krall
19. Light a Candle; by Wayne Haun
20. Christmas as I Knew It; by Johnny Cash

Download tracks​
Spotify playlist 
CD insert and track list (pdf)

As I thought about the holiday season and what sensations and feelings I enjoyed, I kept coming back to that warm feeling of the season and how it is so wonderful to be cozy inside curled up with your favorite things (flannel pajamas, music, movies, crackling fire, mulled ciders and wines), favorite people, or favorite furballs curled up in your lap.  But also the season is that feeling of bright lights shining in dark nights, crisp cold air, and if you’re lucky: a blanket of white that does not also mean dangerous conditions.

I also realized that we can’t be warm and bright inside without a cold and dark outside. Our winter wonderlands and rocking around the Christmas tree are two sides of the same season.  And thus this year’s mix is a celebration of the cold and the cozy.  So set out over the river and through the woods, and let the sleigh bells jingle all the way, to whomever’s hearth makes you feel warm inside.

1. Slow as Christmas; by Clint Black
2. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; by Rascal Flatts
3. Jingle Bell Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree; by Suzi Ragsdale & Verlon Thompson
4. Sleigh Ride; by Amy Grant
5. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year; by Vince Gill
6. Joy to the World; by Tammy Trent
7. Hark! The Herald Angles Sing!; by Sandy Knox
8. Under the Mistletoe; by Clint Black
9. That's What I Want for Christmas; by SheDaisy
10. Baby, It's Cold Outside; by Lee Ann Womack
11. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!; by Martina McBride
12. The Coolest Pair; by Clint Black
13. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas; by Alan Jackson
14. Sleigh Ride; by Squirrel Nut Zippers
15. Winter Wonderland; by Vince Gill
16. Go Tell It on the Mountain; by Dolly Parton
17. Do You Hear What I Hear?; by Martina McBride
18. Tennessee Christmas; by Amy Grant
19. Country Christmas; by Loretta Lynn
20. Silver Bells; by Elvis Presley
21. O Holy Night; by Amanda Hunt-Taylor
22. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; by Garth Brooks
23. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas; by Martina McBride

Download tracks
Spotify playlist 

1. Little Ghost
2. Hillbillies in a Haunted House
3. I Ain't Gonna Let You In
4. Hi De Ho Man
5. Sh'Boom
6. One-Eyed Fiona
7. Girl With One Eye
8. Phineas Gage
9. Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing
10. Bad Things
11. Bad Influence
12. Warning Signs
13. Bad Kids
14. Lonesome Midnight
15. Before the Light Takes Us
16. When You're Evil
17. Sympathy for the Devil
18. Reaper

Download tracks 

1. I Want to Be Evil
2. If You're Going Through Hell 
3. Magic Man
4. I Put a Spell On You
5. Long Black Train
6. Halos and Horns
7. Fire on the Mountain
8. SOS
9. Hell or High Water
10. Ring of Fire (Dance Mix)
11. Devil Wind
12. Handsome Devil
13. The Devil in My Ear
14. Defying Gravity
15. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
16. The Ballad of Boot Hill
17. Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered
18. Dance Macabre

​Download tracks