Welcome to Christmas at The Listening Log
This year I’ve done something I don’t normally do. Instead of waiting to hear my favourite yuletide tunes via social media or the radio (yes, we’re old school at the day job!), or stumbling across them halfway through the month, I decided to take matters into my own hands. As I grappled with Manchester traffic in terrible wintry weather this morning, I lined up a heap of my favourite Christmas songs and thought: let’s get the ball rolling.
This year, I’m going all in.
In my day (somewhere around Victorian times), Christmas wasn’t even thought about until 1 December. Now, thanks to commercialism, the festive period seems to start earlier every year.
Or, as I suspect, I’m just a grumpy old twit.
Either way, The Listening Log has decided — quite out of the blue — to go full Christmas mode.
Not subtly festive.
Not the odd playlist here and there.
No — I’m talking the full works: sleigh bells, wall-to-wall nostalgia, dodgy jumpers, charity compilations, and at least one questionable Paul McCartney synth line.
For the next 31 days, every post on the blog will be part of Christmas at The Listening Log — a big, messy, nostalgic dive into the music that takes over our homes, shops, radios and memories every year whether we want it to or not.
And honestly… I’m quite excited about it. Then again, I barely go out these days.
🎅 Why a Christmas Takeover?
Because Christmas music is its own strange little world.
Where else do you find:
- absolute crackers next to absolute horrors
- heartfelt classics buried under novelty nonsense
- songs you’ve heard 3,000 times but still don’t actually know the lyrics to
- albums artists recorded purely to fulfill a contract
- and a few rare gems so good they make December feel magical again
It’s a universe all of its own — part tradition, part chaos.
And I thought: why not jump in headfirst?
🎧 What to Expect This Month
Every day in December you’ll get a brand-new Christmas-themed post. A mixture of:
- Talking Music deep dives
- quick soundbite reviews of classic Christmas albums
- festive playlists
- nostalgia trips
- slightly unhinged seasonal opinions
- and maybe the odd Grinch-approved rant
Basically: December, but with headphones on.
You can follow every post over on the new Christmas category:
👉 Christmas at The Listening Log
Bookmark it — I’ll be filling it daily.
🎁 Kicking Things Off…
Tomorrow we start properly with:
“Why Christmas Music Is a Genre of Its Own (For Better or Worse)”
From there, we’ll march through the classics, the catastrophes, the overlooked albums, the sad songs, the novelty ones, the charity singles, the chart battles, and the songs you pretend to hate but secretly love.
By the time we reach New Year, we’ll have built a full festive musical archive.
🎄 Merry Christmas — Let’s Begin
Grab a mince pie (I hate them myself), put the kettle on (or something stronger), and join me for 31 days of festive noise.
It’s Christmas at The Listening Log.
The Listening Log 
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