Some free Christmas tunes

Ellery- December Days EP

Sounds Familyre Records- A Familyre Christmas (Sufjan, Danielson, Half Handed Cloud, etc.)

Happy Christmas!

Edit: Almost forgot Sleeping at Last. You can download "Silver Bells", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and listen to "O Holy Night" here.

sufjan stevens free christmas music danielson half handed cloud sleeping at last

How to not waste 8 billion dollars

Consumer Reports on gift card pitfalls.

MSNBC on avoiding gift card waste.

Have a Martin Luther Christmas

Phillip Ryken shares some neat thoughts about how Martin Luther preached and wrote songs about Christmas.

From the article:

We might be tempted to think that if we had been in Bethlehem, we would have given the baby Jesus the welcome he deserved. “If only I had been there!” Luther imagines us saying. “How quick I would have been to help the Baby.” And yet, said Luther, “You only say that because you know how great Christ is, but if you had been there at that time you would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem. Why don’t you do it now? You have Christ in your neighbor. You ought to serve him, for what you do to your neighbor in need you do to the Lord Christ himself” [p. 31 from Martin Luther’s Christmas Book].

martin luther church history christmas

The Great Sufjan Song Xmas Xchange!!!

For all you creative types, Asthmatic Kitty is offering a Sufjan Stevens song for one of yours...if it's good enough to beat all the rest of the coughnerdscough who will enter this thing.

Like me.

Check out The Great Sufjan Song Xmas Xchange!!!

And while you're at it, you might as well download some of Sufjan's delightful Christmas songs:

"That Was the Worst Christmas Ever"

"Sister Winter"

sufjan stevens free music downloads

drinking from the (Christmas music) stream

somehow, some folks read my last post and assumed (and we all know what happens to people who assume!) that i don't like listening to Christmas music except at certain times o' the year, such as at Christmas time. not true! i was merely pointing out that amy grant was in my last .fm queue and i wanted to clear my name.

to prove my undying love of Christmas music, be it united nations day or the ides of march, here are two marvelous Christmas albums/collections that you can listen to for free:

sufjan stevens' Christmas extravanganza (stream here)

and my personal favorite:

andrew peterson and friends behold the lamb of God (stream here)

you can also listen to one of andrew peterson's other records, the far country, here.

(i received word of the AP records being available from the remarkable mark "big daddy foolish sage" traphagen)

i have loved listening to both of these collections, especially the andrew peterson album. listening to behold the lamb of God has become part of our family's Christmas tradition and i hope that it become part of yours.

so, never fear! you will never receive condemnation from me if i catch you listening to Christmas music in august. unless of course, it's amy grant. or celine dion.