Not since Wham!’s 1984 single “Last Christmas” has a holiday song been accepted widely into the canon. The good ones made later usually follow the lead of the classics in at least one way: they pine for another time or place. Music historian Ted Gioia, author of The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire and the forthcoming Love Songs: A Hidden History, explains why the past - or our idea of it - is a comfort each season.
Find some gems among modern holiday songs and a few treasured old friends in this playlist of selections from Gini Mascorro's "KXT Christmas Anthem" 2014 special for our sister station, KXT 91.7: