Not since Wham!鈥檚 1984 single 鈥淟ast Christmas鈥� 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 , 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, :
