Mostly annual, mostly yuletide playlists—from me to you
You don’t really know they’re the good times while you’re in them, they say. Something else that’s true, though less discussed, is that contemporaneous awareness of the bad times can also be a little fuzzy.
Last year was quite bad for me,* and this year is better.** This year’s playlist, made last year, reflects a Spirit of Christmas Past who was strongly considering maybe just taking up permanent residence inside a blanket fort. ***
Mentally, I’m not there anymore—or so I thought. And I set about making revisions to the tracklisting. But I couldn’t pick anything to take out. And nothing else in my collection really stood out as something that should be added in, or built around. There’s a part of me that’s still in the blanket fort.
Ultimately, I think this playlist is a little gloomy, but in a soothing sort of way. It’s an audio version of a therapist telling you it’s reasonable to be upset, and actually she thinks you could legitimately be even more upset. It’s a YouTube link to “ASMR Eeyore Says You Don’t Have To Get Out Of Bed Today (8 Hours!!)”.
That said, these twelve songs are fairly moody, and may not be to the taste of someone just trying to have a merry holiday, a pleasant respite or just a momentary distraction from anything (or everything). If you’re looking for something where the tone is a bit more “inside Mariah Carey’s home tapes-style visuals for the All I Want for Christmas Is You video”, the previous years’ playlists have always served me well.
December 2025
Last year’s thoughts are here.
*Not just me, but here I refer to those things specific to me in addition to everything else.
**To the degree which that is possible, all caveats about the current state of the world are implied here.
***And naturally, the playlist I made in 2023 for 2024 demonstrated a lighthearted joviality that was light years away from what I actually felt in 2024. I don’t think I listened to it much.
Dana White 