A Witch’s Christmas 🎄
My playlist for Yule, Christmas, and the Winter Solstice. This playlist is a blend of two shorter playlists that I had compiled - one focusing on the oldest (and oddest!) Christmas gems from an early music repertoire. The other, Pagan and witchy Christmas songs.
The Christmas songs here are not your typical Christmas songs - they feature an infant Christ who has the power to speak, control tree spirits, and even drown his enemies. The Virgin Mary, too, is here, assuming her role as the mighty Queen of Heaven, decked in strange winter roses. There are songs written by Vikings. There are songs written by angels. There are songs celebrating the Sun, the Mother Earth, the Mari Lwyd (Fari Lwyd), and the Wren. Our modern winter celebration is a strange blend of old and new, Christian and Pagan - and my playlist reflects this. May it bless your winter season.
- “Gaudete” Steeleye Span
- “The Holly & The Ivy” Mediaeval Baebes
- “Edi Beo” The Owl Service & Laura Cannell
- “Cherry Tree Carol” Roberta Flack
- “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella” Great Lake Swimmers
- “This Endris Night” Heather Dale
- “Seven Joys of Mary” Great Big Sea
- “Snow” Loreena McKennitt
- “Gower Wassail” Green Matthews
- “Oppi Li” Henning Sommerro
- “Invocation to Mother Holle” Ruth Barrett
- “The Wheel” Kari Tauring
- “Yule is Come” Jaiya
- “To Drive the Cold Winter Away” Katie McMahon
- “Song for Yule” Victoria Parks
- “On Midwinter’s Day” Damh the Bard
- “The Christians and the Pagan” Dar Williams
- “In Praise of Winter” Kiva
- “Freya” Kellianna
- “Personent Hodie” Dallas Symphony Chorus
- “The Wexford Carol” Alison Krauss, Yo-Yo Ma, Natalie MacMaster, Shane Shananan & Cristina Pato
- “Coventry Carol” Loreena McKennitt
- “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” Enya
- “The Bells of Paradise” Alva
- “Y Fari Lwyd” Mair Thomas
- “Entre le bœuf et l’âne gris” Claire Pelletier
- “O Mary” Faun Fables
- “Bring Us in Good Ale” Jaiya
- “Good King Wenceslas” Loreena McKennitt
- “The Boar’s Head” Kiva
- “Bitter Withy” Maddy Prior
- “Ecci Mundi Gaudium” The Mediaeval Baebes
- “Yo Me Soy la Modenica” Brocelïande
- “Noel Nouvelet” Áine Miongue & Druidstone
- “Sir Christémas” Barry & Beth Hall
- “I Sing of a Maiden” Mediaeval Baebes
- “Bring Us In Good Ale” Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band
- “Here We Come A-Wassailing” The Albion Christmas Band
- “To Shorten Winter’s Sadness” Sharron Kraus, Claire Lloyd, Graham Metcalfe, Ian Giles, Fay Hield & John Spiers
- “The Wren Suite: Please to See the King/The Wren Song/The Wren’s” Linn Barnes and Allison Hampton
- “Abbots Bromley Horn Dance” Brocelïande
- “Somerset Wassail” The Albion Christmas Band
- “Serving Girl’s Holiday” Kate Rusby
- “Yule” Lisa Thiel
- “Give Me the Moon” Jessica Radcliffe, Lisa Ekström & Martin Simpson
- “Summer Will Come ‘Round Again” Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra
- “Y fari lwyd” Sharron Kraus
- “One Small Candle” Jessica Radcliffe, Lisa Ekström & Martin Simpson
- “In Ducli Jublio” Mediaeval Baebes
- “The King” Steeleye Span
