There’s a wonderful tradition that Amazon’s been observing for the last few years. Every December, they give away music for the holiday season, absolute free, through Amazon’s music web page. This year, in a new twist, they’re giving away five new songs every five days — starting on December 1st, and continuing through the 25th.
You can check out the newest batch at
tinyurl.com/5FreeChristmasSongs
For the next five days, Amazon’s giving away an old-fashioned “madrigal” style carol, a beautiful, acapella song by a group called Chanticleer. And there’s also a particularly dreamy free version of “O Holy Night” by Rick Springfield, who launched his career playing Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital in the 1980s (and again in 2005). I also liked the mp3 by a band named Sister Hazel — a soulful “alternative” version of the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. And Amazon’s also giving away a free mp3 by R&B artist Brian McKnight — his version of “Angels We Have Heard on High.”
There’s even a recording by the 1980s metal band, Twisted Sister — their hard-rocking version of “Deck the Halls.” But if you don’t like any of these songs, don’t worry. Amazon will be offering another new batch of five free Christmas songs this Friday (December 21st) — the last one before Christmas. And there’s also more free mp3s that are scattered throughout Amazon’s music store — including some more fun Christmas songs.
You can always find all of Amazon’s free mp3s at tinyurl.com/FreeMp3List
Here’s some more of the fun free Christmas songs I discovered this year…
Jingle Bells by Brian Setzer
The First Noel by Neil Sedaka
O Holy Night by Go Radio
We Three Kings by Justin A. Wilson
Jingle Bells / Deck the Halls by Clay Crosse
God Rest You Merry Gentleman by Joseph Patrick Moore Dan Baraszu
What Child is This (Greensleeves) by Tony Elman
O Come Emmanuel by Brandon Musser
The Christmas Song by Mogwai
Deck the Halls by The K5 Kids
O Little Town Of Bethlehem by Nature’s Harmony
The Twelve Days of Christmas by the 101 Strings Orchestra
Silent Night by The Starlite Singers
There’s even a bluesy free version of Jingle Bells by Jen Carrozza, Jon Chalden, Sam Skelton, Joe Reda and John Carrozza. And there’s also some free mp3s offering some less-traditional Christmas songs.
Punk Rawk Christmas by MxPx
(Don’t Call Me) Mrs. Christmas by Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler
Christmas Anthem by Landon Smith & The Real Matt Jones
Christmas Train by Carey Bell
I was surprised to discover that there’s even a free six-minute mp3 of “Waltz of the Flowers” from The Nutcracker by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. And of course, Amazon is also offering some big discounts on entire albums of holiday music. You can browse the whole selection at tinyurl.com/AmazonXmasMP3s . But my favorite free Christmas song has a very big connection to the Kindle…
It’s the song “Winter Night†by Little & Ashley, which Amazon used in some of their first Christmas commercials for the Kindle. (They’re the ones with the stop-motion animation, showing a woman in an ever-changing background symbolizing the large variety of stories you can enjoy on a Kindle.) Two years later, Amazon is still giving this special song away as a free mp3 — just point your browser to tinyurl.com/KindleChristmasSong. As a piano plunks away away in the background, you’ll hear a happy young couple singing…
“Snowflake in my pocket, let’s take a sleigh ride on the ice.
Northern lights are glowing and reflecting in your eyes.
Underneath a starry sky.
Dream with me this winter night!”