Lots of people will be hosting holiday parties over the next couple of weeks, and festive music in the background is always part of the menu. I’ve got some sources for you for free MP3 downloads of Christmas and other holiday songs. Free music means you’ll have more money to buy organic, local or fair trade foods to share with your guests.

 

Amazon.com’s 25 Days of Free – Starting on December 1, Amazon started offering one free holiday themed downloads a day. It’s okay if you’ve missed the first couple of weeks. All the downloads are still available. There are traditional songs like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” done by Jars of Clay and not so traditional songs like the controversial (so say some of the commenters on the website) “Christmas Tree” by Lady Gaga. If you dig deep into Amazon’s free songs, you’ll be able to find some other free holiday music like The Sampler Claus with music by Frank Sinatra, Mahalia Jackson and others. You really could download enough free music from Amazon to last most of your party.

You need to download Amazon’s MP3 Downloader. It’s free to download and automatically syncs with iTunes. It’s easy to set up. I was able to do it without the help of my in house technical help (aka my husband).

 

iTunes – If your MP3 is an iPod, you probably already know that each week iTunes offers a couple of free songs. In December, iTunes offers two free holiday downloads each week. Once the week is over, the free offer is gone. This week’s offers are “Must be Santa” by Bob Dylan and an original song “All I Want for Christmas is You” by The 88.

 

Xpn.org – The fabulous listener supported WXPN (88.5 FM) in Philadelphia has 12 days of free local holiday music. There’s a lot of original holiday songs here that you’re might not find anywhere else like Huffamoose’s “Hanukkah and Christmas Hand in Hand” and Ben Arnold’s “Reindeer Game.”