I put the Heavy Metal tracks into the preshow, only to find that my colleagues disagreed with the labelling of Danish group Pretty Maids as Heavy. Apparently they are Hair Metal, despite what their website and Wikipedia (I know…) says. I think we can compromise on Glam Metal. I never knew there were so many different Metals out there.
Apart from them, we had two tracks from We Wish You a Metal X-Mas and a Headbanging New Year, on which each track is played by a combination of metallic musicians. I simply could not resist including Silent Night.
Also in the preshow was The Kings and Shepherds Arise from The Home Service’s soundtrack to the Royal National Theatre’s 1985 cycle of Mystery Plays, with John Tams and Linda Thompson providing memorable vocals.
The postshow contained a proper French language version of Patapan and Herderkenslied, the Shepherds Song from Flemish group ‘t Kliekske, keeping our international credentials intact. The Death or Glory Wassail from Sid Kipper could almost have been another language, heavy Norfolk accent laid on thick. Some Early English music from The Sixteen and Polyphony followed and we closed with the Wintersmith from Steeleye Span, in memory of Terry Pratchett. Steeleye Span were one of his favourite groups, and he was thrilled to bits that they had take his book and set it to music, as well as asking him to provide some spoken word parts.
The final show for 2016 went down well, even though the hosts all forgot their Santa Hats. We had 27 listeners at one stage and over 20 for nearly the whole show.
Preshow
| Title | Artist | Album | Year |
| Angels From The Realms of Glory | Rick Wakeman | Christmas Variations | 2000 |
| Solstice | Mary Jane | Solstice | 2014 |
| The Nativity III: The Kings / Shepherd’s Arise | The Home Service | The Mysteries | 1997 |
| Run Rudolph Run | Billy Gibbons, Dave Grohl & Lemmy Kilmister; | We Wish You a Metal X-Mas and a Headbanging New Year | 2009 |
| Silent Night | Chris Wyse, Chuck Billy, John Tempesta, Jon Donais & Scott Ian | We Wish You a Metal X-Mas and a Headbanging New Year | 2009 |
| In Santa’s Claws | Pretty Maids | In Santa’s Claws | 1990 |
The Show
| Gloria In Excelsis | Al Jarreau | Christmas | 2008 |
| Carol of the Bells | Pentatonix | That’s Christmas to Me | 2014 |
| White Winter Hymnal | Pentatonix | That’s Christmas To Me | 2014 |
| Pat a Pan | Mannheim Steamroller | Christmas in the Aire | 1995 |
| Gower Wassail | Steeleye Span | First Steps | 2002 |
| Joy to the World | Kate Rusby | While Mortals Sleep | 2011 |
| Yorkshire Merry Christmas | Kate Rusby | The Frost Is All Over | 2015 |
| Huron Carol | Heather Dale | This Endris Night | 2002 |
| The Boar’s Head Carol | Steeleye Span & Maddy Prior | A Rare Collection 1972-1996 | 1999 |
| Drive the Cold Winter Away | Johnny Coppin | A Country Christmas | 1995 |
| O Come, O Come, Immanuel | Annie Haslam | It Snows in Heaven Too | 2000 |
| Tune for a Blythsome Turkey | The Albion Band | Christmas Album | 1999 |
| Personent Hodie | The Albion Band | Another Christmas Present From The Albion Band | 2010 |
| Silent Night | Bela Fleck And The Flecktones | Jingle All The Way | 2008 |
| Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas | Manhattan Transfer | The Christmas Album | 1992 |
| Another Christmas Song | Jethro Tull | The Jethro Tull Christmas Album | 2003 |
| I Believe in Father Christmas | ELP | I Believe in Father Christmas | 1995 |
| Feliz Navidad | Chicago | Chicago Christmas: What’s It Going To Be, Santa | 2003 |
| Bouree | Jethro Tull | The Jethro Tull Christmas Album | 2003 |
| Santa Claus Is Coming To Town | The Supremes | Merry Christmas | 1965 |
| Merry Christmas Everybody | Slade | single | 1973 |
| A Christmas Carol | Tom Lehrer | The Remains Of Tom Lehrer | 2000 |
| Suddenly It’s Christmas | Loudon Wainwright III | Career Moves | 1993 |
| Stille Nacht | Carreras, Cole, Domingo | Celebration Of Christmas | 1996 |
| 1 Gloria in excelsis Deo’; 2- ‘Et in Terra pax’; 3 – ‘Gratias agimus tibi’; 4 – ‘Propter magnam gloriam’ | Kings College Choir, Academy of Ancient Music | Vivaldi: Gloria | 2002 |
| For unto us a child is born | Tavener Choir & Players | Andrew Parrott / Handel / Messiah | 1996 |
| Up On The Housetop | Al Jarreau | Christmas | 2008 |
Postshow
| Patapan | Heather Dale | This Endris Night | 2002 |
| Winter Wonderland | Dave Brubeck | A Dave Brubeck Christmas | 1996 |
| Santa Claus is Coming to Town | Dave Brubeck and Gerry Mulligan | ||
| Death Or Glory Wassail | Sid Kipper | Boiled In The Bag | 1997 |
| Herderkenslied | ‘t Kliekske | ‘t Is Met Dees Koude Winterse Dagen | 2000 |
| Salutation Carol (15th century MS) | Sixteen Harry Christophers | An Early English Christmas Collection | 2004 |
| Nowell sing we, both all and some (c.1450 Seldon MS) | Sixteen Harry Christophers | An Early English Christmas Collection | 2004 |
| Sing Lullaby | Polyphony, Stephen Layton | A Christmas Present from Polyphony | 2004 |
| Wintersmith | Steeleye Span | Wintersmith | 2013 |