My Undead Christmas Playlist

NOTE: This post is NSFW - Not Safe For my Wife. She doesn't often read this, but in case she does: Hi honey! I love you. Please don't read any further.



Okay, everyone else. Let me tell you about Christmas music and video games, and how the two go together in awesome ways.

I am an unabashed fan of the Christmas season. Well, I suppose you should say the secular "Christmas" season, but still: I really love it. I love the food: Christmas baking and the eggnog and the hot buttered rum (I really like the hot buttered rum). I love going to Christmas and New Year's parties and seeing people you might only see once a year but still it's good to re-build those connections. I love the lights and the tree and the giving presents to everyone. But most importantly: I really like the songs. And there are some pretty awful songs out there, and there are some pretty awful versions of good songs. But I definitely have my favourites, and I play them a lot. (Only in December, though: I hate hearing "Jingle Bells" in November as much as the next guy.)

Last year my buddy loaned me a copy of Dead Rising for my xBox 360. I am not very good at shooter games, and I'm not the biggest fan of zombie anything, but I liked it quite a bit. I wasn't very good at it, but I liked it. And I when I was playing it last October, I realized: "In this game you're trapped in a mall killing zombies. And you can play whatever music you want through the Media Library. What if...I made a Christmas carol playlist, and it was like I was trapped in a mall during shopping season?" I may not necessarily be the brightest bulb on the tree, but I have my moments. The idea of chopping into a zombie with an axe while Bing Crosby crooned about a White Christmas was something I immediately latched on to. I made a playlist that had some of my favourite songs on it, with the condition that I liked them enough to be played over and over again - just like they do in real malls - and that they were either upbeat or hilariously out of place. I only came up with about a dozen songs because I don't own that many Christmas albums, and I added a few more as I found them on the internet or borrowed them from friends.

I didn't end up playing the game much last December - mostly because I had other games on my mind - but this year I decided to give it another shot, and hopefully I'll be able to finish it and finally give it back to him. So for your amusement and elucidation, I present to you my zombie-killing Christmas carol playlist, or as I like to call it: Red Christmas.

1. Bing Crosby - Jingle Bells
2. Jackson 5 - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
3. Burl Ives - Rudolph
4. Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad
5. Bing Crosby - Here Comes Santa Claus
6. John Denver & The Muppets - Little Saint Nick
7. Burl Ives - Holly Jolly Christmas
8. Vince Guaraldi Trio - Skating
9. Boney M - Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord
10. Bing Crosby - White Christmas
11. Funk Brothers - Winter Wonderland
12. Prince - Another Lonely Christmas
13. Burl Ives - Silver & Gold
14. The Supremes - My Favourite Things
15. Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby
16. Bing Crosby - Sleigh Ride

So that's my list. I've tried it out again this afternoon and it is still a lot of fun. If you have any suggestions for fun and quirky Christmas songs that I can add to my playlist, please let me know. Until then, I'll get back to trying to keep myself alive. Not an easy thing to do when you're surrounded by undead shoppers and have heard "Winter Wonderland" for the fiftieth time.