Playlist: 97 Minutes of Christmas, Vol. 2

Vincent Anthony
3 Min Read

This Christmas season, the staff of THE 97 will be sharing their favorite holiday songs via our new 97 Minutes of Christmas Playlist series. Each playlist contains 1 hour and 37 minutes of Christmas jams personally curated by the staff writer.

VOLUME 2, CURATED BY VINCENT

Trimming my personal Christmas vibes playlist down to just 97 minutes proved to be a more difficult task than I expected. You mean, I won’t be able to include every Mariah Christmas song, plus my other favorites? Blasphemy!

In the end, the Queen of Christmas still managed to occupy six slots on my playlist, the most of any artist that I included. Runners up include Destiny’s Child (2 group songs, 2 solo songs), Kelly Clarkson (3 songs), and The Jackson 5 (2 songs). DC3’s “Winter Paradise,” an original penned by Beyoncé, has always been one of my favorite, along with their haunting rendition of “Carol of the Bells,” entitled “Opera of the Bells.” Michelle Williams’ take on “O’ Holy Night” is one of my favorites, and Kelly Rowland’s “Love You More at Christmas Time” is an original worthy of future canonical status. Kelly Clarkson, the budding Princess in Mariah’s Queendom of Christmas has a slew of worthy songs herself. It was hard to narrow down which to include, so I opted for a few less obvious choices (surely you know her biggest Christmas hit, “Underneath the Tree”). “Just For Now” is a favorite of mine, as well as two other impeccable uptempo, “Christmas Eve” and “Wrapped in Red.”

Rounding out the playlist are appearances by Nat King Cole (“The Christmas Song” of course, but really, you need his whole album), The Carpenters (I love their Christmas album), Tori Kelly, JoJo, TLC, Joe, Stevie Wonder, Monica, Boyz II Men, Britney Spears, Toni Braxton, and one of my favorite, but not so well known, oldies, “Dónde Está Santa Claus” by Augie Rios. I always loved that song as a kid, it’s just adorable. I hope you enjoy the playlist, if you do, you can also take a listen to my extended “Christmas Vibes” playlist here. Also, shout out to my baby girl Bones in the playlist cover photo.

LISTEN TO VINCENT’S 97 MINUTES OF CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST

Also available on: SpotifyTidal 

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Vincent is the founder of the magazine and has had a strong passion for popular music since, well, 1997! If it's not obvious, his favorite artists include Destiny's Child, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, P!nk, and many more. Vincent lives in New York, where he is a high school English teacher, and currently he is pursuing a Master's in Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.