Did you spend your last Christmas dinner listening to the same old CD you pull out every year, wishing you had a few more Christmas tunes to fill out the rest of the meal? You know there’s a lot of Christmas-related music available, so it shouldn’t really be so hard to have some around when Christmas rolls around. I mean, Christmas only comes once a year and you want it to be special. Although, I bet sometimes you get caught up organising lights, shopping online for presents, travel, Christmas films and food that you forget about the little things like background music.

This year it will all be different, because soon after you’ve read this post you’ll have downloaded many hours worth of free Christmas music. Then all you need to do is whip up a fancy shuffled playlist in iTunes (or whatever you use) and you’re ready for action when the time comes. You might even enjoy your Christmas collection so much that you listen to Christmas carols for the whole Christmas period, rather than just on the day. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Jamendo Christmas Songs

Search Jamendo for the word Christmas and you’re greeted with over 180 albums and 500 individual tracks. Each can be legally downloaded for free and previewed without any hassle. Check out in particular this “Christmas in minor” album – it’s very different!

Amazon’s Free Holiday MP3s

Not only do Amazon have a great selection of free MP3s, but they allow you to filter the list to show just holiday themed music. There’s a collection of Christmas music just waiting for you to grab it.

Karaoke Version

If you’re into sing-alongs, karaoke or just non-intrusive background music you might appreciate the Christmas MP3s available for free at Karaoke Version. It’s just the backing music, so any terrible vocals you hear are therefore your own problem.

Last.fm Christmas Tag – Stream & Download Free Christmas Music

Most people these days know that you can be streaming online Christmas radio in seconds by using Last.fm’s tag radio feature. What fewer people know is that it’s easy to find free MP3s to download using the same tags to find the right songs. For instance, check out the Christmas, Xmas, Carols, Christmas Songs and Christmas Music tags. From all of these, you can click on a link to the free music downloads, where you can listen to and download whichever tracks you like. If you want to automate it, you can also subscribe to the free music download podcast for that tag in iTunes.

Another 10 Places To Find Christmas Songs

MakeUseOf’s resident free music expert put together a list of 10 Legal Online Sources To Download Free Christmas Music a few years ago. I particularly like the music from AMClassical’s Christmas and Christmas Classical sections.

Searching Hints

It’s possible to search for MP3 files on Google or sites like BeeMP3 and often you will find recordings which are legal to download as so many choirs these days put MP3s of their Christmas concerts online to share. One you’ve found one legal MP3, check to see if it’s in a folder of MP3s (delete the filename.mp3 part of the URL). You might have stumbled across a whole concert of Christmas carols you can legally download.

Also, if you’re trying to remember the name of your favourite Christmas carol, Wikipedia has a useful list of some of the more popular titles.

Which was your favorite free Christmas album? Share the link!