As I write this the Christmas season is again approaching. Every year I try to grow my collection of Christmas music. One of these days I need to get onto Amazon or iTunes and buy a few good albums, but I have always appreciated the loads of free music that people make available.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few places where you can get free Christmas music online. I’ve checked each of these sites myself to verify that there is in fact good free music that is of good quality.

Download it, install it on your PC, and enjoy.

Places to Get Free Christmas Music

1. ChristmasGifts.com – a nice collection of music. There’s some good soft instrumental stuff (piano only, for example) that will sound great and create the holiday ambiance without overpowering your child’s laughter.

2. Christmaspmfree – There are a few nice songs here. Some that I haven’t heard before, but all seem soft and nice.

3. Northern Light Orchestra – Warning … these songs definitely have more of a heavy rock feel, and I’d guess most kids won’t like them. But who am I to judge. They are professional if you like that sort of thing. Joy to the World is nice.

4. Free holiday music from Amazon.com – Ok this has to be one of the coolest “finds” I’ve made online lately. Amazon has over 50 free holiday songs available for instant download and they are GREAT.

Tips to Play Music from Computer to Stereo

So now that you’ve got a bunch of great Christmas music on your computer, how can you actually enjoy it on your home stereo?

I realize not everyone out there is a technology geek like me. So let me share a few tips on how to enjoy it.

Make your own CDs

The simplest solution is to get a program like iTunes, which is totally free, and use it to “burn” your own music CDs. All you need to do is create a playlist and drop in whatever songs you want. Then hit the “burn” icon and iTunes will make a regular CD for you that you can play in a regular CD player. Enough said. Totally easy.

Use Wi-Fi to Play on Your Stereo

This is my favorite solution. I have a product from Apple called the Airport Express. These things cost about $99 today, and are awesome! If you have iTunes on your home computer you can select to output the sound to the Airport Express instead of your computer speakers. iTunes then knows to send the music over your Wi-Fi network and it arrives at the Airport Express, which has a 1/8″ stereo receptacle that can be plugged directly into your home stereo.

Get the Airport Express from Amazon.com with fast and free shipping in time for the holidays. Click Here.

Plug your Laptop or MP3 Player Directly into the Stereo

If you have an iPod, laptop or any other MP3 player then you’ll notice it has a headphone output somewhere. This is a 1/8″ receptacle.

What you need is a Y-adapter that takes the 1/8″ jack and turns it into dual RCA plugs that go into a stereo. The back of your stereo has these standard inputs that are colored red and black (for left and right channel). You should be able to buy one of these adapter cables for under $5 at a local electronics shop.

Enjoy the holiday season, and enjoy your children !!!

I came across a nice recipe on the “Attachment Mamma” blog. Here’s the description she gives:

A little slice of YUM and something easy and fun to do with toddlers on Christmas: making old-fashioned Christmas sugar cookies. This recipe has been passed down from my late Grandma, Betty Bay to my mom to me.

The cookies she shows in the blog post look like little Santas. Very cool! It’s last minute for 2009, but if you are looking for something fun to do with your toddler, this is a great idea. Keep in mind these are pure sugar/butter/flour so you don’t want to be consuming bus loads of these things … but it is the holidays. Indulge a bit.

Here’s a link to the original post.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!