Free Christmas Music Downloads and Web Streams

Christmas music can be an essential part of holiday gatherings, but with all of the holiday parties, meals, gift giving and buying very few of us have any desire to trek through the snow, cold, and ice to find the perfect CD of holiday music. The expense for something we generally only listen to for six to eight weeks out of the year can also add to our holiday shopping bills.

Christmas music can set the mood for many a holiday party and also be a great stocking stuffer gift for those on the gift list who we want to get a little something for in terms of gifts but don't want to spend a lot on or can't spend hundreds on gifting them. Downloading free legal Christmas music is a very simple and an enjoyable task that along with a few CD-R discs and some jewel cases gifts can be made for many who we forget to appreciate during the year, such as the mailman, paperboy, or the kids' teacher(s).

For those who do not celebrate Christmas there are plenty of non-Christmas music areas with free downloads and web streaming. Virtually any kind of music can be found legally on the internet for free. There are hundreds if not thousands of sites with free and legal MP3s, MIDI file downloads, and web streams. All of which can be enjoyed in some fashion or another either in real time or after recording or download for later.

In researching this article, I found a few sites that hold free Christmas music downloads. Below are short reviews of each site and what they offer in terms of free music both for Christmas and all year round. Enjoy and happy holidays.

A brief word about virus protection, I recommend you have some on your computer before downloading a file in any format from any website on the internet. The average price for a basic virus protection software package is around $ 40.00. Take the time to invest in the protection of your computer. In downloading files that may save you twenty dollars or so you may wind up costing yourself thousands. Music files can sometimes be especially prone to holding computer viruses.

Christmasmpfree.com- A site holding Christmas MP3, MIDIS, and holiday music scores of many types. Songs are available with or without vocals. This site contains some very nice instrumentals along with short summaries of the history of each carol. Including who wrote them and when. It is very interesting to know from what time period some of them originate. This site gives you the option of listen on your computer in real time or downloading tunes to a disc. I recommend downloading to disc or MP3 player especially if you have an older computer listening in real time requires having or downloading the Windows Media Player® that can take some time to load and whose reliability can be dicey.

Membrane.com/xmas- This site offers original Christmas music performed by the site's house band. The offerings are smaller in number but lyrics are included with each download making it enjoyable for those who do caroling or are part of a school or volunteer choir that does charity shows during the holidays. I recommend downloading straight to disc for this as well. This site also uses the Windows Media Player®.

Live365.com- This site is the best one I found for streaming internet satellite radio. Although they do require a subscription to listen to some of the stations there are plenty of free ones- hundreds in fact, possibly thousands. This is fast becoming a favorite of mine because it has much more than Christmas music. It has Internet radio stations from around the world, with every type of music imaginable and even old time radio broadcasts from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. I feel this could not only be used during Christmastime but would make a great educational tool.