Every once in a while, something cool just falls into your lap.  This time, it's a huge chunk of free-n-legal indie/alternative Christmas music from Michigan's Suburban Sprawl Music.  Now, there are plenty of labels that crank out holiday samplers, but--here's the cool part--Suburban Sprawl has made all of their past samplers available, dating back to 2002.  We're talking about a total of 201 tracks, folks... (Since I wrote this article, Suburban Sprawl has presented their 2009 holiday sampler, which adds another 53 tracks to the pile for a total of 254...wow!)

Suburban Sprawl's Holiday SamplersAs you might expect, these collections run the gamut of indie/alternative sound.  Going through the 2008 sampler, there's everything from straightforward covers (Jon Cendrowski and the Nine Mile Choir's take on Happy Xmas (War is Over) to original tunes (Gifting from Friendly Foes) and new takes on Christmas classics (Allan James & The Cold Wave give us their rendition of I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day).  Toss in the archival samplers, and indie fans are in for a real treat.  (All told, it's a 10-hour chunk of music; I haven't even finished the first listenthrough yet!)  There are the occasional inappropriate words--and one or two concepts that are definitely adult--but it's an interesting slice of music. 

Throw this into your mix, and be sure to come by next week for KRAG's final installment of Christmas MP3 Madness...