Geek Life 3.1

So yeah, there was this ice storm and a fairly massive blackout and a few days sort of got missed. The best laid plans of mice and men, right?

Anyway. One more entry into the list to round out the countdown … and I definitely saved the best for last. “Snow FM Ireland” is the single best mix of Christmas music you are going to find online, period. Lots of classics – heavy on the Rosemary Clooney and Judy Galrand, which is awesome – a good dose of newish stuff, and at least fifty percent of it is stuff you just don’t hear anywhere else. If you need just one audio feed to leave on for all of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, this is the one.

There is no actual web page for these guys, but you can find a stream on your browser here. It’s probably a lot easier just to hit them up on TuneIn Radio by searching for “Snow FM Ireland”.

Ho ho ho.

Straight outta Finland! Yo! It’s Radio Santa Claus, keepin’ it legit! We’re talkin’ Arctic Circle, yo!

Live from the Finnish frontier on the web and running mobile on TuneIn radio under “Radio Santa Claus”.

Yo.

“Bob” radio is one of the “stuff laying around on your iPod” FM programming formats that you can buy and just plug-in to any existing-but-needs-a-refresh station … one of the generic handful like “Edge” and “Jack” and “Kiss” that 90 percent of the North American FM spectrum seems to be using now. But, in a small saving grace, the Bob team has also slapped up a Christmas stream and it’s pretty good.

Take that, Jack.

Check it out on the web or hit up “Bob Christmas Radio” on TuneIn. It’s only here until the end of the month, so grab your piece now.

Back to the 181 well once more … this time for some holiday hot licks and snowman slow jams (see what I did there?) from the “Christmas R#38;B” feed. This is the perfect way to reset before the weekend is upon us once again … and an optimal choice for any office gathering you might be having over the next week or so. Heavy on the classics – The Miracles, Jackson 5, Four Tops, Ella and Sammy – this one will please the whole gang. Hit the 181.FM web page on your computer or check out “Christmas R&B” on TuneIn.

Groovy, baby.

“Christmas Kids Radio” is a bit of a misnomer. With a name like that you would think that it was all Muppets and Rugrats and The Wiggles and the like, but what you get instead is a lot of stuff from American Idol alumni and assorted boy bands. So it’s more “teen girl bland pop Christmas radio” but it’s not particularly horrible and you can probably put it on and not offend a single person, which is a handy thing to be able to do. It’s also got a few cuts from your Spongebobs and Grinches and the like, so I guess that is where the “kid” part comes from.

Hit the 181.FM web page to check it out, or look up “Christmas kids” on your TuneIn app.

If nothing else, you will be amazed at how many Christmas songs Kelly Clarkson has recorded.

Hey! Christmas is the time for giving, right? So today spend your ho ho ho radio time with a station that is all about giving. Radio Christmas out of the U.K. is an annual effort to help kids in need around the globe. It started as a project to raise money to help street kids in Britain and now supports charities for young’uns around the globe. Homeless kids, hungry kids, kids who work in a dump for a dollar a day … there are a lot of kids who have generally sucky Christmases. Maybe it wouldn’t kill you to toss a couple of bucks their way.

Radio Christmas also has a very cool “Brit-centric” vibe that makes them stand out from the usual holiday fare. If you are a bona fide Scrooge you might get cheesed off by the reminders that it’s all about charity and desperate kids, but everyone else should enjoy the mix. On the web at radiochristmas.co.uk or search for “radio christmas” on TuneIn.

Ho ho ho indeed.

Boomer Radio sounds more or less like pretty much every other “Christmas mix” radio station – classics, some poppy stuff, and the requisite sprinkling of a few comedy songs. But it gets a Monday morning shout-out for one reason: It’s the only on-line station that ever seems to play Chrissy The Christmas Mouse, which is entirely awesome.

Note that there are a few scattered ads, but they are few and far between. Check it out on the web at Boomer Radio or search for “Boomer Christmas” in your handy TuneIn app.