Great Christmas music, no matter what the style, conjures a sense of nostalgia. The best can be listened to on repeat and be the centerpiece of any Christmas playlist.
Vince Guaraldi and his trio put together a brilliant set of relaxed jazz to go with a cute cartoon movie that became a classic to be repeated annually on TV to bring joy to the young and old alike. But I doubt they realized the impact it would have.
I recently realized that for myself and countless others, this cartoon’s soundtrack was likely our first exposure to jazz. I certainly didn’t recognize it as jazz at the time and probably didn’t even consciously recognize it as music to begin with as a young tot. It was just there, accompanying the cute artwork I was watching on the screen. But at some point it became music in our consciousness, and later it became jazz music. Hopefully sometime after that it became admired jazz music.