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Your Perfect Peace Playlist
Here are 30 jazzy, cozy and cheerful songs that will help you sleep in heavenly peace this holiday season.
Shiane Salabie
Is there a particular song—holiday or otherwise—that fills you with peace? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
How do you find perfect peace during the hectic holiday season, Sis?
Perhaps you spend your festive time with family and friends – cooking, laughing, trimming the Christmas tree, or setting your Kwanzaa table. You may find tranquility by visiting a house of worship or spending quiet time alone in reflection and prayer. You may also enjoy taking a brisk winter walk, curling up with a hot cocoa and a good book or a cheerful movie.
Samara Joy kicks things off with the bubbly “Warm In December,” followed by Ella Fitzgerald’s swing-y rendition of “Winter Wonderland” and Lalah Hathaway’s gorgeous cover of her late father Donny Hathaway’s soul classic “This Christmas.”
However, our sense of inner calm is often derailed by the hectic holiday pace and pressure to spend, even when finances are tight. We can also become overwhelmed by the self-imposed race to meet year-end personal and professional milestones.
Well, for the next 90 minutes or so, we encourage you to forget your troubles by listening to some uplifting music. With this “Perfect Peace” playlist, we want to shift your attention to the reason for the season with a mix of 30 mellow, jazzy and cheerful secular and spiritual songs that strike the right solstice theme and soul-stirring chords.
Samara Joy kicks things off with the bubbly “Warm In December,” followed by Ella Fitzgerald’s swing-y rendition of “Winter Wonderland” and Lalah Hathaway’s gorgeous cover of her late father Donny Hathaway’s soul classic “This Christmas.”
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Speaking of regal renditions, our forever love Luther Vandross offers a silky smooth take on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things”; Brandy lends her lilting vocal runs to Stevie Wonder’s poignant plea for unity on “Someday at Christmas; Gladys Knight & The Pips put a soulful spin on “Silent Night”; and Babyface adds his signature swagger to “The Christmas Song” popularized by Nat King Cole.
Other standout season’s greetings come from Dolly Parton and Ladysmith Black Mambazo on “Peace Train/Isitimela Sokuthula”; Lovely Hoffman on “A Kwanzaa Song”; Dina Carroll on “The Perfect Year”; and The Whispers on “Happy Holidays to You,” which sounds even more poignant since the group’s co-founder, Walter Scott Jr. passed away this year. Mellow instrumentals and a capella tracks like George Winston’s “Night, Pt. 1: Snow” and Take 6 with “A Quiet Place” also pepper the tranquil musical medley.
And if it’s contemplative praise and worship you seek, listen intently to Mariah Carey on the soaring yuletide anthem “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)”; Toots & The Maytals on the gospel reggae-tinged “Peace Perfect Peace”; CeCe Winans on the doo-wop-reminiscent “Peace from God”; The Boys Choir of Harlem on the plaintive “Let There Be Peace on Earth”; and Oleta Adams on the take-us-to-church closing track, “Place of Peace.”
Sisters From AARP wishes you a happy holiday season, and we hope that listening to this playlist brings you a little comfort, joy and perfect peace.
Is there a particular song—holiday or otherwise—that fills you with peace? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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