I'm not a big fan of Christmas music, at least not when it comes to remake after remake of the same half dozen traditional songs. However, it is nice to have on in the background as the time approaches.

Anyone know of an Internet Radio station that is known for a bit of diversity. By diverse, I mean non-traditions songs or very unusual versions of the traditional. Any genre is acceptable here and sound quality is only a plus, not essential as it will be strictly background.

I tried a few on Sunday but they were either too full of the 'same ol' or they were 100% country or 100% something else.

Pandora?

I know I'm not going to be helpful here, but that doesn't always stop me.

I bought one Christmas CD a year for about ten years. I'm done now. I enjoy the ones from Diana Krall, Brian Setzer, BB King, Wynton Marsalis and some others. I just put those on random and that works for me.

But, yeah, Pandora. Try inputting some specific artists and songs, not just songs or just artists. I seem to have snagged somebody else's station called "Jazz Holidays", and it's okay.

Edit: Canadians still don't get Pandora, do you?

Try Grooveshark.

Hm. I should pick up the Wynton Marsalis CD.

Its not through the internet but your local cable or satellite subscription usually come with a variety of music stations. Holiday music stations crop up at this time of the year. For continous holiday cheer that is what I use and play it through the main system. Decent variety, good quality for the most part.

I really enjoy Ray Charles' Spirit of Christmas.

Pandora has about a dozen different christmas channels. Start with the "holiday" genra. I've been listening to them for a couple weeks now........

Thanks folks. Pandora is a great idea. It used to be directly accessible via my Squeezebox but no longer. I can set up my PC to access it via a proxy but I can't then feed it (or Grooveshark) directly to the squeezebox to get the music up on the main floor from the basement PC. The satellite TV service is also downstairs.

I could break out the laptop to hook directly to the main floor receiver for Pandora via border tunneling proxies but I'll just keep experimenting with the available channels and playing the CDS I have ripped over the years.

Hmm, I wonder if I proxy into Pandora's web page via my iPod Touch's browser and plug it directly into mu main floor receiver.... This would save me breaking out my work laptop with an hour of security processes to endure before it boots up.

That should actually work.

Now you're talking Murph! Let me know if you find a good way of tunneling your iPod - I had not thought of that approach. Like you, I love Pandora but usually can't be bothered tunneling because of my work VPN and other annoyances. Thanks!