"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," Ingrid Michaelson (Cabin 24)

Ingrid has flirted with Christmas themes before. "Men of Snow," from 2007's Everybody, uses a snowman as a metaphor for lovers' separation. Her 2009 album Girls and Boys has two entries, the rocker "The Hat," a sweet rocker whose downtempo lyrics depict a Christmastime breakup, and "December Baby," a little more morose version of the same plotline. She also had the singles "Snowfall" and "When the Leaves." And of course, she duetted on "Winter Song" with Sara Barielles for the Hotel Cafe disc. For 2011, she does away with the ambiguity and gives us a slow acoustic take of the popular song mentioned in the headline. A good change of pace single, and notice I make no references to "Grey's Anatomy" in this post. (Except that one.) This song is on iTunes and Amazon, but there's also an EP at her site with this song, "Snowfall," "When the Leaves" and "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm."