Merry Christmas, Avocado. The votes are in, and here we are with the final results!

Finishing in third place, with a 19-13 victory over Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, was Duke Ellington’s surprisingly resilient Nutcracker Suite! The 1960 jazz arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s ballet was seeded at #43, and faced some stiff competition, knocking off the likes of Dolly Parton, Barenaked Ladies, A Very Special Christmas, and Nat King Cole before finally losing out to John Denver and the Muppets in the Final Four.

And of course, the big winner is Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, which defeated A Christmas Together by a score of 29-12. The energy and emotion of the Muppets was just no match for Guaraldi’s smooth jazz takes on holiday classics.

Just want to say thanks to everyone who participated! I discovered a whole ton of Christmas music that I hadn’t heard before, which certainly beats listening to the same old holiday staples on the radio all day month long! Ingrid Michaelson, Kenny Burrell, and the Ventures all deserve a spot on my personal playlist next year (among others), and while I didn’t quite make it through Shatner Claus, Jingle Cats, or the Superions, it’s nice to know that there some weird stuff out there for for when I get tired of “Sleigh Ride.”

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!