I’ve long associated Belle and Sebastian with Christmas. Not necessarily to do with these songs, so much as the Christmas of 1996, when I returned home from my first term at university with a recording of their then recently released second album If You’re Feeling Sinister, and my brother and I listened to it repeatedly during that holiday. As the years went by, I fell more in love with the band’s music and a romanticised idea of them. Still, I have met both Stevie Jackson and Stuart Murdoch and they were lovely folk.

Apologies to whichever member I drunkenly harangued in a pub in Glasgow circa 2004. ‘Oi, mate, you know that last track [‘Stay Loose’] off your last album [Dear Catastrophe Waitress]…you fuckin’ taking the piss out of Elvis Costello, or what?!?!’

There is a reason I don’t drink any more…

I don’t know much about how the following tracks came into being (all information gratefully received etc. etc.) but I hope you enjoy them as part of the latest installment of my Christmas posts, which you seem to be enjoying. Mostly…

Belle and Sebastian -‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.’ mp3

Belle and Sebastian -‘Are You Coming Over For Christmas?’ mp3

Belle and Sebastian -‘Christmas time is Here.’ mp3