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We close our Christmas Eve program with some international Yuletide music. And no one is more qualified to fill your Christmas iPod than our very own Mike Wilkins. He’s an engineer here at The World. And Mike is a serious — some might say — obsessive collector of Christmas music.

So what are some of your recent finds?

Mike: Well, Marco I’ve found that Xmas music is universal, but there are certain parts of the world that are particularly keen on Christmas. I want to focus on two regions. First is Jamaica — reggae Christmas music — been around for many years.

Here’s a boxed set — 3 Cds. This song is called….

Maytals – Happy Christmas

That’s a lot of reggae Christmas music, Mike. When was it recorded? Okay so that was the Maytals and their song Happy Christmas. Where else is Christmas music played a lot?

Mike: Asia. One of the most interesting finds is a song recorded in South Korea in the 1960s….now keep in mind the Vietnam war was going on. There were a lot of troops based in the region and of course troops had been stationed in Korea during the ’50s because of the Korean War.

This song is….

Korea from 1960s – Auld Lang Syne

So that’s a tune from the 1960s recorded in Korea. Let’s stay in Asia for your last pick. What shall we end the show with?

Mike: We’ll earlier in the show there we aired a piece on how the Japanese love Kentucky Fried Chicken. In fact one of the cds I have…has that very image. It’s punk rock Christmas music.

But the Christmas pop tune I want us to hear came out last year. It’s by Tommy Heavenly6. Who is it?

Tommy Heavenly6 — I Love Xmas
The World’s engineer Mike Wilkins. Thanks Mike and a Merry Christmas to you.