The ‘Tonight Show’ host added a few new songs to his list of favorites this year after releasing his album ‘Holiday Seasoning’
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With a new Christmas album and SiriusXM channel filled with all the best festive tunes, it’s no surprise that Jimmy Fallon has some opinions about holiday music.
The Tonight Show host, 50, tells PEOPLE in an interview about his recent holiday collaborations that when it comes to throwing on Christmas music, there’s never a wrong time.
“I think you can listen to holiday music whenever you want… a good song is a good song,” he says of his “hot take.”
He continues by shouting out the Queen of Christmas herself: “If you want to hear it, [if] it makes you happy, put on Mariah [Carey], crank it.”
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His love of holiday music made Fallon the perfect candidate to curate a holiday station this year for SiriusXM. Within 10 minutes of being asked for some of his favorites to include, his playlist of 150 songs was on its way.
“These are all my songs that I play all year round. It’s stuff you don’t hear on the radio,” he says. “It goes different years, different genres. Some are funny, some are classics, some are ones you go, ‘Oh, I never heard that one.'”
And this year the comedian had some new tracks to choose from following the release of his album Holiday Seasoning which features songs with Ariana Grande, Meghan Trainor, The Roots and Justin Timberlake.
“You can tell that AI [artificial intelligence] did not write these songs,” he says of his album. “These are songs that AI would tell you not to write. It’d be like, do not write ‘Christmas Ding Dong’ Do not write ‘Chipmunks & Chestnuts.’ This is the opposite of what an algorithm would write — it just comes from the brain of an insane man.”
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Although he has a long list of favorites, Fallon admits there’s at least one holiday song that he could do without.
“I don’t love “Santa Baby,”” he says. “I don’t like the fake cutesy of it and trying to sound like you’re cutesy. I don’t love that song. I never liked it.”
Music aside, Fallon says, “it really is the memories that is the best part of the holidays.”
“You grow up, you go through different phases. You’re like, ‘Oh, it’s the presents,’ he says. “And then the older you get, you go, ‘It doesn’t matter, it’s [about] being together.'”
Fallon’s album Holiday Seasoning is available now.
