Another GLEE Christmas!

HERC watched the premiere episode of Glee at least a dozen times on his DVR after it was buried sneak previewed following some show called American Idol way back in 2009. He even bought the episode on DVD when it was released as a Wal-Mart exclusive (above) but chose not to send away for the free Glee tee.

And then HERC waited and waited with antici- wait  for  it -pation for five long months until the series began its first season in September 2009.  He watched the extended Director's Cut of the episode on DVD a few times, pleased with both the song selection and the performances.  Three years on and HERC doesn't even watch GLEE anymore - he just listens to the music.

  

There wasn't a Christmas episode or any Holiday songs during that first season of the series. However, a charity single was released, a cover of Wham!'s "Last Christmas", in November 2009, and it peaked at #63 on the Hot 100.

Season Two did feature a Christmas themed episode, "A Very Glee Christmas", with the cast's renditions of  Christmas songs, many of which had been released four weeks prior as Glee, The Music: The Christmas Album.

Four singles were released from the album, which peaked at #3 on the Top 200 while selling over a million copies.  In addition, a song from the episode ("Welcome Christmas") not included on the album was released as a single as well.

Season 3's "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" episode featured 9 songs - including the original title song - and 8 of them appeared on Glee, The Music: The Christmas Album, Vol. 2, which had been released a month prior to the episode's airing.

The lone song from the episode that wasn't on the accompanying album was "My Favorite Things" from The Sound Of Music and, although it was released as a single it, like 7 of the other 8 singles from the album, failed to chart.

The only charting single from the episode was New Directions' take on "Do They Know It's Christmas?" which barely cracked the Hot 100, peaking at #92.  The album also featured a song that wasn't performed in the episode, "Santa Baby".








Volume 3 of Glee Christmas music was released in 2012 and it is filled with still more performances from the year's Holiday episode as well as four bonus songs not in the episode.  At the time of this writing, it is unknown what singles will be released.

Most of - if not all of - the covers above are fan created.