Sure, summer always has a soundtrack, but it’s the holiday season that seems saturated with music. There are even radio stations that convert to all Christmas all of the time once the Thanksgiving turkey is put away.

Wading through all of that holiday tuneage can be overwhelming, so here are a few specific situations (or people) and the music that might fit the occasion.

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‘Putamayo Presents a Jazz & Blues Christmas’ is a new compilation of mellow class with tracks by B.B. King, Ray Charles, the Ramsey Lewis Trio and Charles Brown.

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You can’t go wrong with the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.’

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‘Snowed in With You’ by Ohio husband-and-wife duo Over the Rhine is good for holiday romance.

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For a Christmas worse than yours: ‘Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis’ by Tom Waits.

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For a holiday cocktail party:

“Putamayo Presents a Jazz & Blues Christmas” is a new compilation of mellow class with tracks by B.B. King, Ray Charles, the Ramsey Lewis Trio and Charles Brown. There are several older releases, too. The “Wonderland” series, released by Shout Factory back in 2003, is a beauty. The top choice of the three-disc group is “Yulesville,” if only for Pearl Bailey’s “Jingle Bells Cha Cha Cha” and Dean Martin’s “WinterWonderland.” If the party’s going to go on for a very long time, check out the “Ultra-Lounge” series of holiday discs.

For the trip to Grandma’s house:

If you have to please a carload of people with widely divergent tastes, you can’t go wrong with the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Those familiar instrumental tracks are always a crowd-pleaser, and they’ll have visions of Peanuts characters dancing in your head.

For a little holiday romance: The warming “All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue” and “Snowed in With You” by Ohio husband-and-wife duo Over the Rhine or Ella Fitzgerald’s peerless takes on Christmas gems such as “Winter Wonderland” and “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” from “Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas.”

For that dangerously brittle evergreen in the front room:

“Christmas Tree on Fire” by Holly Golightly is a stomping little ditty with the raw, early rock feel of all of singer and songwriter Golightly’s work. “I’m beatin’ it back with a tube sock and a cushion off the couch,” she sings. “The Christmas tree’s on fire and it’s burning down the house.” The long-serving British artist — she made her solo debut in 1995 — recently relocated to rural north Georgia.

The Kinks’ tale of hoodlums and holiday greed, “Father Christmas”: “Father Christmas, give us some money/ We got no time for your silly toys. We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over./ Give all the toys to the little rich boys.”

“Jingle Bermuda Tree Frogs” is just what it sounds like. Christmas tunes are given an adult contemporary sheen and then the croaking of Bermuda Tree Frogs is added to the mix. Why anyone would do this is a question only the twisted creators of this album can answer. At least it’s better than those annoying carol-singing dogs.

Tony-winning blond spark plug (and star of TV’s “Pushing Daisies) Kristin Chenoweth has just released her first holiday set. It’s called “A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas” — and it is.

For the folks with a certain December birthday: “I Was Born on Christmas Day” by Brit-pop trio Saint Etienne.

For wallowing in the economic misery: Hardship sounds the same no matter the decade. Just listen to Merle Haggard’s 1973 hit “If We Make It Through December”:

“Got laid off down at the factory,/ and their timing’s not the greatest in the world.

Heaven knows I been workin’ hard./ Wanted Christmas to be right for daddy’s girl.”

For a Christmas worse than yours:

“Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl; “Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis” by Tom Waits; “Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas)” by, take your pick, John Denver, Alan Jackson or the Decemberists; and “Hard Candy Christmas” by Dolly Parton.