Feeling festive yet?

Is the first day of December a legitimate point to start looking forward to Christmas? Not that we have much choice in the matter, thanks to the incessant carol-soundtracked adverts that elbow in between TV shows from mid-October and the twinkly displays that festoon every shop window.

But we're no Ebenezer Scrooges here at UtR, and, despite the widely bemoaned stranglehold that The X Factor currently has over the once competitive Christmas chart battle (or perhaps because of it), it seems that independent bands and artists are also getting into the spirit of the season.

Already, we know of two up and coming Scottish bands with their own Christmas songs freshly pressed: There Will Be Fireworks (see Radar Recommends below for gig info) have just this week recorded a typically uplifting, Latin-titled effort called In Excelis Deo, while relatively new Edinburgh band The Last Battle are set to release their own more reflective lament, Once Upon A Boxing Day, next Monday.

Expect to hear both on our Christmas podcast coming soon, as well as a host of other select tuneage.

Have you heard of any other alternative Scottish Christmas songs? Leave your suggestions below.

From next week we'll be looking back on the year that was 2009 with our writers' choices of the best bands and gigs, some guest bloggers and plenty more besides. But before that, we'd like to know how the year was for you...

What was your favourite gig?
Which UtR-featured act did you enjoy most? (hint: see the full list on the right)

P.S. Tickets for the ever popular Fence Homegame went on sale today. It's not until March but it always sells out fast. More info here.