What to do?

How about checking out a few offbeat Christmas offerings from some unlikely sources — like, say, Canned Heat, Jimi Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Jethro Tull?

About.com has gathered up a list of some of the best classic rock Christmas albums. We don’t vouch for their quality, but some of these sound intriguing enough.

Here goes:

1. Canned Heat: Christmas Album

2. Blackmore’s Night: Winter Carols

3. Moody Blues: December

4. Jethro Tull: The Jethro Tull Christmas Album

5. Jimi Hendrix: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

6. Lynyrd Skynyrd: Christmas Time Again

7. The Ventures: Christmas Joy

8. Steve Lukather: SantaMental

To see more, visit About.com.

Originally, the town was supposed to host the event, but backed out when rumors spread predicting a much larger than expected turnout. As a result, the show moved to an alfalfa field in Bethel, about 40 miles away, and the rest is…well, history.

In all, 32 acts appeared over the course of the four day event, held August 15-18, 1969. Here’s the lineup, in alphabetical order:

Joan Baez
The Band
Blood, Sweat & Tears
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Canned Heat
Joe Cocker
Country Joe McDonald and The Fish
Crosby, Stills, & Nash
The Grateful Dead
Arlo Guthrie
Tim Hardin
The Keef Hartley Band
Richie Havens
Jimi Hendrix
Incredible String Band
*Iron Butterfly
Jefferson Airplane
Janis Joplin
Melanie
Mountain
Quill
Santana
John Sebastian
Sha-Na-Na
Ravi Shankar
Sly & The Family Stone
Bert Sommer
Sweetwater
Ten Years After
The Who
Johnny Winter
#Neil Young

* Iron Butterfly was scheduled but did not perform because they couldn’t make it to the site.
# Neil Young played with Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Source: Woodstock69.com

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