One last song before the new year. I’m honestly not sure if this is a Christmas song by association, or if there’s some hidden meaning to “Baby It’s Cold Outside” I missed (you know, aside from the ominous implications of a man who won’t take “no” for an answer). But for whatever reason, this has been a Christmas staple for some time now, though it’s easy to pretend it’s just an ode to the hibernation season.

Lots of people are good at one thing, but it’s still a pleasant surprise to me when someone displays a reasonable amount of talent in multiple areas. Geena Davis was an Olympic archer? Martin Mull is a painter of renown? George Carlin played the conductor on Shining Time Station? (Okay, acting isn’t far from stand-up, but going from swearing on stage to teaching little kids about Thomas the Tank Engine?) Add to the list Zooey Deschanel, she of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Elf. In a scene from Elf, she sings this song in the shower so well that people had to ask if it was actually her. Indeed it was—one of Deschanel’s neat side benefits is she can sing her own parts, thanks to a lifetime of choir work and her on-again off-again cabaret show in Los Angeles. Director Jon Favreau, well aware of Deschanel’s background, decided to exploit her talents by giving her a duet with Will Farrell in the movie, and then again with Leon Redbone on the soundtrack.

Thanks to the onset of global warming (5 degrees Celsius in Toronto on Christmas Day?) it hasn’t been properly cold enough for songs like this. So just imagine the blustery wind and the snow up to your knees, the way it should be during the holidays, and enjoy.