Each December, the XLR8R staff takes a few minutes every morning to spout off about what we’d like to see wrapped up and under the tree come December 25. Today, XLR8R.com scribe Maverick Newberry is looking to score–with a Score! 20 Years of Merge Records subscription, that is.

I fucking hate snail mail.

Honestly, I venture down to the mail room of my apartment building about once every two weeks, only to open the little silver door and see a tidal wave of credit card offers, donation requests from religious nuts, and coupons for Big Lots land at my feet. I was thinking the other day that if I could have any Christmas wish fulfilled, it would be that something worthwhile comes through the post once in a while. Then, like she’d read my mind or something, my co-worker told me about Score!, and she wasn’t talking about cruising the local dive up the street–or the porn mag of the same name.

Score! Merge Records: The First 20 Years is Merge’s forthcoming subscription package honoring the label’s 20th anniversary (duh) that comes with 14 different compilations, to be mailed out over the course of 2009. Call it a box set on steroids.

Besides the compilations–containing tracks from the Merge catalog curated by the likes of David Byrne, Jonathan Lethem, Miranda July, and a bunch of others–a subscription includes the Merge Remix CD (reinterpretations of Merge songs by Jason Forrest, Battles, Junior Boys, and others), a Merge Covers CD (non-Merge artists covering Merge artists), a 350-plus-page book of every Merge record cover ever made, a Scharpling and Wurster comedy CD, and a big box in which to store everything. Basically you’re getting a shit-ton of music and artwork hand-delivered to your door that you’re not going to find in most places (like, you wouldn’t find it at Big Lots, for instance). Definitely worth trudging down to the mail room for.

MSRP: $199
Score! Merge Records: The First 20 Years subscriptions are available through January 1, 2009.

Day 1: Keurig Platinum B70 single-cup coffeemaker
Day 2: Score! Merge Records: The First 20 Years
Day 3: Low Self-Esteem by Katie West
Day 4: New Balance 420 and PF Flyers’ Number 5
Day 5: Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films
Day 6: Kenwood TT756SL 2-Slice Radio Toaster
Day 7: The Ghostly Box
Day 8: Pentax SMC DA* Series 16-50mm F2.8 and 50-135mm F2.8 DSLR lenses