"Wonderful Christmastime" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" tend to get all the airplay, but the Beatles were releasing Christmas records before anyone in the U.S. knew who they were.

The group started making them way back in 1963, as bonus item for members of its fan club. But they weren't the radio-friendly songs that Paul McCartney and John Lennon scored with years later as solo artists. They were spoken-word messages with bits of holiday songs thrown in.

The records were eventually collected on a semi-official album, but these rarities -- which were originally sent out as flexi-discs -- provide a map to the way the members' relationships and their music changed over the years. More than likely designed to shore up their image as wholesome pop stars, the annual Christmas records underscore the Beatles' blithe embrace of the subversive and, at least initially, their brotherhood. After the split came far more popular, and tuneful, seasonal items from each of the members. We take a look at them all in our History of the Beatles' Christmas Records.