Notes & Nuggets: The Twelve Songs of Christmas
- Christian Farrell
- Dec 20, 2019
- 7 min read
Christmas comes too early nowadays. We live across the street from a grocery store, and I remember looking out our front window in October and seeing a handful of Christmas items going up outside right next to the Halloween pumpkins. Don’t even get me started on how early the Santa hats went on-sale inside.
So believe me when I say my personal December 1st Christmas season launch date – NOT the Friday after Thanksgiving – is pretty punk rock, all things considered.
As part of my personal Christmas season festivities, whenever I’ve been in the car I’ve been listening to the 24 hour Christmas music station (which was available starting in early November!), only changing the station if something came on from N’Sync or Bieber (yeah, come at me).
I’m a big fan of Christmas music, although different from many fans I’m not big on traditional songs. Sure, I love the occasional “Rudolph” or “Frosty”, but I’m a much bigger fan of more modern interpretations of Christmas. Part of this, I believe, is tied to loving Christmas in general – even as an adult, without thinking about unwrapping toys under the Christmas tree, I feel like this is a special and loving time of the year (part of which is based on Christmas as a construct and part of which is endemic to the time of the year – but that’s a post of its own), and see no reason that Christmas songs shouldn’t be able to evolve into the style of music I listen to on my own (mostly rock).
With that, and with almost three weeks of Christmas tunes behind me this year (and many more in years past), I present to you my twelve favorite Christmas songs:
(12) “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, Jon Bon Jovi
Jersey in the house! This is a very well-written rock song that’s been covered by many great rock bands (in fact, it’s not the last time we’ll see this song on this list!), and Jon has a great voice for expressing the heartbreak needed to pull this off.
(11) “All I Want for Christmas”, Mariah Carey
I know I know, but hear me out – not only is it a sweet and well-written song, but it also stuck with me as the closing number in the Disney Christmas parade – the treat for watching Nick Cannon fumble through two hours of hosting duties
There’s a lot to love here, not only a story that takes you through a whole year (clever touch), but also that feeling of being young and mostly on your own in the New York area. Reminds me of waking up on Christmas morning in my 5th floor Hoboken walk-up with only my cat to share it with – and that’s surprisingly not a bad feeling.
Quite a catchy tune, and teaches you some Spanish to boot. Random aside: I remember loving this song so much as a kid, and incorrectly judging its significance on “Sesame Street” to such a degree, that I thought Christmas was a Mexican holiday. I had a sombrero and everything, but didn’t understand why none of the adults wanted to see my hat dance.
As mentioned, I’m not one for traditional Christmas songs, and as you may have noticed, religious Christmas songs don’t really do much for me. But that all changes when it comes to Josh Groban – HOLY MISTLETOE THE PIPES ON THIS GUY!!! I’m not the kind of person to seek Groban’s songs out, but when the right one comes along (and I feel like “Oh Holy Night” is just made for him) it makes some magic.
If you weren’t around in the 80s, it’s hard to explain how momentous an event this was. First of all, we had something called “popular music”, where at least 80% of the population at least heard of more than 25 bands (as an example, whenever there was a big charity concert announced, you could guess exactly what the lineup would be). Secondly, we were in the midst of the second (smaller, but still significant) British invasion, where most of the popular acts (like U2, Duran Duran, Phil Collins, etc.) were British. So when they announced that the cream of the British rock crop was coming together to record a Christmas song for charity – and EVERYONE came – it was incredible. But even without knowing all of that…this is a very catchy tune, even after Bono trolls you with “But tonight thank God it’s them/instead of YOUUUUUU!!!!”
I know Leona Lewis has a couple good Christmas songs under her belt, but this one, which I only heard last week for the first time (even though it’s been around for years), really jams. Plus, I love how it’s looking forward not just to Christmas but also to being with the people you love. Would make a great song for a commercial showing troops coming home, but surprised it hasn’t been used for more general Christmas commercials (would be a better choice than Target using “Ring My Bell”, which isn’t even a Christmas tune and instead is about…the bathing suit area….).
No, I never thought I would ever be blasting a Carly Rae Jepsen song whenever it came on, much less putting it in the Christmas song pantheon, but here we are. Not to take away from Carly Rae, but it doesn’t have much to do with her singing – it sounds like she’s just hitting marks (this song it definitely ripe for a cover) – but instead is because it’s such a well-written song. The funny thing is it sounds like it’s written about high school, yet I feel like it perfectly captures the feeling of coming home for Christmas break during college – when you’re spent months/years feeling like an adult only to sleep in your childhood bed, when you put your stakes in a new place only to come back to a home you’re starting to outgrow, when the person you at least think you love is now hundreds of miles away surrounded by his or her own family. Great Christmas tune that breaks the Millennial barrier!
Told you we’d get around to it again! While Jon Bon Jovi brought his hard-rock voice to this song, Bono one-ups him with inherent longing and sadness – these lyrics are right in the Bono wheelhouse. Not to mention, U2 brings a secret weapon that’s always been undersold – Edge’s backing vocals (which are crucial for a song like this where Bono and Edge are almost singing different songs). With all that, as well as great musicianship in general, U2’s version of a great rock song goes on the Mt. Rushmore of Christmas tunes.
This has nothing to do with the Barenaked Ladies – while they have a lot to overcome considering they’re just the store brand Canadian knockoff of They Might Be Giants, they do fine here. The star of the show, though, is Sarah McLachlan. Sarah McLachlan was never as big a star as she could/should have been (“Building a Mystery” slaps), and that potential really shows here. As I’ve said before, I’m not all that into the religious Christmas songs, but when McLachlan starts with her portion…it’s breathtaking. It’s not just hitting the notes (which she does extraordinarily well), but the inherent joy she brings to the words. I’ve got to imagine that for a religious Christian with love in his/her heart looking forward to celebrating Jesus’s birth, McLachlan’s solo is what that feels like. So, with Sarah McLachlin dragging them across the finish line, the Barenaked Ladies get a podium spot.
This is a harder inclusion than it might seem. On the one hand, Lennon’s voice and guitar work are perfect, the bass line after each “Let’s hope it’s a good one” in the chorus is one of my all-time favorites, and the choir comes in at just the right time. On the other hand…you know he’s yelling at you, right? This is like playing “Born in the USA” at your 4th of July party – you can totally do it, but just make sure you know what you’re talking about. The lyrics to “Happy Xmas” are not joyous; Lennon is calling people out for being fat and happy in celebration while war rages among the Vietnamese (and obviously we have a lot of other things going on today that we can substitute for Vietnam). That’s why it’s so powerful when the children’s choir jumps in with “War is over/if you want it” – if you’re willing to try to do something to make this a better world this Christmas, or in February, or in August, or throughout the year, this is your song. We can make this a better world. If you want it.
I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that my favorite Christmas song of all time was on the soundtrack to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (which, incidentally, I just discovered when looking for the above video). New York is a special place for Christmas for everyone, but as someone who lived near there for most of my life it’s especially important. Even in the late 80s/early 90s, when New York City was still scary, my mother would take us and our cousins into the city on Christmas Eve to see the Rockettes, or the Nutcracker, or “A Christmas Carol”. Along the way we’d stop at Macy’s to see Santa, or St. Patrick’s cathedral, or FAO Schwartz. Even now living in Atlanta, I still miss seeing the sights in New York during Christmas time. And that’s why I love this song. “All Alone on Christmas” sounds like it was recorded on Times Square in the 80s next to a sketchy looking Salvation Army Santa, and I mean that in the best possible way. I would never have thought that a Christmas song would be the perfect venue for Phil Spector-style wall of sound, but this proves me wrong. This is everything a New York Christmas should be – loud, busy, tinged with sadness, caring beautiful. And ultimately, my favorite Christmas song of all time.
Until Carly Rae Jepsen’s next album.
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