It’s Christmas time, but there’s no need to be afraid – for I have complied a simply spectacular playlist of awesome X-mas tunes for your perusal. There is a mixture of Christmas classics that we all know and love, and some alternative tracks as well. Hopefully there is something for everyone to enjoy. Unless you don’t like Christmas, in which case, why are you reading this? Weirdo.
“Driving Home for Christmas” – Chris Rea
Anyone who has had to travel home for Christmas should understand the lovely sentiment of this song. It’s mellow, yet very evocative of an important journey that many people take every Christmas.
“Christmas is Awesome” – Reuben
This track is brilliant – so funny, with a really English approach to humour and indeed Christmas generally. Check it out below:
“Let it Snow” – Dean Martin
This song has a lovely melody, warmed by Dean Martin’s rich voice. The sentiment too is wonderful – because snow is absolutely fantastic – providing you have no place to go.
“Happy Holidays, You Bastard” – Blink 182
I love short pop-punk songs, and Blink 182 do them very, very well. The rapidity of the song, coupled with the mass of swear words within made this a favourite for my fifteen-year-old self.
“Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)” – The Darkness
Ah, remember The Darkness? I do – they were lush! This track was a really nice change from the usual X-mas chart stuff at the time, and a welcome return to a more jovial, cheery, 70s style of Christmas song.
“All I Want for Christmas is You” – Mariah Carey
Yes, this track is beyond cheesy, but a bit of cheese and sentimentality can be lovely at Christmas. It is also a genuine sentiment I feel towards my beau – that the best present is to have him to myself all day. Ahh.
“Christmas Wrapping” – The Waitresses
I’ve always liked this Christmas song ever since I was little, possibly because two sassy, independent ladies sang it. As I’ve gotten older though it has remained high on my favourite Christmas songs list as it well represents the busy rush of buying presents, wrapping presents, getting and preparing food, etc. and the desire surely everyone has in December at least once – that it might just be easier and more enjoyable to spend Christmas by oneself.
“Fallen Snow” – Au Revoir Simone
Not technically a Christmas song, but more relating to winter, this is a beautiful and lyrically brilliant song discussing the importance of love when its very, very cold, (FYI, the video is depressingly summery).
“Fairytale of New York” – The Pogues and Kirsty Macoll
If you ask people what their favourite Christmas song is, many will suggest this Pogues masterpiece. It sounds wonderfully merry and Christmassy, but well captures the fraught tensions that many of us feel when spending so much time with our families.
“Do They Know its Christmas (1984)” – Band Aid
Of all the incarnations of band aid there have been, the first was clearly the best. David Bowie, Sting, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Boy George – what a line-up that has endured through to today. And of course the message behind Band Aid is forever important, monumentally so at the time.
“White Christmas” – Bing Crosby
To me this is the perfect Christmas song. It is gentle, peaceful and warm-hearted, as well as simple and elegant in its execution.
“Its Christmas So We’ll Stop” – Frightened Rabbit
Simultaneously covering the disappointment and heartache Christmas can bring with the romantic nature of the Christmas season, this is lyrically detailed, painstakingly gentle and very new folk song is subtle and beautiful.
See this playlist at HCE: http://t.co/OKhPUm0
