It’s that time of year again. Every year I make a list of holiday-themed songs that are different from the standard fare you’ll hear over and over… and over… and over… everywhere you go. The list gets published (roughly) at the start of December; right now, I’m soliciting suggestions.
I probably don’t need to explain the problem I’m trying to solve. Anyone who doesn’t live in a cave during November and December each year knows that come this time of year, they won’t be able to go 20 metres in any downtown area without hearing the same twenty or so songs repeatedly. The only variation is which artist happens to be covering the song, and even that isn’t something that varies all that much, and when it does, the artist is often self-consciously trying to sound like the same old tripe. It’s a well-established practice in the music industry for an otherwise talented artist to simply shit out a half-assed Christmas track or album for some quick, easy, extra cash. And the overall quality shows it.
It’s even worse if you’re atheist. In general, your musical choices this time of year often seem to be between banal, mediocre pap, or cringe-worthy religious crap.
Which is why, every year, I try to offer alternative options.
This list is not about listing the “best” songs, by any measure of “best”. It’s just an eclectic collection of songs that sound different from the usual holiday fare, and that can be listened to even without the occasion to enforce it. The basic requirement to be on the list is to be “interesting”, and “different”.
The other important criteria are:
- Seasonal
- What would be the point of this if there wasn’t a focus on seasonal songs? If you just want a list of “interesting songs”, you can get that pretty much anywhere. I use very loose criteria for “seasonal”; if the song mentions any of the holidays this time of year, or even just things like winter, it counts.
- Alternative
- Preferably, the song should sound distinctly different from the standard holiday fare, as much as possible while still retaining a “seasonal” flavour. Because “standard” holiday music is typically crafted to match the sounds of 1940s/1950s pop music, that usually means songs that sound more modern, or songs from other genres. That generally rules out simple parodies. It also rules out songs that otherwise fit all the criteria on the list, but that are widely overplayed.
- Secular
- A single mention of God or Jesus isn’t too distracting, but if it’s a key theme of the song, it can be really annoying to nonreligious ears.
- Canadian
- This is Canadian Atheist, so it’s only natural that the list should be oriented toward Canadians. That not only means extra weight for Canadian acts, it means that I was leaning toward songs that reflect the Canadian experience of this time of year.
- Enjoyable
- The bottom line, really, is that the song has to be good, meaning that – if you’re into the song’s genre – it’s a song you could listen to any time, not just when the holidays are on.
The other criteria were that I want only one song per artist (for a loose definition of “artist”, taking into account collaborations and lineup changes), and only one version of each song. And finally, I have to be able to link to freely available versions of the song.
These criteria are all applied very loosely, so a song can fail in one or two categories and still be included if it is strong enough in others.
Last year there was a conscious focus on new songs (songs that hadn’t been on previous years’ lists), and a heavy bias toward Canadian content. This year I’ll be going back to the usual standard of “whatever sounds best, with just a slight bias toward Canadian content and new stuff”.
Here is last year’s list:
- 50. “i hate december” – Ivy
- 49. “Fallen Snow” – Au Revoir Simone
- 48. “Santa’s Got a Self-Driving Sleigh” – Lex Ventura
- 47. “Let Me Sleep (Christmas Time)” – Pearl Jam
- 46. “Dance ’Til We’re High” – The Fireman
- 45. “The Christmas Song” – Weezer
- 44. “Christmas is Coming Soon” – Blitzen Trapper
- 43. “Mookie’s Last Christmas” – Saosin
- 42. “Christmas is Cancelled” – The Long Blondes
- 41. “My First Xmas (As a Woman)” – The Vandals
- 40. “The Christmas Song” – The Raveonettes
- 39. “Christmas Night of the Living Dead” – MxPx
- 38. “Player’s Ball” – OutKast
- 37. “It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop” – Frightened Rabbit
- 36. “X-mas Time (It Sure Doesn’t Feel Like It)” – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
- 35. “(It’s Gonna Be a) Punk Rock Christmas” – The Ravers
- 34. “I Won’t Be Home for Christmas” – Blink-182
- 33. “Christmas Rules Everything Around Me” – Murs
- 32. “Listen, the Snow is Falling” – Galaxie 500
- 31. “Winter Paradise (I Miss You This Christmas)” – Liam and Me
- 30. “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” – Julian Casablancas
- 29. “Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto” – Belle & Sebastian
- 28. “Sleigh Ride” – TLC
- 27. “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” – Ramones
- 26. “All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue” – Over The Rhine
- 25. “Santa Stole My Lady” – Fitz & The Tantrums
- 24. “Space Christmas” – Shonen Knife
- 23. “What You Want for Christmas” – Quad City DJ’s, The 69 Boyz, and K-Nock
- 22. “All I Want for Christmas is Halloween” – Happy Fangs
- 21. “All That I Want” – The Weepies
- 20. “Xmas Cake” – Rilo Kiley
- 19. 🍁 “Wintersong” – Sarah McLachlan
- 18. 🍁 “Mistletoe” – Justin Bieber
- 17. 🍁 “It’s Christmas Time” – Suzie McNeil
- 16. 🍁 “23 décembre” – Beau dommage
- 15. 🍁 “Christmas Alone” – Current Swell
- 14. 🍁 “Not So Perfect Christmas” – Brett Kissel
- 13. 🍁 “Snow” – Loreena McKennitt
- 12. 🍁 “Tinseltown” – Jimmy Rankin
- 11. 🍁 “Throw Another Log (On The Fire)” – Chic Gamine
- 10. 🍁 “Hang a String of Lights” – Great Lake Swimmers
- 9. 🍁 “Santa Why’d You Do It!?” – Alyssa Reid ft. The Heist
- 8. 🍁 “First Christmas” – Stan Rogers
- 7. 🍁 “Red White and You” – These Kids Wear Crowns
- 6. 🍁 “The Mods of Christmas Town” – Zumpano
- 5. 🍁 “Elf’s Lament” – Barenaked Ladies ft. Michael Bublé
- 4. 🍁 “Christmas Song ⅠⅠ (grinch)” – Grimes
- 3. 🍁 “Song for a Winter’s Night” – Gordon Lightfoot
- 2. 🍁 “Merry Xmas (Says Your Text Message)” – Dragonette
- 1. 🍁 “River” – Joni Mitchell
And here are some songs that were suggested after last year’s list, and will be considered for this year – note that they are not guaranteed to end up on the list:
- “It’s Christmas and I Miss You” – 38 Special (2001)
- “Youll Never Find My Christmas” – Bishop Allen (2011)
- “Winter Song” – Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson (2008)
- “The Blizzard” – Camera Obscura (2009)
- “Song of the Evergreens” – Chicago (1974)
- “Never Ending Winter” – The Daou (1992)
- “Merry Something to You” – Devo (2009)
- “In the Morning” – Jack Johnson (2011)
- “Boots” – The Killers (2010)
- “Christmas Reindeer” – The Knife (2006)
- “Just Like Christmas” – Low (1999)
- “The Dove’s Return” – Áine Minogue (1996)
- “The Spirit of Christmas” – The Moody Blues (2004)
- “Winter Winds” – Mumford & Sons (2009)
- “A Hundred More Miles” – Derik Nelson (2011)
- “Silver Snow” – Derik Nelson (2013)
- “Come On Santa” – The Raveonettes (2008)
- “Christmas” – Rogue Wave (2008)
- “Christmas Wish” – She & Him (2011)
- “That Time of Year” – Sick Puppies (2009)
- “Keep Christmas with You (All Through the Year)” – Susan, Gordon, Big Bird, Luis, David, Bob, Prairie Dawn and Ernie (1975)
- “Cry Cry Christmas” – The Sweptaways ft. Magnus Carlson & The Gray Brigade (2006)
- “Wish Liszt (Toy Shop Madness)” – Trans-Siberian Orchestra (2004)
- 🍁 “Winterlong” – Neil Young (1977)
Do you have any additional suggestions? Leave a comment!
Jesus’s Brother Bob – The Arrogant Worms
Santa Got Arrested – The Arrogant Worms
And pretty much anything from “Christmas Turkey” album by The Arrogant Worms.
Winter Wonderland – A Dave Brubeck Christmas
Iesus Ahottonia (The Huron Carol) – Christmas – Bruce Cockburn
‘Zat You Santa Claus – The Platters
Christmas in Heaven – Monty Python
Let it snow – Diana Krall – Christmas Songs
Awesome, I’ll see if there’s anything there I can add!
For sure I can’t add the Huron Carol – because that’s straight-up a Jesus hymn – but I hadn’t heard Cockburn’s take on it before. That’s not bad at all! Have you heard the Heather Dale take?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCyD0FPb36U
Check out a few songs by Graham Parker, all on his “Christmas Cracker” EP: “Christmas is for Mugs,” “Soul Christmas,” and “New Year’s Revolution.” Parker is a great pick for atheists generally, with songs like “Don’t Ask Me Questions,” “The End of Faith,” and “Syphilis and Religion.”
Oh very nice. I can almost guarantee one of those will end up on this year’s list.
I don’t understand and am practically computer illiterate. Will this compilation be playable on Christmas Day? Usually I start with Chuck Berrys Run Run Rhudolf with my first drink while preparing the turkey diner. This play list would be fun. For sure I’ll use some of these suggestions.
Excellent question.
Previous years’ playlists were not very user friendly – you had to read through the list and manually click each song that you were interested in. It was a bit of a pain, but I guess people tolerated it because most didn’t want to listen to all the songs. (It’s a very diverse list, musically, with everything from blugrass to gangsta rap to death metal, so no one is going to like all the songs on the list.)
This year I am planning something a little different. I don’t know if it will work yet, but the hope is that when the playlist is finished (I’m going to be releasing it in parts this year, because it’s probably going to be a lot longer), you will be able to download a playlist that you can open in just about any player (including Windows Media Player, hopefully). It will be just the playlist – just a list of links to where the songs are; you won’t actually be downloading a hundred songs.
I’m not 100% sure it will work yet, but when the final, full list is posted, check that post for the playlist links, and see if one of them works for you. You should just be able to download the list (don’t worry, it’s just a plain text file, just a list of links, no chance of viruses or anything), then open it with your favourite player. (Or, if you’re lucky, just clicking on it will open your player automatically.)
EDIT:
Here are a couple links you can try right now to see if things work for you:
I’m always pretty amused by Straight No Chaser’s Text Me Merry Christmas featuring Kristen Bell. Though it may have too much of the Xmas sound to it. (The lyrics video is also pretty neat.)
That is an amusing piece! I predict that’s making next year’s list.