2018’s alternative playlist had the most new songs of any playlist ever, including the original one (where every song was new).
Indi’s alternative holiday playlist 2018:
- Preamble
- #100 to #91
- #90 to #81
- #80 to #71
- #70 to #61
- #60 to #51
- #50 to #41
- #40 to #31
- #30 to #21
- #20 to #11
- #10 to #1
- Summary (and downloadable playlists)
Legend:
🍁 = Canadian
★ = New this year
Virtually all of the new songs were indie rock, because that’s what people pointed me to: indie compilation albums. But there were a couple of interesting exceptions, particularly songs from the soundtracks of holiday specials. We had an interesting cover of “Walking in the Air”, from the Oscar-nominated BBC special The Snowman. But we had also had some classic Canadiana: two songs from the 1980 CBC special The Christmas Raccoons.
Here’s the 2018 list:
- 100. “Sleigh Ride” – TLC
- 99. ★ “Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass” – All Time Low
- 98. ★ “Holiday” – The Hopefuls
- 97. 🍁 “Wintersong” – Sarah McLachlan
- 96. ★ “Every Day is Christmas” – The Webb Brothers
- 95. “Christmas Tree” – Lady Gaga ft. Space Cowboy
- 94. ★ “Christmas Time Blues” – Trainwreck Riders
- 93. 🍁 “Winterlong” – Neil Young
- 92. ★ “A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn’t So)” – The Flaming Lips
- 91. “Christmas Day” – The Elders
- 90. “Merry Something to You” – Devo
- 89. “You Are My Joy” – The Reindeer Section
- 88. “Christmas Night of the Living Dead” – MxPx
- 87. “I Want an Alien for Christmas” – Fountains of Wayne
- 86. “All I Want for Christmas is Halloween” – Happy Fangs
- 85. 🍁 “Throw Another Log (On The Fire)” – Chic Gamine
- 84. “Everything’s Gonna Be Cool this Christmas” – eels
- 83. 🍁 “Hang a String of Lights” – Great Lake Swimmers
- 82. “Shake Up Christmas” – Train
- 81. “All Join Hands” – Slade
- 80. ★ “I Don’t Want a Lump of Coal” – Kyle Andrews
- 79. ★ “And Anyway It’s Christmas” – !!!
- 78. ★ “Christmas Eve For Two” – Summer Fiction
- 77. ★ “25th December” – Everything but the Girl
- 76. ★ “Get Down For the Holidays” – Jenny O.
- 75. ★ “Christmas Day” – Dido
- 74. ★ “It Must Be Christmas” – Math and Physics Club
- 73. ★ “Flowers in December” – Mazzy Star
- 72. ★ “Got Something for You” – Best Coast and Wavves
- 71. ★ “Christmas TV” – Slow Club
- 70. ★ “No Christmas for Me” – Zee Avi
- 69. ★ “She Came Home For Christmas” – Mew
- 68. ★ “You Never Come Home for Christmas” – Caitlin Rose and Keegan DeWitt
- 67. ★ “Snowfall” – Ingrid Michaelson
- 66. ★ “It’s Clichéd to Be Cynical at Christmas” – Half Man Half Biscuit
- 65. ★ “Bittersweet Eve” – Belasana
- 64. “Alone This Holiday” – The Used
- 63. ★ “Holiday Road” – Matt Pond PA
- 62. ★ “Santa Tell Me” – Ariana Grande
- 61. ★ “8 Days of Christmas” – Destiny’s Child
- 60. “Winter Winds” – Mumford & Sons
- 59. “Christmas Lights” – Coldplay
- 58. “The Blizzard” – Camera Obscura
- 57. “Listen, the Snow is Falling” – Galaxie 500
- 56. “Kidnap the Sandy Claws” – KoЯn
- 55. “Christmas Reindeer” – The Knife
- 54. “The Christmas Song” – Weezer
- 53. “Christmas in Hollis” – Run–D.M.C.
- 52. “The Night Santa Went Crazy” – “Weird Al” Yankovic
- 51. “All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue” – Over The Rhine
- 50. ★ “Father Christmas” – Elastica
- 49. ★ “Forget December” – Something Corporate
- 48. ★ “Christmas With You is the Best” – The Long Winters
- 47. ★ “Christmas Was Better in the 80s” – The Futureheads
- 46. ★ “Holidays Are Heavy” – Menace Beach
- 45. ★ “Xmas Curtain” – My Morning Jacket
- 44. ★ “All I Want is Truth (For Christmas)” – The Mynabirds
- 43. ★ “Festive Friends (Forever)” – Parenthetical Girls
- 42. ★ “We Come Back” – Local Natives
- 41. ★ “Santa’s Coming For Us” – Sia
- 40. ★ “Santa’s Got a Bag of Soul” – Soul-Saints Orchestra
- 39. ★ “Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man This Christmas)” – The Weather Girls
- 38. ★ “Santa Shaved His Beard” – The Nobility
- 37. ★ “Santa’s Lost His Mojo” – Jeremy Lister
- 36. ★ “Please Come Back Home” – Glasvegas
- 35. ★ “Driving Home, Christmas Eve” – Frontier Ruckus
- 34. ★ 🍁 “Rudy” – The Be Good Tanyas
- 33. ★ “Coldest Winter” – Kanye West
- 32. ★ “First Snow on Brooklyn” – Jethro Tull
- 31. ★ “Maybe Next Year” – Meiko
- 30. “Xmas Cake” – Rilo Kiley
- 29. “Player’s Ball” – OutKast
- 28. 🍁 “First Christmas” – Stan Rogers
- 27. “Christmas in the Trenches” – John McCutcheon
- 26. “2000 Miles” – The Pretenders
- 25. 🍁 “The Mods of Christmas Town” – Zumpano
- 24. 🍁 “Christmas Song II (grinch)” – Grimes
- 23. “Winter Song” – Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson
- 22. “Don’t Shoot Me Santa” – The Killers
- 21. 🍁 “Santa Why’d You Do It!?” – Alyssa Reid ft. The Heist
- 20. ★ “Dead, Dead, Dead” – Juan Schwartz and The South Park Children’s Choir
- 19. ★ “The First Snowflake” – The Boy Least Likely To
- 18. ★ “Text Me Merry Christmas” – Straight No Chaser ft. Kristen Bell
- 17. ★ “Walking in the Air” – Mimicking Birds
- 16. ★ “Peace At Last” – Hem
- 15. ★ “Hard Candy Christmas” – Dolly Parton
- 14. ★ “Just for Now” – Imogen Heap
- 13. ★ “Sweater Weather” – Pentatonix
- 12. ★ “Shake the Sun” – Rupert Holmes
- 11. ★ “Lake Freeze” – Rita Coolidge
- 10. “Chiron Beta Prime” – Jonathan Coulton
- 9. “Christmas Wrapping” – The Waitresses
- 8. 🍁 “Elf’s Lament” – Barenaked Ladies ft. Michael Bublé
- 7. “The Christians and the Pagans” – Dar Williams
- 6. “Keep Christmas With You (All Through the Year)” – Susan, Gordon, Big Bird, Luis, David, Bob, Prairie Dawn, and Ernie
- 5. “Fairytale of New York” – The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl
- 4. “White Wine in the Sun” – Kate Miller-Heidke
- 3. 🍁 “Song for a Winter’s Night” – Gordon Lightfoot
- 2. 🍁 “Merry Xmas (Says Your Text Message)” – Dragonette
- 1. 🍁 “River” – Joni Mitchell
You can click on the links above one-by-one to listen to the songs, or go back through the list and see the embedded videos. But another, perhaps easier option is to use one of the downloadable playlists.
Depending on your setup, you might just be able to click one of the following links and this year’s playlist will start playing in your favourite media player. If that doesn’t work, try right-clicking on the links and choosing “save as” to download the list, then double-clicking the downloaded file or opening it in your media player. Both files are the same list, just in different formats, so try one, and if that doesn’t work, try the other.
Download playlist file:
NOTE: Those playlist files do not include the songs themselves. The playlist files are just lists of links to the songs on the Internet (for example, YouTube). That’s why the playlist files are so small – just a dozen or two kilobytes when a single song runs into the megabytes. But it means that the playlist files won’t work unless you are connected to the Internet. It also means that if the site the song is on is down, or if the song has been removed or the site simply won’t let it play, the song won’t play.
If you have any problems getting the playlist files to work, just leave a comment, and I’ll try to help you out.
Well, that’s it for Indi’s alternative holiday playlist until next year. But, as always, if you have any suggestions that you’d like to see featured on a future list, leave a note in the comments.
See you next year!