Christmas is a time of tradition, and that includes listening to the same songs every year. This week Wham! are winning the annual face-off with Mariah Carey, top of the tree at number one, and three-quarters of the UK top 20 are Christmas songs.
The bookies generally think the top song on Christmas Day itself will be The Pogues’ 36-year-old Fairytale of New York, prompted by the death of singer Shane MacGowan a fortnight ago, but that hasn’t stopped a bumper selection box of singers from trying to join the party with new material. Here’s a round-up of the fresh releases hoping for festive ubiquity.
Pop
One man optimism factory Sam Ryder is a suitable choice to lead the charge of new songs with You’re Christmas to Me (ââââ) which ticks off every seasonal image in the book (mulled wine, carols, fairy lights, reindeer, etc) and bounds along with his trademark bounciness.
It’s one of three new commissions from Amazon Music, alongside Jorja Smith doing a smouldering cover of 1994’s Christmas number one, Stay Another Day (ââââ), and Anne-Marie, whose piano ballad Christmas Without You (âââ) has a less rosy take on the holidays with its mention of drunks and dry turkey.
Cher is feeling so festive that she’s released an entire Christmas album this year. Her single, DJ Play a Christmas Song (ââ), avoids sleigh bells in favour of reviving the Auto-Tuned vibe of her 1998 dance-pop hit, Believe.
Ryan Tedder is such a prolific songwriter that it’s amazing he hasn’t done a Christmas song before. Dear Santa (ââââ), with his band OneRepublic, is a swinging, nostalgic tune. Jason Derulo can be put on the naughty list for the appallingly cheesy Closer to Christmas (ââ).
A more futuristic Christmas can be had in the company of Aespa, a K-pop quartet who also exist as digital avatars, even though they’re only doing Jingle Bell Rock (âââ), as well as Piri & Tommy, whose song Christmas Time (ââââ) is cute, TikTok-friendly garage pop.
Retro
Norah Jones’s Christmas album from 2021 is a cosy keeper. This year the jazz singer has teamed up with similarly smooth Icelandic musician Laufey for two songs: a sleepy cover of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (âââ) and a slowly waltzing original, Better Than Snow (ââââ).
Elsewhere in jazzland, another one who’s made a full Christmas album, Gregory Porter, turns to handclapping gospel on his original song, Christmas Wish (ââââ), while London group Ezra Collective are making the most of a high profile year in which they won the Mercury Prize by covering God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (ââââ) in fine, loose-limbed style.
Portland country soul band The Delines do something intriguingly different on Christmas in Atlantis (âââââ), with Amy Boone talking through a vivid festive story in which those gathering include an uncle who “starts talking about the merits of the KKK.” Paloma Faith has put rather less effort in to capitalise on the enduring popularity of her 2014 hit Only Love Can Hurt Like This (ââ), releasing a “Christmas mix” that is exactly the same with added jingling.
Indie
A band who’ve spent more time on a seasonal reworking are one-hit wonders Wheatus, whose 23-year-old single Teenage Dirtbag has been renamed – naturally – Christmas Dirtbag (âââ), with the disinterested girl of the original song replaced by – who else – Santa.
Nottingham duo Sleaford Mods have done a faithful cover of the Pet Shop Boys’ West End Girls (ââââ) that lacks a Christmas musical angle, but the profits are going to homeless charity Shelter so it’s well worth a mention. Eels, though, who have form for humorous Christmas songs, have done it again with the wonderfully fed-up Christmas, Why You Gotta Do Me Like This (ââââ).
Canada band Valley are also feeling down, covering Coldplay’s winter breakup song Christmas Lights (ââââ), while Scottish indie pop musician Nina Nesbitt is in a far better mood on her lively original, Christmas Time Again (âââ).
Folk
Phoebe Bridgers usually releases a Christmas single, but as she’s been in band mode this year with Boygenius, it falls to them to take the baton with an exquisite version of a Scottish folk song, The Parting Glass (âââââ).
New York singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson is Christmas through and through, having released a full album in 2018 and performed a concert of Christmas songs in London a fortnight ago. Her latest effort, This Christmas (ââââ) is another pretty one.
You may feel you never need to hear The Little Drummer Boy (ââââ) ever again, but in the sensitive hands of Irish singers Villagers and Lisa Hannigan, it’s especially lovely. Finally, two Icelandic singer-songwriters, Ásgeir and Árný Margrét have also teamed up for an acoustic single, Part of Me (ââââ), that has the word “Christmas” in it but otherwise is a beautiful ballad for all seasons.
Oddities
You’ll already be familiar with Festa (âââ) by Andrea Bocelli, AKA this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert, which goes against type by being neither folksy or sad, but instead is operatic and bolshy. But if you haven’t yet heard I’m in the Mood for Christmas (â) by veteran glove puppet Sooty, you’re not missing a thing.
Hannah Rose Platt has managed to mix Christmas with Halloween on the scuzzy rock and roll of Wendigo Rag (âââ), which is a bit like Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas with added ghosts and stabbings. London band Ooberfuse have landed an unlikely duet partner in Snoop Dogg, who pops up briefly on their song Hard Times (âââ) and will hopefully help it to earn more cash for the homeless charity it supports.
If Christmas for you means sugary hyperpop made by an anonymous DJ in a horse mask, look no further than Horsegiirl’s Wish (ââ).
But really, why should the charts be any different than they are every other week: dominated by something from TikTok? A bunch of influencers have got together as a kind of social media Band Aid, called themselves Creator Universe and recorded I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (âââ) . It’s for the food bank charity The Trussell Trust, which makes it unhateable, even though it could very well beat The Pogues to number one.
