No matter how you’re choosing to celebrate Christmas this year, just remember: it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Peak too soon on the morning mimosas and you risk toppling over, taking the entire tree down with you, or making Nan cry with an impassioned, drunken 10-minute rant about whether or not it’s acceptable to serve Yorkshire puddings as part of a traditional Christmas dinner (for the record: yes, it is).
It’s also crucial to keep a bit of festive gas in the tank for when emotions start to run high around the Doctor Who Christmas special, and to deal with your particularly difficult cousin cheating at Monopoly, and/or setting fire to mum’s bafflingly expensive novelty Santa tablecloth.
If it all sounds like a bit of a cinematic saga, you would be exactly right. The question is; what songs are worthy to soundtrack such a day? Look no further than this, the Ultimate Christmas Playlist.
Here at the Standard, the Culture team have been busy exchanging festive notes, and have put our heads together to figure out the perfect line-up of bangers to blast out at full volume this Christmas.
Using very precise and clever science, we have divvied our epic musical odyssey into various emotional segments: roving from the glimmering promise of a crisp Christmas morning through to the vital lunch-prep energy boost, relaxing tunes to soundtrack your collective gobbling, some of the best tracks of the year for the big post-scran clear up, and a truly chaotic finale to power the afterparty.
Sounds good, right? Hit play below.
