Alternatives to Christmas traditionals
December 8, 2015 5:40 PM   Subscribe

Aside from The Pogues - Fairytale of New York, what're the best alternative/non-traditional Christmas songs?

I recently saw the Murray Netflix special and love this new Christmas song by Phoenix - Alone On Christmas Day.

I also love the whole Charlie Brown Christmas album by Vince Guaraldi.

What else is worth listening beyond the usuals?
posted by pilibeen to Media & Arts (77 answers total) 84 users marked this as a favorite
 
Soma fm has not one, but four alt-Christmas streams this year. Might or might not be to your taste.
posted by BungaDunga at 5:42 PM on December 8, 2015


Best answer: White Wine in the Sun - Tim Minchin
Atheist Christmas Carol - Vienna Teng
Songs for Christmas by Sufjan Stevens has some different ones.
posted by slightlybewildered at 5:45 PM on December 8, 2015 [5 favorites]


Just Like Christmas by Low is the sweetest and most earnest carol possible about being a touring LDS band.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 5:47 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Christmas Wrappings, the Waitresses.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:50 PM on December 8, 2015 [13 favorites]


Best answer: Definitely White Wine in the Sun. I get something in my eye every time.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:50 PM on December 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


You might find helpful answers in this recent question.
posted by rtha at 5:57 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


I heard XTC's Christmas song ("Thanks for Christmas") for the first time a couple years ago piped over the PA at Downtown Disney and I was all, "Hey, that sounds like XTC, but they've been retired for awhile and I didn't know they recorded a Christmas song? At Downtown Disney? Well, it's a shame it's only one day every year."
posted by notyou at 5:58 PM on December 8, 2015


Oh! and Jingle Rock Bell, of course.
posted by slightlybewildered at 6:02 PM on December 8, 2015 [7 favorites]


Christmas in My Soul - Laura Nyro
posted by thetortoise at 6:03 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: The Strokes did one a few years back with Cyndi Lauper called "A Christmas Duel." It's mean, raunchy, good-hearted, and extremely catchy, and I listen to it regardless of the season.
posted by thesmallmachine at 6:05 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm listening to the Chieftains album "Bells of Dublin" right now and marveling at what a classic it is. Great mix of original stuff and super-traditional British songs.
posted by town of cats at 6:06 PM on December 8, 2015




Ok as an Aussie too far from home that Tim Minchin song makes me cry like a baby. Which is why I logged on to recommend it, only to see I was beaten to the punch.
posted by wwax at 6:12 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: The Strokes did one a few years back with Cyndi Lauper called "A Christmas Duel." It's mean, raunchy, good-hearted, and extremely catchy, and I listen to it regardless of the season.
posted by thesmallmachine



I looked this up and it's The Hives and it's awesome!
posted by pilibeen at 6:13 PM on December 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


The Christians and the Pagans
posted by bricoleur at 6:15 PM on December 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


* pulls up chair, sits down *

If you're looking for something introspective and medieval, Sting's whole album "If On A Winter's Night" is good. He has some folk songs and some old English songs, but none of them are any you've ever heard before. It's knee-deep in the middle of his Lute Phase, but I dig it.

As for fun/funny/parody/contemporary songs, I can suggest:

The St. Stephen's Day Murders is a song by the Chieftains, with Elvis Costello, about getting so sick of your whole family over the course of the holiday that you end up killing them on the 26th. It's from the "Bells of Dublin" album Town of Cats suggests above, which I can also recommend.

Merry Fucking Christmas was from this weird Denis Leary special that was supposed to be a spoof of the Rankin-Bass stuff.

Christmas in Hollis is a Run DMC classic (I am actually going to be making a day trip to Hollis sometime this month entirely because of this song.)

Father Christmas by the Kinks is all jaded.

You may recognize Julian Casablanca's song A Christmas Treat from the Saturday Night Live sketch of some years back.

The Beach Boys' Little Saint Nick and Barbara Streisand's cover of Jingle Bells are unusual enough to possibly be intriguing.

And for softer stuff:

River by Joni Mitchell is utterly heartbreaking - to the point that you should avoid it if you've had a recent breakup. (Robert Downey Jr. did a surprisingly good cover for ALLY MCBEAL, of all things.)

Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas is something I actually always liked.

And finally - this is a traditional carol in Newfoundland, Canada, but to my understanding isn't known outside it; so I'd never heard Come And I Will Sing You until I saw Great Big Sea do it in concert in New York, and fell instantly in love.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:18 PM on December 8, 2015 [8 favorites]


No Xmas for John Quays - The Fall
posted by rodlymight at 6:34 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


I enjoy Carbon Leaf's Christmas Child, especially "Ice and Snow" and "Red Punch, Green Punch" (a tribute to the great-aunts of the world).
posted by TwoStride at 6:36 PM on December 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


Ze Records' Christmas album!!!!! Shitty rip at YouTube but it's out of print, so find a torrent.
posted by holyrood at 6:49 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


I love Jethro Tull - A Christmas Song.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:52 PM on December 8, 2015




Il Est Ne by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Link.
posted by 4ster at 6:56 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis
The Vandals - Oi to the World (the whole album of the same name, in fact)
The Flaming Lips - Christmas at the Zoo
Fear - Fuck Christmas
The Matches - December is for Cynics
posted by namewithoutwords at 6:57 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


The Vandals - Oi! To The World
posted by Captain_Science at 6:59 PM on December 8, 2015


I have always loved Danny Says by the Ramones.

The more traditional Christmas carol by The Ramones is Merry Christmas, I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight. Both are lovely.

The Rolling Stones Winter Is a beautiful, unexpected song that references Christmas.

The saddest Christmas song may just be Elliott Smith's King's Crossing.

I have 10 CD's of Sufjan Steven's Christmas music. I admit I have a problem. My favorite song from all that is Christmas Unicorn.
posted by djinn dandy at 6:59 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


One more: The Little Drummer Boy by Joan Jett
posted by 4ster at 7:02 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


A couple of full albums I think are really fun to have in your rotation:

The Reverend Horton Heat's We Three Kings, which is all standards but some unusual ones in the mix and the arrangements are terrific. It's a great one for if you're entertaining guests, my older relatives always ask about it.

Barenaked Ladies' Barenaked For The Holidays which is a mix of standards and originals, and includes a few Chanukah songs too, which is neat! I'm partial to Elf's Lament.
posted by padraigin at 7:02 PM on December 8, 2015


I always mix Reindeer by The Knife in with the traditional carols, to the point that 5yo daughter was surprised it didn't feature in the local school's Christmas concert.
posted by nomis at 7:09 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Music blogger Sweeping The Nation has this one covered, with six CDs worth of tunes (they're available for download as well). It includes some of those previously mentioned.
posted by Pink Frost at 7:09 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Snoopy's Christmas vs. The Red Baron - The Royal Guardsmen

Straight No Chaser has some nice arrangments. I like the Christmas Can Can, and they might have the only version of 12 Days that I'll listen to.

And I adore Elf's Lament, linked above by Padraigin.
posted by beaning at 7:13 PM on December 8, 2015


Player's Ball - Outkast
posted by chrchr at 7:13 PM on December 8, 2015


Tracey Thorn did a Christmas album called Tinsel and Lights in 2012 which you could check out. I'm fond of Snow and Sun from that album, as well as a few of the other tracks.
posted by gudrun at 7:17 PM on December 8, 2015


My absolute favorite is Better Days by the Goo Goo Dolls.
posted by stormyteal at 7:18 PM on December 8, 2015


Lots of good ones posted already! Three of my faves not mentioned yet:

The Pretenders, 2000 Miles
Squeeze, Christmas Day
NRBQ, Christmas Wish
posted by JonathanB at 7:19 PM on December 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


The J's With Jamie
posted by rhizome at 7:34 PM on December 8, 2015


(very, very young) Björk - Fúsi hreindýr
posted by Sys Rq at 7:35 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


A John Waters Christmas is an interesting mix of off-the-wall and/or little-known holiday songs (and a couple classics by oddball acts). I think the whole thing is worth a listen, but particular favorites of mine are Christmas Time is Coming and I Wish You A Merry Christmas.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:36 PM on December 8, 2015


How to Write a Christmas Song is a fave of mine.

There's also How To Make Gravy
posted by pompomtom at 7:37 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


On the Americana side:

John Prine's Christmas in Prison

Robert Earl Keen's Merry Christmas from the Family

...and on the beatnik side, my mom heard a live musical performance of Ferlinghetti's poem that she really liked, but I'm not sure what kind of music it was or if it's been recorded.
posted by homelystar at 7:37 PM on December 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


John Roderick and Jonathan Coulton made an album a few years ago. Here's a sample track
posted by O9scar at 7:45 PM on December 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


40 comments and no Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis?
posted by Flannery Culp at 7:54 PM on December 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


Over the Rhine's Blood Oranges in the Snow. Actually, that entire album is very seasonal and pretty and sad.
posted by PussKillian at 8:01 PM on December 8, 2015


I always recommend Frightened Rabbit's It's Christmas So We'll Stop for all nontraditional Christmas song needs. I think it's a perfect, bittersweet encapsulation of the season.

I also have all ten albums of Sufjan Stevens' Christmas music, and while there are a lot of traditional carols there, some of them are lesser known ones, and there's also some lovely original stuff like Sister Winter.
posted by yasaman at 8:05 PM on December 8, 2015


Came in to recommend the Jonathan Coulton/John Roderick album. So +1.
posted by politikitty at 8:10 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oooh! Also, I am adoring Macy Gray's All I Want for Christmas.

(Say Alright, Metafilter!)
posted by TwoStride at 8:13 PM on December 8, 2015


Servotron - Christmas Day Of The Robot
Neosupervital - I Love Christmas
Wall Of Voodoo - Shouldn't Have Given Him A Gun For Christmas
The Damned - There Ain't No Sanity Claus
April March - The Life Of The Party
Clinic - Harmony
Type O Negative - Red Water (Christmas Mourning)
posted by brianrobot at 8:14 PM on December 8, 2015


Christmas at the Airport is from Nick Lowe's great Christmas album from a few year's back, Quality Street, which mixes traditional Christmas songs with some really fine originals as well as covers of lesser-known not-quite-contemporary stuff like Roger Miller's "Little Toy Trains." There's also a cover of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, which is well known in the UK but not so much here, and it's worth checking out Wizzard's original of that one.
posted by layceepee at 8:14 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


The Sonics - Santa Claus
posted by brianrobot at 8:21 PM on December 8, 2015


Erasure - She Won't Be Home (Lonely Christmas)
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:48 PM on December 8, 2015


John Lennon - Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
Not explicitly Christmasy, but Yoko Ono's Listen the Snow is Falling was the b-side, and it is really lovely. Galaxie 500 did an amazing cover.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - We Free Kings
The Free Design ‎– Close Your Mouth (It's Christmas)
Yo La Tengo - It's Christmas Time (A Sun Ra cover)
Jan Terri - Rock and Roll Santa (also covered by Yo La Tengo)
Tribalistas - Mary Cristo, if you don't mind lyrics in Portuguese. It's a lovely depiction of the manger scene, with the newborn Jesus, cows mooing, lambs bearing wool and angels singing, and Nylon mentioned for no reason, and it ends with the line "Santa Claus, king of carnival in heaven".
posted by hydrophonic at 9:05 PM on December 8, 2015


They Might Be Giants - We Just Go Nuts at Christmastime
posted by knile at 9:30 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Smoke Fairies - Christmas Without A Kiss
Hyperbubble - Christmas With The Bee Gees
Garfunkel And Oates - Scary Fucked Up Christmas
And this, which is uncredited on YouTube and instead called "the greatest '80s Xmas music video you've never seen!" Surprisingly, it is pretty great.
posted by brianrobot at 9:37 PM on December 8, 2015


Because I'm a cynical misanthrope who enjoys humor:

Elmo and Patsy - Grandma Got Run Over By a Raindear
Allan Sherman - 12 Days of Christmas
Stan Freberg - Green Christmas (contains multiple songs in a seven minute "story")
posted by zachlipton at 9:40 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Rhino's Hipster's Holiday is one of my favorite Christmas albums. It has a few novelty songs that don't retain their novelty for long, but they're outnumbered by the likes of Louis Armstrong's "'Zat You, Santa Claus," and Pearl Bailey's "Five-Pound Box of Money."
posted by MrBadExample at 9:50 PM on December 8, 2015


Camera Obscura's Little Donkey is sweet and simple.
posted by mrcrow at 10:16 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


The Killers - Don't Shoot me Santa, which rivals Peach's recent "Rub" in terms of sand in its video, as it should be during this holiest of times.
posted by KMB at 10:17 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


7 O Clock News/Silent Night - Simon and Garfunkel - maybe one of the original alternative Christmas tracks.
Christmas in February - Lou Reed.
Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas by Okkervil River
posted by rongorongo at 1:12 AM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Death Is Not The End recently released "Death May Be Your Christmas Gift", a fine cassette (and digital) compilation of Christmassy blues songs such as Rev. J.M. Gates' "Will Hell Be Your Santa Claus?" and Ralph Willis' "Christmas Blues". Highly recommended! Listen/buy here.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 2:11 AM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


The Eels have released two lovely Christmas songs in their time:

Christmas is going to the Dogs
Everything is going to be cool this Christmas
posted by Cannon Fodder at 3:11 AM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


So many of my favorites have already been listed (and I now have many others to check out) but here are a few more:
Snow in Austin by Ellis Paul
Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton
Someday at Christmas by Stevie Wonder
posted by jeri at 3:22 AM on December 9, 2015


There Will Be Fireworks- In Excelsis Deo
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 3:30 AM on December 9, 2015


Aimee Mann, "I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas."
posted by Stacey at 3:46 AM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


King Diamond, "No Presents for Christmas."
posted by saladin at 3:50 AM on December 9, 2015


Also, The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die What Child is This
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 4:01 AM on December 9, 2015


Merry Christmas, I Fucked Your Snowman.
posted by h00py at 4:05 AM on December 9, 2015


The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:40 AM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


I have a soft spot for Dropkick Murphys' "The Season's Upon Us" - especially good if you have to spend Christmas with a family who kinda sucks. (I don't have holiday family drama, but I appreciate the sentiment.)
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:58 AM on December 9, 2015


Merry Something to You by Devo
Green Grows the Holly by Calexico is a recent find I love

Bad Religion has an entire album of punk-style traditional carols that I love

Finally, at full schmoop, I'd like to nominate A Christmas Wish by John Denver & the Muppets (song starts around 1'50" mark). May be my favorite holiday song of all time. This version is from the special, Kermit sings it alone on the soundtrack album.
posted by smirkette at 6:08 AM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Nth-ing Sufjan Stevens, especially "Christmas Unicorn."

Tracey Thorn got mentioned above, but my fave song on the album is "Joy"

Personally I also have a fondness for the three "Christmas Cocktails" collections of vintage lounge music. Like:
Cha-Cha All The Way
Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer Mambo
posted by dnash at 8:15 AM on December 9, 2015


The entirety of Bollocks to Christmas is the album that I play every year many times. It usually gets turned off by someone else. But it screams Christmas to me.
01 Christmas Time Again - Bad Manners 0:00
02 Christmas Is Really Fantastic - Frank Sidebottom 3:00
03 Step Into Christmas - The Business 5:09
04 Snowman - Anti Nowhere League 8:09
05 Blue Christmas - Frantic Flintstones 11:13
06 Merry Christmas Everybody - The 4-skins 13:38
07 Oh Come All Ye Faithful - Frank Sidebottom 16:08
08 Jingle Bells - Judge Dread 17:20
09 Hey Santa - Uk Subs 20:39
10 12 Days Of Christmas - Splodge 23:31
11 Stuff The Turkey - Alien Sex Fiend 26:00
12 Another Christmas - The Yobs 29:55
13 I Wish It Could Be Christmas - Frank Sidebottom 31:58
14 Jingle Bells - The Macc Lads 33:16
15 Christmas In Dreadland - Judge Dread 36:30
16 Turkey Stomp - The Hotknives 39:00
17 Santa, Bring Back My Baby - Frantic Flintstones 41:51
18 Auld Lang Syne - Uk Subs 43:49
19 C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s - The Yobs 47:31
20 White Christmas - The Gonads 50:08
posted by Seamus at 8:15 AM on December 9, 2015 [3 favorites]


The hidden track off Everclear's So Much for the Afterglow, I Will Be Hating You for Christmas, is on constant holiday rotation in the Pterodactyl household (and also whenever we find a bar with one of those internet jukeboxes).
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 8:47 AM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


namewithoutwords beat me to it, but I have been listening to December is for Cynics on repeat since December 1.
posted by radioamy at 9:21 AM on December 9, 2015


Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas - Harvey Danger
Just For Now - Imogen Heap

The Killers do a Christmas song every year, and usually a video. I'm found of Christmas in LA myself.
posted by zabuni at 9:39 AM on December 9, 2015


I'm not actually sure it's a Christmas song, but that's how I hear it. U2's Peace on Earth is a great antidote to the cloying cheeriness of the season. (Someone already mentioned Better Days).
posted by Octaviuz at 10:26 AM on December 9, 2015


Jingle Bell Jamboree, Keb'Mo
posted by dlugoczaj at 1:21 PM on December 9, 2015


I like this one, from Emmy The Great and Tim Wheeler: Home for the holidays
posted by Samarium at 4:30 PM on December 9, 2015


Thanks for asking this. So many good ones here, and new to me. Also check out "Christmas at Kmart" by Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band.
posted by Jane Austen at 9:50 PM on December 9, 2015


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