Favorite Christmas Songs
I don’t think I’ve done a list like this yet! Maybe on my social media, but not in blog form, and certainly not on Medium. This time of year is usually focused on album of the year lists, and I’ve shared my own, but I also wanted to highlight some of my favorite Christmas songs, including some standout versions of some standards.
Christmas Music
To start with, my base Christmas playlist on Spotify has 294 songs on it. So I was working from that, mostly, as well as paying some attention to the Christmas albums that have come out this year. My collection includes heavy metal and hard rock variations, country variations, some really good heavy metal originals from the likes of Rob Halford and Christopher Lee, and of course, includes the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
The List
We’re basically gonna go alphabetical here by song, so these aren’t ranked at all.
1. “Christmas Eve / Sarajevo 12/24 — Instrumental” — Trans-Siberian Orchestra
This song, which arguably was popularized by TSO, is of course an instrumental medley of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” and “Shchedryk” and was originally released by the heavy metal band Savatage. TSO is a side project of several Savatage members.
2. “Christmas Time Is Here” — Matt Nathanson
3. “Darkest Carols, Faithful Sing” — Christopher Lee
This song is a play on “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Lee said of the song:
“It’s light-hearted, joyful and fun. It’s a band singing on how metal should be played, the effect it has on the band and its listeners […] At my age, the most important thing for me is to keep active by doing things that I truly enjoy. I do not know how long I am going to be around, so every day is a celebration and I want to share it with my fans,” (Blabbermouth).
4. “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” — Tracy Lawrence
This song of course was written by Lee Mendelson and Vince Guaraldi for A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965). I had almost 20 variations on my Christmas playlist to pick through, including versions by Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald, but I decided to go with this one from Tracy Lawrence.
5. “It Feels Like Christmas” — Ghost of Christmas Present (The Muppet Christmas Carol OST)
This telling of A Christmas Carol is easily my favorite. It came out the year I was born and I’ve been watching it my whole life. I remember it used to scare me as a kid! But I enjoy this song, even though it does give me an almost saccharine feeling now.
6. “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas” — Johnny Mathis
This song was originally written by Meredith Willson in 1951. Mathis’s version, which is included in Home Alone 2, is a stand out among the four versions I have on my Spotify playlist.
7. “Merry Christmas Baby” — Jessica Simpson (Feat. Willie Nelson)
This standard is credited to Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore, having been originally recorded by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers (1947). I enjoy this version from Jessica Simpson and Willie Nelson, though this is a song where I definitely need to listen to more of the other versions — it’s been covered by Ike & Tina Turner, Otis Redding, Etta James, and John Legend, to name just a few.
8. “Naughty Naughty Xmas” — Danger Danger
This song, which I know from the Monster Ballads Christmas compilation, was apparently in Santa Clause 2! So, there’s that.
9. “Please Come Home For Christmas” — Charles Brown
Here we have an instance where the version of the standard being included is the original! “Please Come Home For Christmas” was written by Charles Brown in 1960. This is one of at least five versions that I enjoy.
10. “Silver Bells” — She & Him
There are four other She & Him Christmas songs I enjoy and six other versions of “Silver Bells” that I enjoy, but at that intersection, I wanted to highlight She & Him’s “Silver Bells.” This song was composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. It was first recorded by Bing Crosby and Carol Richards in 1950.
11. “Sleigh Ride” — fun.
I’m so glad to have a Christmas song from one of my favorite bands on this list! It’s inclusion beat out 8 other versions of the song. The original instrumental version was written by Leroy Anderson between 1946–1948. The lyrics were written by Mitchell Parish in 1950.
12. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” — August Burns Red
This Christmas carol is centuries old and while versions with lyrics are wonderful, I absolutely wanted to highlight this August Burns Red version.
13. “White Christmas” — Brett Eldredge
For this list, of 12 versions of this song, it came down to Brett Eldredge’s version and The Drifter’s version. Ultimately I decided to go with Eldredge’s version. The song was written by Irving Berlin and was originally recorded by Bing Crosby.
14. “Winter Song — Halford
This song was co-written and co-sung by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson in 2008. And while it has no explicit reference to Christmas, it was a must-include for me. I love Rob Halford, and I genuinely thought this was an original Halford song. It isn’t, but the Halford version is worth a listen.
15. “Winter Wonderland” — Steve Overland and Fast Eddie Clarke
This song was written by Felix Bernard and Richard Bernhard Smith in 1934. Like “Winter Song,” it is not explicitly a Christmas song, but is associated with the holiday all the same. The song was originally recorded by Richard Himber. For this list, I narrowed my choices down from 16 versions of this song that I enjoy to two: Jason Mraz’s version and the Steve Overland and Fast Eddie Clarke version. I decided to go with the latter in part because I wanted to include hard rock/heavy metal once more on this list. Those genres make up a third of the list overall, which for those who know me, makes perfect sense.
The playlist
For those on Spotify, you can enjoy my even more curated Christmas playlist, with the songs above, here:
