# Depressing Christmas Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147 "2007-12-16T00:47:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/1 "2007-12-16T00:47:10Z")
Someone mentioned _Fairytale of New York_ as depressing in another thread. I don’t find it so but what christmas songs do you find depressing? _It’ll be Lonely This Christmas Without You To Hold_ (or whatever that song is actually called) is another kinda sad one. ---
**Author:** ![coffinjumper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8baadc/32.png) [@coffinjumper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffinjumper)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/2 "2007-12-16T00:52:35Z")
I’m assuming you don’t mean just because I want to slit my wrists everytime I hear the crappy song, right? Then let’s go with “The Little Boy Who Santa Claus Forgot” ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/3 "2007-12-16T01:13:26Z")
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” – It’s a beautiful song and sometimes beauty makes me weepy. Plus there’s a longing in it that just gets me. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – I can’t listen to this song without crying. I associate it with my late mom so much. She used to weep at this song too, because she associated it with the scene in _The Victors_, where on a beautiful snowy night, as this gorgeous song is playing, a soldier is executed. “What Child Is This?” “Lully, Lullay” “The Infant King” “In the Bleak MidWinter” – basically any carol that highlights the poignant, bittersweet contrast between the joy of Jesus’s birth and the tragedy of His death. (By the way, I don’t even believe in Christ-as-savior or celebrate Christmas. I’m Jewish! But the story, true or not, gets to me anyway.) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/4 "2007-12-16T01:14:17Z")
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” reveals in one verse that the singer actually **won’t** : > [@](#): > > I’ll be home for Christmas, > If only in my dreams. Edit: Dammit, didn’t preview before posting. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/5 "2007-12-16T01:19:23Z")
[QUOTE=choie] “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” [/QUOTE] The song was originally [much sadder](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1569872,00.html). I’m not too keen on the negative reference to New York, though. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/6 "2007-12-16T01:20:46Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] Someone mentioned _Fairytale of New York_ as depressing in another thread. I don’t find it so… [/QUOTE] Nor do I. To me, the message of AFoNY is that ‘love will out’. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/7 "2007-12-16T01:22:06Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] Someone mentioned _Fairytale of New York_ as depressing in another thread. [/QUOTE] Link? Because I’m with you on that one! ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/8 "2007-12-16T01:28:01Z")
[First Christmas](http://www.oldielyrics.com/christmas/first_christmas.html) by Stan Rogers is a truly depressing song. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/9 "2007-12-16T01:50:57Z")
Jimmy Buffett’s _Christmas Island_. Depressing because I’m not on a beach, I’m spending \*another \* winter up here in the icebox. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/10 "2007-12-16T01:58:56Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Link? Because I’m with you on that one! [/QUOTE] [another thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=447781) ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/11 "2007-12-16T02:41:27Z")
Oh my f-ing God, [this](http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/carlisle-bob/christmas-shoes-10186.html) has to be the worst and most depressing Christmas song since Dear Mr Jesus. I mean, seriously?! It has the most pathetic components you can conjure up - little boy, poverty, dying mother, empty gesture, ‘Christmas’ spirit (buying things for others even if you don’t feel like it). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/12 "2007-12-16T04:26:45Z")
[QUOTE=choie] “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” – It’s a beautiful song and sometimes beauty makes me weepy. Plus there’s a longing in it that just gets me. [/QUOTE] Grandmother cried at two Bing Crosby songs; that and something about poor little sheep who had lost their way. My Father survived WWII, but my Uncle did not. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/13 "2007-12-16T04:28:41Z")
“Happy Christmas (War is Over)” is pretty melancholy. [lyrics/tab](http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/happychr.htm) ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/14 "2007-12-16T05:38:50Z")
_Christmas at Ground Zero_? ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/15 "2007-12-16T06:14:17Z")
“If We Make It Through December” by Merle Haggard is easily the most depressing Christmas song ever. It 's about a man who got fired right before Christmas and how he’s just trying to get his family though the “coldest time of winter”. I’ve also thought “I Believe In Father Christmas” by Greg Lake is also depressing, due to how it focuses on the loss of childhood innocence. ---
**Author:** ![PBear42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PBear42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear42)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/16 "2007-12-16T07:14:30Z")
From the Magoo Christmas Carol, [All Alone In The World](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7qOFB4IXA8). ---
**Author:** ![PBear42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PBear42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear42)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/17 "2007-12-16T07:50:42Z")
And, then, there’s _Do They Know It’s Christmas_, among several, the [original 1984 version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnOzcxMiDWw) and a [more recent one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edWDbWdxsxE). ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/18 "2007-12-16T08:01:39Z")
[Paul Kelly’s How To Make Gravy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwikfLtjfHQ) [lyrics](http://artists.letssingit.com/paul-kelly-lyrics-how-to-make-gravy-kw9kp43) listen to him poor his heart out to his brother from jail: \*Hello Dan, it’s Joe here, I hope you’re keeping well It’s the 21st of December, and now they’re ringing the last bells If I get good behaviour, I’ll be out of here by July Won’t you kiss my kids on Christmas Day, please don’t let 'em cry for me I guess the brothers are driving down from Queensland and Stella’s flying in from the coast They say it’s gonna be a hundred degrees, even more maybe, but that won’t stop the roast Who’s gonna make the gravy now? I bet it won’t taste the same Just add flour, salt, a little red wine and don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang And give my love to Angus and to Frank and Dolly, Tell 'em all I’m sorry I screwed up this time And look after Rita, I’ll be thinking of her early Christmas morning When I’m standing in line \* and it gets more heart rending as it goes along. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/19 "2007-12-16T08:16:14Z")
[A slower acoustic version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPaCUidUkQ&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147/20 "2007-12-16T08:59:26Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” reveals in one verse that the singer actually **won’t** [/QUOTE] I didn’t notice this until yesterday. ☹ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-christmas-songs/430147.md?page=2)