Over in this thread they’re discussing “non-christmas songs about the holidays” and here I wanna talk about what tops your list of songs specifically about Christmas but that isn’t traditional. More original type programming, if you will.
So to start things off, I’ll suprise everyone by admitting that this is mine: No Man’s Land
I got a job in Atlanta in a mall playing Santa
Not because of any talent but because I was the only one the suit would fit
Everybody shopping, little sticky kids were hopping on my lap with their fingers in my beard,
I guess they thought that I was really it
She sat down on my lap and said to me
“I’m twenty three and I need someone
You look like someone who could play with me
Stay with me, all day with me”
“Father Christmas”, the Kinks. Who else could write a song about mugging Santa that’s far truer to the spirit of charity that the endless Christmas glurge we’re exposed to this time of year.
“I Believe in Father Christmas”, Greg Lake
“Christmas in Hollis”, Run DMC
“Give the Jew Girls Toys”, Sarah Silverman. How could you not love a song with the line “You’ve got as much to do with Jesus as you do with Scooby Doo”? Snarky AND theologically sound.
My favorite Christmas song is “Merry Christmas From the Family” by Robert Earl Keen. Opening lines are “Mom got drunk and Dad got drunk at our Christmas party…”
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Mojo Nixon’s We Three Kings “We were drunk for three days straight
Feeling like we were Tom Waits.”
I also enjoy Richard Cheese’s swankified, lounge verson of the Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas "Christmastime is Here."
Starts out loungey then Cheese observes that it’s cold outside: “Boys, let’s heat it up!” “Yowsa!”
Every year but this one, I make a Dysfunctional Christmas CD and I have a lot of favorites. A few.
Since Fairytales has already been mentioned, I’ll substitute Merry Christmas (let’s not fight tonight) by the Ramones
Merry Fucking Christmas from South Park
Gun for Christmas The Vandals
And for maximum awfulness, John Denver’s Daddy Don’t Get Drunk for Christmas
Even thought The Vandal’s Gun for Christmas satisfies the antisocial fucker in me, their Christmas Time for My Penis is much more in tune with the spirit of the season.
I really like the version of “Linus and Lucy” on Jingle All The Way, by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. (I know it’s not technically a Christmas song)
Bela also does a beautiful version of Joni Mitchell’s “River” on the CD, if you can imagine something played on the banjo being described as ‘beautiful’.
Other highlights are J. S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio- BVW 248 # 41 “Ich will nur zu Ehren leben” featuring Edgar Meyer and Andy Statman, and “The Twelve Days Of Christmas” in which each verse is played in a different key and time signature.
