Unconventional Christmas Songs

Merry Christmas, everyone! To BOTH of my readers!

It's a little after 9:00 PM on the night of Christmas 2010. Our Christmas party has been over for a few hours, and we've cleaned up after the party. My other half is coming down with a cold, and has gone to bed. Our kid is up in her bedroom reading one of her new books. I'm sitting in front of the fire with a glass of Calvados and a slice of pumpkin pie. My cats are beside me on the couch, and my iPod is still playing my Christmas music mix on the stereo.

I love Christmas music. I love the Christmas classics: Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Johnny Mathis were all staples from my childhood, and Christmas is all about traditions. However, regular readers of my blog also know that I'm really into new music, so of course I have a lot of nontraditional or unconventional songs in the mix. I'd like to share a few favorites.

Just about everyone in my generation knows the 1984 British fundraiser by Band-Aid, "Do They Know It's Christmas," featuring just about every British pop star from the early '80s. Well, last year, the Toronto-based punk band Fucked Up released their own version featuring a who's who of indie artists. This version is not a parody, and has a much harder edge than the classic version, and I really liked it. Proceeds from the sale of this one go to several charities in Africa that empower women and aid those displaced by the numerous conflicts that continue to plague the continent.

On a much sappier note, I am embarrassingly fond of the 2003 Christmas single "New York Christmas" by Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas. It's kind of by-the-numbers, but the song has an emotional resonance that just gets to me, especially coming out just two years after 9/11.

It's not technically a Christmas song, but the final track from Cloud Cult's 2008 release Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes), "Love You All" works very well as a Christmas song. It's a song about love, and family, and the eternity of the soul. It's one of the most uplifting songs I've heard in a long time, and one of the best uses of a vocoder I've ever heard.

180 degrees from there is Tom Lehrer's 1959 satirical classic "A Christmas Carol," which always makes me chuckle. The song came out more than 50 years ago, but the sentiment that Christmas has gotten over-commercialized still rings more true than ever.

Another song I've always associated with Christmas is Gordon Lightfoot's 1967 release "Song For A Winter's Night." Most songs about winter get associated with Christmas-- and this one even has sleigh bells. I've always love the wistfulness of the lyric and Lightfoot's delivery about being home alone on a winter night while the one he loves is far away and won't be back for some time. (But please avoid the 2006 Sarah MaLachlan cover. She sounds more suicidal than wistful in that version.)

I also really like the song "Your Christmas Whiskey" by The Minus Five, which came out in 2007. It's about the other kind of Christmas spirit-- the kind you drink.

And finally, I've always had a soft spot for Dar Williams' "The Christians and the Pagans" from her 1996 release Mortal City. It's a story-song about two female pagans traveling over the holidays whose car breaks down near the home of the uncle of one of the women-- a man who has raised his own family to be devout Christians. It's a song about love, tolerance, and how family trumps religious differences. It always makes me smile. Plus, it's really catchy.

Between getting up at 6:00 for presents, hosting an afternoon Christmas party, the warmth of the dying fire in my fireplace, and my second brandy, I'm getting a little drowsy here, and I think I'll sign off.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!