Author: Matthew E

I am a writer in Canada.

25 Greatest Christmas Songs Countdown: #18 What’s This? & Making Christmas

Matthew E17 Comments

Thing about Christmas is that it’s like the English language: it soaks up anything it touches. Hanukkah, for instance. Clearly, Hanukkah is a thing on its own, independent of Christmas. But it’s also clear that an awareness of Hanukkah (however imperfect) is (now) part of the Christmas experience.

So: Joni Mitchell’s “River”. Folk song or Christmas song? Started as a folk song, but it’s both now. Hogfather: fantasy novel or Christmas novel? It’s both. “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” I wasn’t paying enough attention at the time of its initial release to know how much of a Christmas song it was considered to be at the time, but it’s certainly one now. Die Hard. Christmas movie? You bet it is.

Which is what makes the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas so great, because it plays on exactly this phenomenon. The characters in the movie think it’s about Hallowe’en taking over Christmas, but what it’s really about is Christmas seeping into Hallowe’en. This is all thanks to the main character, Jack Skellington, who falls in love with Christmas at first sight despite the fact that, really, he’s not capable of processing Christmas on any level. But even he still gets something out of it, because basically Christmas is for anybody who wants it.

Anyway, the thing that makes the movie work, that convinces us of the premise, is the delight that Jack takes in everything Christmas-related, as we see in two of the movie’s great songs. “What’s This?” lets us see Christmas through the eyes of someone who loves it but really doesn’t get it at all, and “Making Christmas” shows us how much he really doesn’t get it. “What’s This?” is more Christmassy but “Making Christmas” is catchier.

Let’s all snap our fingers in a jaded and ironic fashion for What’s This? and Making Christmas, from the OST of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

#25: Sleigh Ride
#24: Huron Carol
#23: Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!/Count Your Blessings/We Wish You a Merry Christmas
#22: The Twelve Days of Christmas
#21: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
#20: Fuck Christmas
#19: Jingle Bell Rock

25 Greatest Christmas Songs Countdown: #19 Jingle Bell Rock

Matthew E20 Comments

I don’t blame you if you’re sick of it. They really do play it to death, don’t they? Then again, the version you’re probably sick of is the Bobby Helms original. I have nothing to say against Bobby Helms, who does a perfectly respectable version of the song. But if you really want to hear something, you need to get yourself a copy of A Very Special Christmas 2 and hear Randy Travis’s cover.

It’s one of those songs that, if you listen to it, rather than just letting it bounce off your forehead becaues you’ve heard it ten thousand times, you start to notice how the singer–Travis more than Helms–seems to be trying to put enough power into phrases like “in the frosty air” and “what a bright time” to make them symbols or something. Also, I’m a sucker for the false ending, which Travis does very well here.

Take whatever you have in your hand and bang it on the table for Randy Travis’s “Jingle Bell Rock”.

#25: Sleigh Ride
#24: Huron Carol
#23: Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!/Count Your Blessings/We Wish You a Merry Christmas
#22: The Twelve Days of Christmas
#21: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
#20: Fuck Christmas

25 Greatest Christmas Songs Countdown: #20 Potentially NSFW

Matthew E19 Comments

You can probably tell by now that I love Christmas. I love the music and the food and getting together with family and the tree and the lights and Christmas specials on TV and getting presents and giving presents and the whole thing.

But I’m not a monomaniac about it.

I can hear opposing viewpoints. Lots of people don’t care for Christmas, or don’t observe it in the first place, and that’s cool. And there’s no reason not to have a sense of humour about this stuff.

So raise your glasses of diet cream soda in honour of Eric Idle and his excellent song, “Fuck Christmas” (listed alphabetically on the linked page).

#25: Sleigh Ride
#24: Huron Carol
#23: Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!/Count Your Blessings/We Wish You a Merry Christmas
#22: The Twelve Days of Christmas
#21: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

25 Greatest Christmas Songs Countdown: #21 I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

Matthew E20 Comments

When I started doing this list I asked some people whose opinions I trusted if they had any recommendations for Christmas songs. And I got a lot of suggestions, many of which I’ve checked out. Of those, some of them were just very, very far from the kind of thing I would ever say is a great Christmas song. Light-years. But then some were good, and one of them, this one, I heard for the first time today. When it started I said, yeah, this is okay. Then it grew on me, and then it grew on me some more, and before it was over I was saying to myself, “What a great song! Why didn’t anyone ever tell me about this before?”

So let us direct our attention to the centre ring where Roy Wood and Wizzard will perform “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday”.

#25: Sleigh Ride
#24: Huron Carol
#23: Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!/Count Your Blessings/We Wish You a Merry Christmas
#22: The Twelve Days of Christmas

25 Greatest Christmas Songs Countdown: #22 The Twelve Days of Christmas

Matthew E22 Comments

Another one of my favourites from when I was little was “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, which is essentially the Christmas version of “Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” I guess I was operating under the assumption that “more is better,” which, in modified form, continues to be one of my basic guiding principles.

Yeah, it can be tiresome if you’re not into it, but then maybe all you need is the right performance, and I don’t know what performance is righter than the one from the John-Denver-and-the-Muppets Christmas special.

So give a big internet welcome to John Denver and the Muppets.

#25: Sleigh Ride
#24: Huron Carol
#23: Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!/Count Your Blessings/We Wish You a Merry Christmas