Feast with the Beasts (1) : Christmas is Going to the Dogs

Theme posts, people, I just can't get enough. Christmas & Sex (HERE), Christmas and Ramones (see below), Die Hard as/is a Christmas Movie, Christmas & California (HERE), I said it before and will keep saying it: Christmas music is like a huuuuge umbrella that can fit as many musical genres under it as you can think of, and there are very few themes that Christmas music hasn't touched.

Animals and Christmas is a big theme; we're gonna need various postings. Use the comments for your recommendations.

Let's kick off with the song that inspired this, a Pete Seeger cover by Canada's Corey Gulkin:
Gorgeous cover, eh? Now, Christmas and animals, they go together like pudding and cherries of course. Santa got its reindeer. One of the most famous Christmas albums ever is centered about a guy and his dog. There were a donkey and an ox in the manger. A 17th century Dutch carol told us about shepherds in the field who counted their sheep (LISTEN) during the birth of Christ. And unless you're a vegetarian, Christmas dinner is all about eating animals, of course.

In this post I concentrate on the relation between Xmas and dogs. You can want a dog for Christmas, there are songs from the viewpoint of a dog. And there is this song by Eels, that gave the title to this post and is filled with chew toys, rabbits and a turkey:

But first, another carol, with animals. The Friendly Beasts dates back to 12th century France. Many versions, this is gorgeous one by Sufjan:

So that covers (for now) cows, sheep, donkeys and doves. Let's get to the dogs. To be more specific: a dog as a Christmas present. This track is probably the best about that (plus the bestest song about a Dachshund too, I guess):
Second best song about wanting a dog in your stocking:
No electric train, tis a puppy dog Bobby wants (also covered by Bowling for Soup):
And this classic track, how a dog sees Christmas:
Same theme, Christmas as seen from a dog, fantastic song this is:
Jazzy demo about spending the holiday alone, with your dog:
Ramones-style Christmas wish:
Proceeds went to animal rescue centers, metalpunks love dogs:
Title says it all. Old style, tearful country. It doesn't end well:
'Supposedly about a weiner dog in a Santa suit', says the official Residents-site about this weird, weird Christmas track. It's a classic, in our world:
From an Australian band, now defunct, it sounds like The Stooges with horns:
An older song, but also on his Xmas album that was released this year, Chris Iaak (it sounds better on the album):
By law, you must end a post like this with this Dr Demento classic:
This isn't complete, there are more dogs'n xmas songs. But we must continue. Coming Up: a T-rex, several hippopotamusses, cats, rabbits. And a unicorn. Spotify playlist HERE.