Casiotone Christmas

Next year marks the 20th anniversary of Cold White Christmas, a fairly depressing seasonal track by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Basically, it's a song about a college graduate, who lives on her own in Saint Paul (Minnesota), works as a fry cook and who feels 'painfully alone' during the holidays. One for a Saddest Christmas Songs playlist (hmmm).

& you trudge to work through the snow in a coat down to your knees
& you linger at the twinkle lights as you pass by the mall
& count the days to a cold white Christmas in St Paul

What I missed, is that this song has slowly grown into a bit of an alternative Xmas classic. Sure, I knew about Catholic Action's shoutout to Casiotone on their No Angels-track (HERE). I bumped into a Cold White Christmas cover version, checked if there were more and whoa, found more than a bunch. Here's a selection (so there are more):

This is the first version I heard: feedback noise, guitars, tension, beauty:
A more indie-rocking version by a 'sad Tgirl living in Chicago':
I guess it's a melodica with some electronic fx, but I'm not sure what this duo used (a synth?), it does fit the mood of the original:

How 'bout a version with a phat funky beat?

An almost loungey, laidback version:

Twee synth pop, is that a genre?

digits · Cold White Christmas (feat. Lesley Davies) (Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Cover)

Casiotone is now a defunct band, main man Owen Ashworth now puts out music under the Advance Base moniker. And still makes depressed Christmas songs. This year, he released a single with this sad beauty (not a cover):