Christmas A Go Go!

Lists and Christmas songs. Well. There's 'Santa Clause is Coming to Town' , about the bearded guy who's making a list, and checking it twice. Many versions. M-a-n-y . And there's the syrupy song by David Foster for Nathalie Cole, about the Grown-Up Christmas List . Also: many versions . But this blogpost is a list (heheh) of songs about Christmas lists that are not covers of the aforementioned two. But originals, different in styles, often with a common theme. Because the one thing that is asked for the most on all those lists, is love. I tried to make it into a proper Christmas mix, about lists. This is such a charming song! From 2003, by a British songwriter, it's DIY but with a lot TLC: My Christmas List (2003) by Nathan Persad From 2011, from Dallas. More streamlined, smoother 'round the edges, but the plea is the same: 'You're love is the only thing that is on my Christmas list': My Christmas List single by Scott Riegel A fat ...

John Idalis thinks they started making music a little late and feels a bit sorry for that. But let's put it this way, it's a good thing it finally happened. Because John Idalis , the singer-songwriter from Los Angeles with a background in theatre and performance, has a lot to offer. Although they is not confined to one rigid genre, their music could be described best as folky indie singer-songwriter with touches of pop and very personal, introspective but direct lyrics. An inspiring artist for them is Daniel Johnston, because they likes "That neurodivergent attitude of, I’m gonna make art for the sole purpose of enjoying making art" . On their Bandcamp, they kinda apologizes for writing such a sad Christmas song. We'd like to say: thank you John, for this great n' fragile Blue Lotus Naraka Xmas! More on John Idalis in these very personal interviews in Shoutout Arizona and Canvas Rebel .  Insta over there .  blue lotus naraka xmas by john idalis

'Santa Claus Is Coming For Your Eyes' is a strong example of DIY. Recorded on December 7 and 8 and released on Bandcamp as early as December 14 — that’s the punk attitude!  The Dead Milkmen are from Philadelphia and have been around since 1983. The cover art, however, with all those eyeballs, looks like it could be a Residents release. Musically, it sounds like a kind of LCD Soundsystem with Henry Rollins as the singer. The track starts with " Santa Claus Is Coming to the USA",   later it turns out to be an escaped prisoner in a Santa suit. An exciting and scary track on Bandcamp and to watch on Youtube!  Santa Claus is Coming for Your Eyes / Here for Now by The Dead Milkmen  

If you agree with me that Christmas stands for exuberance, excess and extravagance, than a 25 hour radio show filled with Christmas music is like a too large tree topper blinding your eyes when you see it. Exactly how it should be! Mr Jon Solomon's 25 hour Christmas radio show on WPRB (New Jersey) is having it's 37th (!) edition this year. It's like all the Christmas playlists, all the blogs and all the podcasts rolled into one exhilirating marathon. If there is an event a Christmas music aficionado AND producer/artist needs to be part of, it's this one. The 2025 edition of Jon Solomon’s 25-Hour Holiday Radio Show on 103.3 fm WPRB rises on Christmas Eve at 5:00 pm ET and unfurls until Christmas Day at 6:00 pm ET. We asked Jon to tell us how he prepares for this monstrosity (in a good way!): So…you want to know how I prep for a Christmas radio show that’s 25 hours long? I don’t think of myself as an anxious person, yet starting around Thanksgiving (sometimes ea...

Yes, yes, y'all, and we don't stop, because Low's Just Like Christmas keeps being covered, and we made it our duty to keep you informed on all the versions worth to share. Like this great version by Basketball, a Texan trio that sampled the iconic intro of JLC, keep the driving beat, add organ and build and twang and build and go astray.... Strange Nog: A Small Batch Holiday Compilation Volume 4 by Basketball From 2025, a happy go lucky version by Eric Jenkins: ERIQ by Eric Jenkins From 2023, on piano and sung with a soprano voice, kinda nice: Xavier's Christmas Record by Xavier Armani This could either be a South Park-character singing, a parody, a loud guitar workout or all of that rolled in one hell of a cover: Christmas Album 2023 by righteouscowboylight A rather hurried, feedbacked-to-the-max version: Just Like Christmas by EchoBravo With a lot of effects, yet faithful to the original: XMAS by Pino Lamar Land of the lakes treated their piano f...

Christmas is stressful, to many. The preparations, the dinner that cannot fail, the right presents. And the cheer. You need the cheer on Christmas. All is gold, all is bright, right? Christmas Is The Deadline by Party Nails 'Christmas is the deadline' by Party Nails is about that stressful feeling of not being cheerful at the golden moment. It was written by Party Nails-singer and producer Elana Carroll, and by Emily Ryan Lerner. Emily wrote in an email to CAGG: "Hi! I've had your blog bookmarked for years (pre-algorithm!) and enjoy checking in this time of year to see what you've unearthed. My husband and I used to create xmas playlists of weird/cool stuff we found for friends and family in lieu of a card and your blog and Spotify were always a great resource for finding fun new things. We kept that going for over a decade (stopped after 2020) but holiday music (done right) is still one of my fave genres. So when I had the opportunity to collaborate on writin...

Short notes on recently released songs: Dutch queens of Christmas Clean Pete released another new track, in time for their upcoming Xmas tour . This song is called 'In de koude winter' that nods to 'In the bleak midwinter'. Love the spacey synths: Clean Pete · In de koude winter From Staten Island, NY, Louvers writes about this retro-song: 'A nostalgic dive into the days of VHS tapes, Super NES marathons, handwritten cards, incandescent lights, and long holiday drives home. It’s a warm, bittersweet wish for snow, simpler times, and the kind of Christmas magic you can’t quite wrap up anymore.' You got us at 'VHS tapes': Retro Christmas by Louvers This needs some explaining. Skinwigs is a comedy chat podcast by Sam O'Leary and Ashlynne Tyson. They made a parody Christmas song, referring to Lily Allen's latest album , which is all about her marriage breaking down (and it's a fantastic album, by the way): A song titled 'S...

A genre that rarely appears on CAGG is electronic ambient. A highlight in this genre is the 13th album by English violinist Laura Cannell , titled ' Brightly Shone The Moon' (on Brawl Records) . Laura Cannell, who grew up in rural Norfolk (UK), describes her own music as follows:  “Christmas melodies disappear into densely packed woodland copses where half-remembered carols are played on the fiddle and the merry organ, but none are what they seem.” For example, in ' Angels Falling From The Realms' you can hear fragments of  ' Angels We Have Heard on High' .  Beautiful music for quiet, contemplative moments during the Christmas season.  BRIGHTLY SHONE THE MOON by Laura Cannell

Hailing from Venlo, the Netherlands, Robert and the Keders is a three-piece power pop band revolving around songwriter, guitarist and singer Robert Keder. Their jam is quirky, postmodern pop songs inspired by the Beach Boys and The Beatles, and joy to the world, they've put out two Christmas singles, 'Christmas Socks' and 'My Holiday Wish'. Former blog writer Marco over at WM Digital Services tipped us off on these stocking stuffers. Christmas Socks / My Holiday Wish by Robert and the Keders Christmas Socks / My Holiday Wish by Robert and the Keders Wait, did someone say 'socks' and 'Christmas'? Didn't we have Theme Time post about that?

Y'all know the Christmas classic 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus', right? Well, the central song in this post is about that subject too, but in a slightly different way. We're talking about the alt.rock indie Christmas classic 'Santa's Beard' by They Might Be Giants from 1988.  Unlike the Beach Boys' textual somewhat tame 'Santa's Beard' in the previous beard-post , the TMBG 's song deals with the harsh reality of infidelity, lost trust, and disillusionment when you catch your girlfriend in the arms of Santa Claus, who is actually your best friend ... Reason enough for the second Santa's Beard cover time! Ten in a row.  First, the mighty original from They Might Be Giants : The first cover in line is still quite fresh, namely from last year. U.S. Highball from Glasgow, UK recorded a version with casio sounds and synths that perfectly blends with their sharp, pointed guitar sound.  Insta over there . Santa's Beard by U.S.Highba...

This could've been one of the longest posts on the blog; there are A LOT of 2000 Miles versions. Kylie Minogue recorded one ( here ). Mighty Mighy Bosstones ( here ). Coldplay did one. Train did one. A California band called Mustangs of the West that sound exactly as you expect . Futureheads recorded a version on their latest Christmas album ( here ). And Sharon van Etten did a loud dreampop version for the Oh. What. Fun.-soundtrack: That got me thinking: instead of a long list of varied versions, why not keep it reverb-y? Dreampop, shoegaze, fuzz, and tinsel, what a combo. Combined with real emotions, for that is the element that the original from 1983 by Pretenders really makes it such a special song. 2000 Miles is a tribute to Pretenders-guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, who died in 1982 from a drug overdose. 'I miss you', Chrissie Hynde sings, and that's the truth. And that's what makes this version special too. It's a tribute to a deceased fan, and th...

Guestblog! By none other than Santajan, our MC on December 22 in Paradiso . And an avid Christmas music collector, Christmas music singer ( here! ), as well as a writer of several music books. This is the latest , on compilation albums. Jan gets out his sharp tools for this post: "Long live Christmas compilation albums!" The predictable ones by the major record companies are eclipsed by private initiative: I think of the compilations released from time to time by the Excelsior label and, of course, the annual round-ups (preferably on cassette) by CAGGs own DJ Oscar . It was Phoebe Bridgers's beautiful cover of ‘So Much Wine’ that drew my attention to the original version of this tragically surreal song by the American group The Handsome Family. In The Air by The Handsome Family What a fantastic story: a drunk man throws off all his clothes in the snow and whispers through bloody teeth that he can't take it anymore, before passing out and remaining in a com...

"qoq is a band, a brand, and the spirit of a man."  Well, that's quite a way to position yourself. And rightly so, because this spirit of a man (Jarl Q. Sonkin) has made a pretty excellent Christmas track about 'that dastardly crotal hoarding villain in velvet himself, Jingle Bell Christopher'. And besides that, this qoq song is also at the front of the queue for the prize of the best intro of this year's Christmas singles; note the tambourine, the strings and the wonderful, slightly off-key, scratchy guitar. Great track.  Insta over there .  Jingle Bell X†opher by qoq Get ready for some country-esque singalong trucker weirdness from the boys of Da Wizards with Piss Jug Trucker Santa. Open your ears and let the magic envelop you, they say.  And there he is, Ro Halfhide , the Amsterdam based singer-songwriter and regular at the blog with his (almost) annual Christmas track. An eclectic one this time, with very hopeful lyrics and all the Christmassy...

Guestblog! Mr Dan Fejes on the equistrian past of Sunturns: Anyone who likes hunting down new Christmas music - original songs from original artists - has to resign themselves to the ephemeral nature of much of it. Groups or individual artists often pop up and disappear with almost no notice, leaving no electronic trails behind them. Others show up once or twice and never follow it up, all of which can be frustrating when you really love a tune and would like to know more about the creator. For instance, in 2013 the long since departed blog Elves' Bells! wrote this: I can't find any info about Teemu the Finn. I assume he is from Finland. Whoever he is - He has created at least 3 pretty catchy Christmas songs. They all start kind of slowly, but develop nicely. This last one contains the wonderful line, "This Christmas goes up to eleven." I happened to download 2 of the 3 songs - "Everybody Make Some Noise (For Christmas)" and "You Put Christmas ...

Boyracer has been a powerhouse of energetic and scrappy indie alt-rock for over three decades now. Originally formed in Leeds in 1990 by guitar player and vocalist Stewart Anderson, the band carved out their identity in the underground: loud, urgent, heartfelt, and delightfully noisy.  But despite their roots, Boyracer isn't afraid to surprise you: they've embraced the Holiday season with genuine charm. You could say they're Atheists Who Love Christmas (2020).  BOYRACER Harehills Christmas by BOYRACER This year they take us on a festive trip and delight us with two brand new, superb originals and a fairly renovated cover of Lonely This Christmas, the classic track from glam rock legends Mud on the EP ' Melt The Snow '. Same recipe, but Boyracer still tastes like more. They may be rooted in gritty indie, but they sure know how to surprise you! Even at Christmas.  Catchy, spiky and up-tempo while "you didn't know it yet, but these are the things you don...

Santa's Beard refers to two different songs: the most famous is that by The Beach Boys (1964). The other one is by They Might Be Giants (1988). Both tracks are covered many times. In this post we'll focus on the The Beach Boys cover songs first, another post will serve you remarkable covers of the They Might Be Giants song.  And then, there are loads of songs about Santa's Beard in general. That deserves it's own post too and also will be at the blog sometime next week.  == Pulling Santa Claus's beard. Few children (and perhaps adults) haven't had that thought. And that's precisely what this 1964 Christmas classic by The Beach Boys is about. It's about a boy pulling Santa's beard in a department store.  Now first, here's the The Beach Boys original:  Shampoo Drive-Thru released a four track EP last november (Christmas Time in Shampooville), one of them is Santa's Beard. It's poppy synth-rock with a cool and cheerful Christm...

And all of a sudden there was a new Christmas song by Paula Kelley , she of Boy Wonder, she of Drop Nineteens. And of her solo-albums, of course. To be honest, I'd never heard of Paula's first Christmas song, released in 1999 after the demise of Boy Wonder. It was our friend Randy/Hip Christmas who introduced me to this wonderful retro-song, that still sounds as fresh and exciting as it did 25 years ago: Why Christmas? by Paula Kelley and the Misfit Toys In 2022, Paula released a version of Christmas Time is Here Again, in two mixes. I post the dreamy, triphop-ish version: Christmas Time Is Here by Paula Kelley And this year, she released a new seasonal song, that starts with an exquisite Hallelujah-choir, big piano-notes and moody, sad girl lyrics. I love that screeching, edgy noise in the background, that keeps things shoegazing: Cities Light The Streets For You (Holiday Single) by Paula Kelley

'La course folle feat. Valérie Clio' by Québec City's Le Band à Boivin just dropped, raising money for a local charity that helps children succeed at school. Valérie Clio is a Québec soul singer of Haitian origin also from Québec City who jumped on this tumbling toboggan of a song. The song is about running around on December 23 to sort out the Christmas shopping, which is as stressful as you can imagine. There's often too many parties and going to work dead tired in January. New Year Eve's is also a lot of work to host - Québec sometimes has really big extended families over - no wonder some of friends fly off to Mexico for the holidays. Santa also has to work very hard to deliver all his gifts. The band asks you for a minimum donation of $1 (aka 'a buck' in Canadian parlance) to help kids do well at school. We wrote about last year's song , which will also add some French rockin' country flavour to your Christmas party playlist. La cou...

An indestructible song, Teenage Kicks by the Undertone s. And a great moniker for makin' power poppin' songs, no? Peter van Helvoort (there must be some Dutch legacy, but PvH lives in Sydenham, Ontario) was a celebrated guest on this blog earlier ( here , here ), and with a firecracker of a new Christmas song, we celebrate him some more! I guess the song is about being humble, making a short list for Santa, and then ... not getting a lot. Crying Over Christmas - Teenage Kicks (Volume 4) by Songs From Big Blue And do listen to the flip as well: Crying Over Christmas - Teenage Kicks (Volume 4) by Songs From Big Blue

The idea was, let's see what pops up if I search Christmas songs with a year in the title. And see if they also mention that year in the lyrics. If not, that is OK too, but then it has to be a nice song. Here's a selection of what I found: Bit of power pop, with an upbeat outlook: THIS CHRISTMAS TIME 3 by Kinetics It's 1996, it's Christmas and I miss you, so I wrote a beautiful song about it: The Christmas Project by The Lake Poets When you call a song 'Christmas 1977' you'd expect a track with a Ramones-riff and a Johnny Rotten-sneer, yeah? That's wot you get, keep listening for the coda and the mentioning of the year: Dollification by The Hector Collectors More folksy, without mentioning the year, but still a gorgeous song about longing: Geneviève by Red Apple Falls Remember when your mom and dad told you that Santa isn't real? I guess it happened to this fella in 1999. He took his acoustic guitar an wrote a song about it, which is n...

Of course, putting out Christmas songs isn't a competition, but if it was (making a list, it's so Christmas!) this track by King Hüsky should take the crown of Bestest New Christmas Song Of The Year. Yes, it is THAT good. Guest blogger Ton Ensing, aka Mister T55 , agrees: Some guys have all the luck. King Hüsky is one of them. The King used to be Vidar Landa, guitarist of Norwegian heavy metal band Kvelertak and indierock/powerpop band Beachheads . Earlier this year he made a lovely jangle/powerpop record with the help of the great Anne Lise Frøkedal (known from her own band: Frøkedal , and Norwegian powerpoppers I was a King), who had some time left inbetween touring with her own band and being in the studio for a new I was a King -album. Anne Lisa is still the queen on this new King Hüsky tune that recently popped-up on Bandcamp. It’s called December95 , and it’s a track that deserves to be heard. A sweet little melody takes us home, where the christmas lights are fitt...

What we kept from this Bandcamp Friday/major Christmas release day: Of course, the Godzilla vs. Kong of Christmas music, the team up of team ups, Santa vs Claus, The Clash of the Christmas Commonwealth: in the left corner, representing Canada, mr Kristian Noel Pedersen ! SIXTEEN Christmas albums so far, all essential as tinsel. And in the right corner, aka The Sad Bard of Birmingham, it's mr Duncan Baird, the one we call Winterval ! Bullshit & Gift Wrapping by Kristian Noel Pedersen Do listen to the rest of this fabulous, cosy and rockin' album! The only one challenging Kristian as producer of A LOT of Christmas albums is Make Like Monkeys, and yes: he delivered yet another power pop stunner: Make Like Christmas by Make Like Monkeys Indie bedroom pop from Los Angeles, and as wobbly as the guy telling the story in the song, but a solid cracker nonetheless: This Christmas Will Run on Its Own / I Like You, Doug by Country Aldente Turns out we DID need an foul-mo...