Christmas music has become such a commercial juggernaut that it’s practically impossible for a non-holiday song to crack the upper echelons of the Billboard singles chart between Black Friday and New Year’s Eve. Undisputed classics from the last century—Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Wham’s “Last Christmas,” and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”—continue to dominate every year, but the public’s embrace of more contemporary contributions to the Christmas canon, like Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree” and Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me,” means that the trend doesn’t show signs of stopping.
Our list comprises modern originals such as Taylor Swift’s “Christmas Tree Farm” and reinterpretations of yuletide favorites like Sufjan Stevens’s “What Child Is This Anyway?” The songs span genres from indie-pop to big band, with Clarkson, Stevens, and—if you count the duet version of Carey’s “When Christmas Comes”—John Legend each appearing on our tally twice.
With Christmas creep pushing the holiday season earlier and earlier, artists and record labels will no doubt continue to milk the cash cow until it’s dry. But as long as the songs are as novel and heart-tugging as the ones below, we’re okay with temporarily giving up our inner grinch. Sal Cinquemani
Editor’s Note: Listen to the full playlist on Spotify.
21. Kishi Bashi, “It’s Christmas, But It’s Not White Here in Our Town”
Clocking in at under two minutes, Kishi Bashi’s “It’s Christmas, But It’s Not White Here in Our Town” is a warming winter morsel, with plush vintage vocal harmonies and Kishi Bashi’s signature violin making for a cozy atmosphere. Eric Mason
20. She & Him, “Christmas Wish”
With “Christmas Wish,” from their 2011 holiday album A Very She & Him Christmas, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward offer a lighter vision of a John and Yoko Christmas song, delivering a wish for world peace wrapped up in twee-pop nostalgia. Mason
19. John Legend and Esperanza Spalding, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
One of the few covers of classic Christmas songs on our list, John Legend and Esperanza Spalding’s rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” first made famous by Judy Garland in 1944’s Meet Me in St. Louis, gives the tune a jolly kick in the red, fur-trimmed pants. Set to a brisk, toe-tapping rhythm and featuring a spirited trombone solo from rising jazz star Jeffrey Miller, the song feels at once fresh and nostalgic. Cinquemani
18. Gwen Stefani, “My Gift Is You”
Gwen Stefani’s transformation from hollaback girl to Hallow app girl wouldn’t be complete without a Christmas album—one that she’s repackaged and re-released a whopping three times already since it dropped in 2017. But it’s hard to withstand the anti-commercial charms of the catchy “My Gift Is You,” an infectious, retro-minded ditty in the vein of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree” in which Stefani declares that all she wants this year is love. “I don’t even need a wedding ring,” she sings. Sure, Gwen. Cinquemani
17. Kacey Musgraves and Troye Sivan, “Glittery”
This unexpected duet from Kacey Musgraves’s 2019 Christmas TV special recalls the idealism of both the country singer’s 2018 album Golden Hour and Troye Sivan’s 2015 debut Blue Neighborhood, capturing the artists at their most wide-eyed. Mason
16. Phoebe Bridgers, “So Much Wine”
Phoebe Bridgers’s wistful rendition of this Handsome Family song about alcoholism is only loosely seasonal—the song opens with a mention of Christmas Day—but the choice to release the cover as a holiday single highlights the season’s side effects on those struggling with addiction and mental health. Mason
15. Tracey Thorn, “Tinsel and Lights”
A waltzy indie-pop tribute to ’80s-era NYC, “Tinsel and Lights” flips the script on the iconic tropes of Christmas in New York, juxtaposing “snowflakes like diamonds” with the city’s then-high crime rate and the warmth of the holiday season with encroaching climate change. It might all sound like a buzzkill, but in the end a nostalgic Thorn falls “in love with Christmas once again.” Cinquemani
14. Taylor Swift, “Christmas Tree Farm”
It’s a wonder how a singer-songwriter who was raised on a Christmas tree farm hasn’t released a full-length holiday album yet, but from its breezy country-pop arrangement to its lyrics about love and forgiveness, this song about Taylor Swift’s real-life childhood home sounds like it was plucked out of a storybook. Mason
13. Sufjan Stevens, “Christmas Unicorn”
While a song about a fantastical holiday mascot may be the last one you’d expect to interpolate Joy Division’s legendarily bleak “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” Sujfan Stevens, as always, makes the incongruity work. The singer-songwriter’s 12-minute Christmas epic encapsulates the imagination and fearlessness that make his Christmas compilations, Songs for Christmas and Silver & Gold (on which “Christmas Unicorn” appears), required annual listening. Mason
RELATED STORY
15 Christmas Songs We Love to Hate
12. Norah Jones, “It’s Only Christmas Once a Year”
It’s a bit surprising that it took the so-called “sleepy queen of the brunch hour” nearly two decades to release her first holiday album, and 2021’s I Dream of Christmas is as every bit as gauzy, heavy-eyed, and charmingly twee as you might imagine. All of the set’s original compositions, like the subtly psychedelic “Christmas Glow,” are expectedly understated, but “It’s Only Christmas Once a Year” stands out as a Covid-era lullaby in the vein of World War II’s “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” with Jones lamenting: “Last year was so hard with all the friends I couldn’t see…I pushed through those winter nights just wishing you’d appear.” Cinquemani
11. Kelly Clarkson, “Just for Now”
Originally penned by Imogen Heap for a holiday episode of the quintessential 2000s teen drama The O.C. before being rejected and included on the electronic artist’s album Speak for Yourself, “Just for Now” ultimately fulfilled its Christmas destiny when Kelly Clarkson plucked it up for 2013’s Wrapped in Red. Retaining the original’s sonic minimalism but amplified by the singer’s inimitable vocals, the track captures the chaos and stress of the holidays while, like the best Christmas classics, remaining an aspirational anthem. Cinquemani
10. Robbie Williams, “Rudolph”
Robbie Williams’s 2019 double album The Christmas Present divides its classic pop and rock-centric tracks into “Christmas Past” and “Christmas Future,” respectively, and side one proves that big-band crooning truly suits the former U.K. boy-bander. The standout “Rudolph” is a jaunty tribute to the eponymous reindeer that’s both funny—the lyrics suggest some marital tensions back at the Claus house—and charmingly reverential to its crimson-snozzed subject. Cinquemani
9. Ariana Grande, “Santa Tell Me”
Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” manages to feel festive and seasonal without overly relying on the chord progressions and lyrical tropes recycled ad nauseam in contemporary Christmas music. And Grande, like the creators of other modern-day holiday classics, knows that heartbreak hits hardest during cuffing season. Mason
8. Tori Amos, “Winter’s Carol”
Tori Amos’s “Winter’s Carol” moves like a ribbon in the wind, its rhythms swaying as unpredictably as an ice storm. Amos’s vocals are pristine and ecstatic as she sings about mythical personifications of the seasons, eschewing typical holiday-song subject matter like presents and breakups in favor of surveying the mystical wonder of the natural world. Mason
7. Mariah Carey, “When Christmas Comes”
No list of modern holiday standards would be complete without the self-proclaimed Queen of Christmas herself. A standout from the singer’s 2010 album Merry Christmas II You, “When Christmas Comes” is cozy, vibey, and, as our own Eric Henderson noted at the time, as fudgey smooth as Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas.” Cinquemani
6. Kylie Minogue, “Every Day’s Like Christmas”
Co-written by Coldplay’s Chris Martin and bearing his unmistakable melodic influence, Kylie Minogue’s “Every Day’s Like Christmas” is a seemingly straightforward yuletide love song with a bittersweet undercurrent that’s embodied in one succinct, heartening line: “Every day before was heavy.” Cinquemani
5. Barbra Streisand, “I Remember”
As one does when you’re the Barbra Streisand, the singer rang up legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim and asked him to write a new verse for “I Remember,” a song from the composer’s 1966 TV musical Evening Primrose, for her 2001 album Christmas Memories. He obliged, and together they transformed the nostalgic, relatively obscure ballad into a modern, albeit under-celebrated, holiday classic, with Streisand fervently but wistfully recalling “every Christmas I used to know.” Cinquemani
4. Coldplay, “Christmas Lights”
At turns sorrowful and anthemic, and complete with a climactic millennial whoop, Coldplay’s “Christmas Lights” is one of the most rousing recent entries in the canon of Christmas songs about heartbreak, and has since been covered by artists as disparate as Kylie Minogue and Yellowcard. Mason
3. Sufjan Stevens, “What Child Is This, Anyway?”
The indie king of Christmas’s almost proggy reimagining of William Chatterton Dix’s 1865 carol “What Child Is This?”—itself a reimagining of the English folk song “Greensleeves”—pairs sleigh bells and haunting church organ with banjo and a crunchy guitar riff that virtuosically snakes its way through and between Steven’s typically downcast, understated vocals. Cinquemani
2. Sarah McLachlan, “Wintersong”
Sarah McLachlan’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River” might have made this list if not for the existence of McLachlan’s very own melancholic modern standard. One of the saddest Christmas songs of the century—and, in fact, of the singer-songwriter’s discography—the solemn “Wintersong” captures the way in which the holidays can amplify absence, distilled in its heartbreaking refrain and, especially, delivered via McLachlan’s lilting vocal: “This is how I see you, in the snow on Christmas morning/Love and happiness surround you, as you throw your arms up to the sky.” Cinquemani
1. Kelly Clarkson, “Underneath the Tree”
Like Mariah Carey and Darlene Love before her, Kelly Clarkson serves vocals with her eggnog. With each pristinely belted note, she captures the childlike excitement of the holiday season without sacrificing emotional stakes: “It just wasn’t the same/Alone on Christmas day.” Broad and catchy without succumbing to commercial cynicism, “Underneath the Tree” is the definitive 21st-century Christmas standard. Mason
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
