By Emma Towers

It’s that time of year again, and so it’s also time to get your festive playlist on, despite the fact it hasn’t changed in years. Here is a list of 8 great Christmas songs you should add to your playlist to bring a little extra joy:

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1. Please Come Home for Christmas – The Eagles

A Christmas song by the Eagles? That doesn’t sound possible and yet it is. Released in 1978 on the Please Come Home for Christmas album, this fantastic festive song has been overlooked for far too long! Find a spare couple of minutes and give this a listen. You won’t be disappointed if you love a good rock Christmas song!

2. All (Lost) Alone on Christmas – LostAlone

If you’re a fan of the Home Alone Christmas film series, then you’ve probably heard Darlene Love’s version of this song every Christmas since you first discovered the 1990’s classics. While Love’s version is a holiday classic if you want something a little different, check out this pop-punk version!

3. Winter Means Nothing (Without You) – The Maine

Released in 2017 as part of their …And to All a Good Night – single (EP), this is The Maine’s second Christmas song. It’s more melancholic than their first Ho Ho Hopefully. Like Wham!’s Last Christmas, The Maine have captured that perfect sense of longing for a previous love this festive season.

4. Fool’s Holiday – All Time Low

Fool’s Holiday is All Time Low’s second Christmas song and by far superior to their first Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass – sorry guys. Although, it’s not as funny.

The slower-paced song details perhaps a long overdue apology to a lover. The sincerity of the lyrics may even win them over, ‘I swear that I’m more than just broken promises…I’d give my whole life’s worth of hours to fix what I’ve broken in the first place’.

 

5. Ho Ho Hopefully – The Maine

If I could sum this song up in one word it would be ‘perfect’. I love it. Although it’s their first Christmas song, it seems to be relatively unknown, which isn’t fair. In this, John O’Callaghan is wishing to be with his love, ‘And she makes me feel, she makes me feel alive inside’ and ‘We’re exactly where we’re supposed to be / Together by this Christmas tree’.

Ugh, this pop-punk song is so lovely. Please, I beg you, listen to it!

6. Snow – New Found Glory

Christmas can be a tough time if you’re remembering family or friends that have passed, but ‘The stories through the evening keep us smiling / Hurts less if we can laugh’. It’s not always easy to be happy at Christmas, but the reflective nature of Snow may help you through it.

7. Christmas – The Who

From The Who’s infamous Tommy album, even if you haven’t seen Tommy Boy, you can still enjoy this odd but festive song. If you don’t know the story, Tommy is unaware of what Christmas is and in Christmas, it is explained to him. It’s wonderfully cheerful despite its unusual take on a Christmas song.

‘Did you ever see the faces of child / They get so excited / Waking up on Christmas morning / Hours before the winter sun’s ignited’.

‘And Tommy doesn’t know what day it is / Doesn’t know who Jesus was or praying is’.

8. Nothing for Christmas – New Found Glory

New Found Glory’s first Christmas song, from the album A Very New Found Glory Christmas (2012). Nothing for Christmas is a song all about wanting Nothing for Christmas, as it goes ‘I got what I wanted, I got what I needed, it’s you, it’s you, it’s you.’

If you ever needed a reminder that Christmas is not about presents, but about love, let it be this song that reminds you.