Top 10 Holiday Songs

If you want your traditional holiday songs, turn on your radio. But what about those songs that celebrate the season with a creative spin? Here is a collection of the best non-traditional holiday music not played on your regular radio stations. It’s a blend of parodies (remixes of traditional songs, either new lyrics applied to Christmas carol music, or the Christmasification of a familiar popular song(s)) or original music.

Okay, fine, here I am getting all analytical and business-like, when all I really want to do is have a one-stop shop for enjoying all my favorite YouTube holiday videos. So I’m sharing it with you. Consider this my holiday gift. Enjoy.

10. “Christmas Robot” by Retrobot
(Okay, this is kinda ear-wormy and could be much shorter, but the ear-worminess “wormed” its way onto the list.)

9. Weird Al Yankovic’s “Christmas at Ground Zero”
(Disturbing, sadly relevant, and catchy. Just like all the best carols, right?)

8. Adam Sandler’s “Hanukkah Song”
(I guess this can be on the radio, and the video isn’t particularly special, but how could I not include this?)

7. Captain Picard sings “Let It Snow”
(This just tickles me. My kids, who’ve only seen one episode so far, didn’t love it. But it makes hearing other renditions for the fiftieth time more bearable as I imagine this instead (and substitute “Make It So” as I sing along).)

6. Holderness Family’s “Christmas Jammies”
(I believe this is the video that launched their “career,” and while it totally raises the standard on the annual Christmas letter, it embraces its dorkiness and belongs here. Also good: “All About That Baste” for Thanksgiving.)

5. “Jingle Bells,” Gujarati & Punjabi versions
(Both versions, one after another, representing different parts of India. These were commercials, for Nickelodeon and MTV, and they’re awesome.)

4. “The Christmas Candle” by SNL
(It’s funny because it’s true, although now I want to get candles for everyone for Christmas. Is that wrong?)

3. Jonathan Coulton’s “Chiron Beta Prime”
(Just discovered this, but what could be cooler than a sci-fi song about Christmas in space? Catchy and with a good video, too.)

2. “Twelve Days of Christmas,” Indian version
(It could be entirely because I’m Indian that I so love this, and maybe you won’t appreciate it quite so much. But, oh my, is it good. This is, I suspect, the only version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” that my kids actually know. But then, since my 10-year-old listens to this year-round, that shouldn’t surprise me.)

1. “Hamildolph”
(My kids don’t care for it, but if you’re a Hamilfan, there is nothing better. Indeed, this Hamilton-music version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” represents all that is good in the world.)

This is, of course, just my current ranking (It’s sure to change once the boys are home and playing song #2 on an endless loop, which they will). Other songs are out there, of course, but I was looking both at the catchiness of the songs and the quality of the video.

How about you? What are your favorites? Share links in the comments.