Holiday Triumphs: Christmas Songs of Righteousness

Just to prove to everyone that I don’t hate every Christmas song in existence. Links for handy download, too (where I had ’em), in case you wanna make yourself a hot holiday mix. And if you wanna DL the whole batch in one fell swoop, click here.

The Ramones, “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight)”

Slade, “Merry Xmas Everybody”

The Pogues, “Fairytale of New York”

Bonus! Ted Leo performing “Fairytale of New York”, live on WFMU, 2007 (with the dirty bits chopped out).

Bonus bonus! For you socialists out there, Billy Bragg performing “Fairytale of New York” live on the BBC.

Wild Billy Childish and the Musicians of the British Empire, “Pete Townsend’s Christmas”

The Beach Boys, “The Man with All the Toys”

Booker T. and the MGs, “Jingle Bells”

XTC, “Thanks for Christmas”

Big Star, “Jesus Christ”

The Sonics, “Don’t Believe in Christmas”

The Ventures, “Sleigh Ride”

The Waitresses, “Christmas Wrapping”

Husky Team, “We Three Kings”

Chet Atkins, “Jolly Old St. Nicholas”

Otis Redding, “Merry Christmas Baby”

Steve Martin and Paul Simon (and possible BIlly Joel), “Silver Bells” (the audio quality of this by no means legitimate recording is less than stellar, but the humorific content more than makes up for it)

Tom Waits, “Silent Night/Christmas Card from a Hooker in Mineapolis”

Wesley Willis, “Merry Christmas”

Vince Guaraldi Trio, “O Tannenbaum”, “What Child Is This”, and “Christmas Time is Here”. Tunes from A Charlie Brown Christmas might be a bit obvious, but they make me happy and remind me of being a little kid. Sue me.

And for a Happy New Year, The Zombies, “This Will Be Our Year”