The corny Christmas playlist

Friday December 23 2022

Editor’s note: As you can see, we’re in a great holiday mood! This week, our Editorial Manager Rachel John has put together a playlist of the corniest Christmas songs to bring the cheer in as we stuff our mouths with pudding and kal kals!

All you need for Christmas picks

In the air there's a feeling of Christmas. The advent into December invariably implies the beginning of a time when it is socially acceptable to listen to corny Christmas music that you have been secretly crooning to since August. Everyone loves to hate the joyous, peppy and at times borderline cringy songs but let’s be honest, they’re akin to a warm hug or a mug of piping hot chocolate that makes everything mellow and nice. As an unapologetic lover of everything Christmas, here is my list of the same old and yet the absolute best yuletide songs and carols. Fair warning: don’t enter expecting anything too nouveau.

‘Happy Xmas (The War Is Over)’ by John Lennon and Yoko Ono: The hate that Lennon and Ono receive aside, there is something implicitly uplifting about this one. This was written during their bed-ins for peace phase and they also put up several billboards around the world that read: “WAR IS OVER! If You Want It – Happy Christmas from John & Yoko”

‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ by Mariah Carey: There is a reason this song tops charts every year without fail. Christmas is incomplete without getting sick of it.

‘Carol of the Bells/Mary, Did You Know’ by Pentatonix: I am a massive fan of the entire Pentatonix Christmas songs oeuvre but these two songs are especially brilliant.

‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ by Nat King Cole: Believed to have originated in the 16th century, there is something deeply melancholic about this carol. While it does celebrate the birth of Christ, the tonality is rather haunting, which makes it a unique composition.

‘Oh Holy Night’ by Carrie Underwood: For me, Christmas means belting out those ballads and this one is a rather beautiful one. Originally composed in the nineteenth century by a French wine merchant, it perfectly encapsulates the festival: “O night divine! O night when Christ was born.”

Some classic carols

‘Silent Night/ O Come All Ye Faithful/ Away In a Manger’: My earliest memories of Christmas involve being chilled to the bone during the Christmas eve mass and yet enjoying every second of it, especially the carol singing. These are the OG classics.

Find all these cheesy Christmas picks in our ‘All you need for Christmas picks’ playlist over on our Spotify account here.