(One of the songs included, for example, doesn’t actually exist.) Not all Christmas songs mention Christmas, and not all Christmas songs are even “songs” as you may know them. The greatest Christmas songs, I think, are excessive in some way: silly or schmaltzy or effervescent or strange or overtly emotional, in the way that only a time of year which includes sausage wrapped in bacon among its delicacies can elicit.Ĭhristmas songs vary hugely in genre – you’ve got everything from Songs-of-Praise-core to “Mad World” – and as you will see throughout this list, we are not afraid to challenge boundaries and perceptions. Its best music, therefore – unbearably catchy and wilfully stupid as it can be – embodies these values.
It is a time of indulgence, of letting loose, of having fun, and of falling asleep in the armchair at 4PM (the most idiotic, ergo most luxurious, of nap times). You could say that Cliff Richard’s end-of-the long-millennium effort is a dry old Ryvita when Christmas, at its best, is a buffet of all the nicest and fanciest crisps in the shop, with premium range dips at one end in classy bowls with spoons. In place of jollity there is an overwhelming “Christian book store” vibe, there aren’t even any jingle bells, and there is no way that anybody has ever yelled along to it in a pub on Christmas Eve while they drink themselves into a hangover which will see them emerging from their room at 3PM the next day, while their mum gives them evils over the turkey for “ruining it”. In other words, “The Millennium Prayer” is bad because it lacks the stuff that makes other Christmas songs great. The reason why I raise “The Millennium Prayer” is that though it is terrible, it is actually a useful lens through which to consider what makes a good Christmas song.
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