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advent 2025
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Daily track commentary:
December 1:
“She’s Right On Time” by Billy Joel
Welcome to a month when everybody is running perpetually late — for the office holiday party, for that looming end-of-year deadline, and for their big date with Billy Joel. Billy, in eager anticipation of this delayed reunion, is busy setting the mood. (“Turn the choral music higher/ Pile more wood upon the fire.”) The music video (which, in 1982, would still have been a relative novelty) sees him attempting all these smooth preparations while navigating a series of classic sitcom pratfalls. At one point he falls into his Christmas tree while trying to hang an ornament and then proceeds to stumble around the apartment trapped inside an evergreen. Who needs “Cheers” when you have Billy Joel?
I also love that the artwork for the album this track is pulled from, “The Nylon Curtain,” is designed to mimic the look of a novel that somebody in the ’80s might have been reading during their December travel. The song’s seasonal theme arose as a compromise for Billy refusing to record the Christmas album that his label, Columbia, desperately wanted. On a 2017 Colbert appearance, he listed “She’s Right On Time” among his top five favourite tracks from his catalogue.
December 2:
“I Was Born On Christmas Day” by Saint Etienne
We move from yesterday’s trip to 1980s America onwards to a dancefloor in 1990s England. This one is dedicated to anybody with a December birthday — Sagittariuses and Capricorns alike who are cursed with trying to schedule their celebrations in the midst of the most overprogrammed month in the calendar. Here, Saint Etienne lyricist Bob Stanley (who was indeed born on December 25) and his bandmates make an unexpectedly compelling pitch for having a Christmas birthday. Rather than feeling overshadowed by the whole nativity thing, Bob’s having a blast! On the band’s website, he describes this track as “a Christmas carol about me, instead of stupid Jesus.” Let’s all go Christmas clubbing with Bob!
December 3:
“Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” by Martha Wainwright
Towards the end of what Rolling Stone once described as their “amazing Brönte-folk career,” sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle released The McGarrigle Christmas Hour, a 2005 album that included songs by themselves as well as contributions from friends like Emmylou Harris and Kate’s two children, Rufus and Martha Wainwright. After the family performed the album altogether that holiday season at Carnegie Hall, the concert became an annual event.
In his 2006 New York Times review, music critic Jon Pareles wrote that “what gives the show its holiday spirit is not only the Christmas songs but the concert’s enactment of a family gathering: motley, full of overlapping agendas, a little sentimental, a little fractious but harmonious in the end.” Two of Rufus’s songs from The McGarrigle Christmas Hour have already appeared in past editions of this playlist, and now it’s Martha’s turn to deliver this track unpacking old memories and family dynamics as she spends the holidays apart from her brother and parents. You can almost hear her eye roll during the line “Mom’s making dinner for 20 of Rufus’s LA friends.” While Kate McGarrigle passed away in 2010, Rufus and Martha still uphold the concert tradition, now performing as a fundraiser for cancer and cystinosis research. This year’s Christmas show takes place on December 22 at La Maison Symphonique in Montreal.
December 4:
“Soul Cake” by Sting
Seeing The History of Sound — in which Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor play 1920s lovers on a quest across Maine to record folk ballads on wax cylinders — gave me a new appreciation for this type of traditional pub carol.
“Soul Cake” is an evolution of “Souling Song,” which was published back in 1893’s English Country Songs (and probably dates back much further) and references ye olde British ritual of baking small, scone-like “soul cakes” flavoured with warm spices. Originally, these were made as an offering to “feed” the dead on All Hallow’s Eve and keep their spirits at bay for the rest of the year; later, the cakes were given as offerings to children or those in need, who would go door to door singing prayers dedicated to a family’s departed loved ones. Over time, this practice of “a souling” evolved into trick or treating. So how did we end up at Christmastime? In 1963, the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary recorded “A Soalin’,” which folded in elements of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and new references to the yuletide season. Sting’s recording shares most of its lyrics with that version — even upholding the line “one for Peter, one for Paul.” If you’re like me, it’s a song that will leave you craving a breakfast pastry.
December 5:
“Christmas on TV” by Chris Isaak
At first, it’s easy to hear this as a song about pining after a long-distance lover — right up until, partway through, the story makes an abrupt 180-degree turn with the lines “But you’re really not that far/ In our old house with his new car.” From there on out, Chris Isaak (of “Wicked Game” fame) delivers a Christmas anthem for divorced dads spending their first holiday season alone in their new apartment. Here’s hoping this guy has some luck on the dating apps.
December 6:
“I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas” by Aimee Mann
This is the second-last song on Aimee Mann’s 2005 concept album, The Forgotten Arm, which follows a 1970s relationship between a Vietnam vet and boxer, John, and his artist girlfriend, Caroline. Lyrically, it’s a heavy one about laying off the rum and egg nog (among other substances) to try to leave behind positive memories of one last happy holiday season.
But! Sonically it’s not as much of a downer as that suggests. There’s a lively, rousing piano score that gives the whole thing the momentum of a good pub singalong — maybe to paint a picture of where the song’s central epiphany is taking place. And the good news is that John makes it through! The final track on The Forgotten Arm jumps forward to a time when he is sober and happily reunited with Caroline. Sometimes Christmas finds people at a high point in their lives, but other times it finds them at a low point — and in those moments, Aimee Mann is here to offer commiseration through music rather than holiday spirits.
December 7:
“Reindeer” by The Knife
Sweden’s hottest underground Christmas rave has everything. Over top of freaky synths and pounding beats, this track about accompanying Santa on his toy deliveries expresses enchantment with flying reindeers (“hooves light as feathers”) but also disillusionment with growing consumerism (re: “The sleigh this year is heavier”). But it doesn’t need to be that deep — it’s also just super catchy.
Here’s an excerpt from The Knife’s Wikipedia page that is simply too good not to include. “In a 2006 interview with Pitchfork, the Knife cited David Lynch, Aki Kaurismäki, Korean cinema, Trailer Park Boys, Donnie Darko and Doom as inspirations for their work.” All that (and more) comes through in “Reindeer.” I have watched Rare Exports, the 2010 Finnish horror film about the dark origin story of mall Santa Clauses, so this song is only the second-weirdest piece of Nordic Christmas content that I have encountered.
December 8:
“Snow in LA” by Noah Cyrus and PJ Harding
The year started with the LA wildfires, so it seems appropriate to close out 2025 by returning to LA for this meditation on Christmas and climate change. Introducing the track back in 2022, PJ Harding wrote that "Christmas is a time to be with family and friends. It's a time to take stock and focus on the things that really matter in life. And that might mean working out what we need to do differently to ensure we get to keep having Christmases.” For more seasonal reflection on the changing nature of the seasons, I’ve been told to check out this year’s Fraggle Rock holiday special, The First Snow of Fraggle Rock. Even the muppets are grappling with eco-grief.
December 9:
“Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas” by The Staple Singers
In November 1970, The Staple Sisters released this R&B gospel bop infused with then-timely commentary about all the chaos distracting society from the roots of Christmas. Back then, people were “too busy fighting wars” and “trying to make it to Mars” to partake in genuine seasonal merriment and/or pay their respect to the Virgin Mary — and not much has changed. In 2025, even one of our lighter-hearted news stories involved celebrities spending their fortunes on tickets to space aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket. Oof.
December 10:
“Presents for Christmas” by Salomon Burke
Soul singer Solomon Burke just wanted to spend Christmas 1966 making everybody’s wishes come true. He jokes in this song that he’s “even fat enough to be/ The world's biggest Santa Claus.” The first half follows the formula of an “Oprah’s Favourite Things” taping — Johnny gets a car, Junior gets a bike, and Burke’s daughter gets a doll. Yet as the track starts to wind down, Burke must accept that, in the end, he can’t fly around the world delivering presents to all, and many kids’ wishlists are still going to go unfulfilled. But! He is a musician with a lot of heart — and perhaps his song will be enough to inspire “hope [that] next year, things’ll have lots of joy” and maybe even encourage some acts of charity from his listeners in the meantime.
December 11:
“It Won’t Seem Like Christmas” by Loretta Lynn
Country queen Loretta Lynn is spending the holidays separated from somebody special and trying her best to muddle through somehow. Lynn sings here with a warm but world-weary voice, which may be tapping into how much life she experienced at an early age.
After growing up in poverty and getting married at 15 (welp) then having four kids by the time she was 19 (and two more in her 20s), she was discovered performing at a bar and rose to country superstardom singing songs about heartache, but also birth control and female empowerment. In 1981, Sissy Spacek won Best Actress at the Oscars for her portrayal of Lynn in the movie “Coal Miner's Daughter,” which needed more Christmas scenes. This track closes out the first side of Lynn’s 1966 Christmas album and features some nice seasonal scene-setting before settling into December longing.
December 12:
“Christmas Will Break Your Heart” by LCD Soundsystem
How’s everyone’s seasonal affective disorder going? This is a modern take on a Grinch carol, listing off Christmas’s many soul-crushing shortcomings, but in true LCD Soundsystem fashion i.e. with a good beat. Introducing it, LCD’s James Murphy wrote, “So, there’s been this depressing Christmas song I’d been singing to myself for the past 8 years, and every year I wouldn’t remember that I wanted to make it until December, which is just too late to actually record and release a Christmas song.”
He finally got his act together and released it as a Christmas 7” vinyl single in 2015. Murphy notes that it was originally a song that had “about 75 lines of lyrics, though we’ve knocked down to 8 to keep the suicide rate in check. Have fun!” Maybe someday he’ll come back with “(Christmas Will Break Your Heart (10 Minute Version) (James’s Version).”
December 13:
“I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” by Gayla Peevey
Good luck to any parents out there dealing with a precocious little kid’s attempts to convince you that their outrageous holiday gift request is actually totally reasonable. “Mom says a hippo would eat me up but then/ Teacher says a hippo is a veg-e-tarian” is a pretty delightful example of fact checking in action.
One of my favourite Ally McBeal Christmas episode bits involves Elaine (Jane Krakowski) and John Cage rehearsing to perform this at their law firm’s Christmas party. John abandons the song midway and declares (still to the tune of the song) “I’m sorry Elaine, this doesn’t feel organic.”
On another note, it seems that hippos actually *are* on a lot of holiday wishlists this year: Earlier this week, a large hippo-shaped bar by French designer François-Xavier Lalanne sold for $31.4 million in a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
December 14:
“Only At Christmas Time” by Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens is a regular fixture of these playlists, and I think no one artist has done more to balance out the modern Christmas canon with songs that make room for deeper holiday reflection. As with a lot of his music, there is a strong religious theme in this one, but I also see it more generally as a song reminding us to make time to appreciate all the special moments that accompany December, whether those are opportunities to reconnect with people we haven’t seen in a while, or to be more charitable, or to reflect on old childhood memories, because these experiences may be all too rare throughout the rest of the year.
December 15:
“Christmas Eve Can Kill You” by The Everly Brothers
In perfect harmony, the Everly Brothers deliver seasonal reflection on haves and have-nots framed around a Christmas Eve hitchhiker watching a car pass him by. This one is written by Dennis Linde, the same lyricist who would go on to write “Goodbye Earl” by the Chicks (Linde also plays acoustic guitar on the track) and it’s another great example of his storytelling skill. (Notably, the video for “Earl” starred Jane Krakowski, who also popped up a few days ago thanks to her performance of “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” as Elaine on Ally McBeal.)
December 16:
“Hymn” by Moby
If “The White Lotus” had a Christmas special, this would be the opening credits theme song. This is my first year with my Christmas lights on a timer, and every morning when I walk out to find them already lit, I experience some version of this song in my head.
I discovered this track via @gapplaylists — it was the opening song to The Gap’s December 1995 in-store playlist — so consider this your reminder that there are only nine more shopping days until Christmas.
December 17:
“Hot in December” by Kylie Minogue
A fun palette cleanser pop song. I am dedicating this one to “Heated Rivalry.”
December 18:
“Señor Santa (Mister Santa)” by Y La Bamba
I first heard this song playing in a thrift shop in Niagara Falls while looking at a stack of old holiday issues of Bon Appetit. It’s sweet and warm like a Hojarascas Mexican shortbread cookie dusted in cinnamon.
December 19:
“Listening to Otis Redding At Home During Christmas” by Okkervil River
This one is a slow burn, but if you’re willing to give it some time, there’s a big emotional arc being set up amidst all the early impressionistic lyrics. The first couple verses grapple with letting go of the place you grew up in (Meriden, New Hampshire, in Okkervill River frontman Will Sheff’s case) — returning to “a room that’s not mine, but it’s just like I left it before” and realizing that “not even home will be with you forever.”
As the track continues, Sheff begins to reminisce about a classic “one that got away” and how his life might have been different if he’d stayed in his hometown and settled down. “Your dad says you're living in Georgia since last September” kicks off the rousing final act, where the whole song breaks into a desperate plea that signals it’s probably time to wrap up this holiday back home and fly back to one’s regularly scheduled programming.
As the title suggests, Otis Redding also has a role to play: Sheff uses the name of the singer’s 1968 song “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember,” which seems to have been one of his family’s favourites, as a refrain. For me, Okkervil River was one of my most beloved bands in university, so like Otis Redding for Will Sheff, anything from their catalogue has the power to evoke some seriously strong nostalgia.
December 20:
“Christmas for Cowboys” by John Denver
John Denver’s 1975 album “Rocky Mountain Christmas” is my favorite new holiday music discovery of this year. This standout track is a heartwarming pastoral poem about finding peace and comfort in the snow-covered plains.
This wasn’t the last big Christmas project for John Denver, either — in the 1985 made-for-TV movie “The Christmas Gift,” he played an architect widower who gets mistaken for Santa Claus — and shuts down a real-estate developer’s plans to build a golf course — while visiting a small Colorado town. But that one has a 27% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe just stick to his Christmas album.
December 21:
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” by Lana Del Rey
Building on yesterday’s John Denver track, today we have an especially soulful cover of one of his signature songs. No, it’s not true Christmas music, but Lana Del Rey released this version in December 2023, and listening to it during this time of year, it perfectly captures the feeling of heading back to the home of your childhood holidays — even if that’s now just a place in your mind. Happy winter solstice.
December 22:
“Linus and Lucy” by Vince Guaraldi Trio
The Charlie Brown Christmas special soundtrack is the definitive Christmas album, plain and simple. There’s been a song from it featured on every year’s edition of this playlist, and as we approach the big day, the upbeat energy of this one sets up the growing anticipation perfectly.
December 23:
“I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard
This is one of those fun, infectious seasonal standbys that somehow still manages to win me over no matter how many times I’ve already heard it this month. Back when Wizzard released it in 1973, the band lost out on the U.K.’s coveted “Christmas Number 1” spot to Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody.” To add salt to the wound, Slade then went on to also beat Wizzard to being featured in this annual playlist. (I included “Merry Xmas Everybody” all the way back in the 2021 edition.)
But! When it comes to play count, “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” is currently leading “Merry Xmas Everybody” by around 16 million streams on Spotify. (Music is an art and not a sport, but sometimes numbers are fun.) The moral of the story is: People may not always like the Christmas gift you get them at first. But the best stuff reveals its true appeal over time. That’s especially true when it comes to practical gifts. Or zany pop songs.
December 24:
“Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)” by Gene Autry
Gene Autry recorded this in 1947 after being upstaged in LA’s Santa Claus Lane Parade the year prior. The country star had been slotted to make his appearance towards the end of the march, riding down the street on his horse, Champion Jr. But rather than remarking on Autry, the first kid he passed instead pointed to St. Nick in the distance, shouting “Here comes Santa Claus!” It’s good to keep one’s ego in check. Much like Joe Pesci in “Home Alone,” Autry pronounces the name as “Santy Claus” — although his delivery sounds a lot less menacing. Happy Christmas Eve!
December 25:
“Ave Maria” by The Carpenters
Merry Christmas! Here’s one that lives up to the day’s gravitas. I’m also updating the playlist with a final surprise *bonus track* meant to carry us throughout the rest of December, so the full mix is now there for anyone playing it today. This concludes advent 2025! Thank you for listening, reading and messaging this month and I hope these song selections have added something to your holiday season. (I would love to know your favourite!)