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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.