Hip Christmas

Welcome To Hip Christmas! I think you'll enjoy my dysfunctionally vast web archive dedicated to holiday music that rocks, rolls, swings, and twangs. If you do, please support me by shopping at Amazon, Apple Music, and Sheet Music Plus - or buy me a coffee! Regardless, the best of the season to you - no matter what month it is! [about me]

The Christmas Jukebox. My online Christmas music player is bulging with over 1000 hip tunes - and counting! You can listen to the music I write about - the coolest, weirdest, and loudest holiday songs ever, all while enjoying my inimitable prose - or not! [press play]

Deck Your Algorithm. There's a lot of holiday hilarity going on over at Facebook, in case you can't get enough on my website - or vice versa. Check out the Hip Christmas page where I share artists, songs, albums, and the latest news. Follow me for maximum fun all year long, and I also post cool cover art on Instagram and Pinterest. [follow me]

Gonna Be A Black Christmas, Baby. Shreveport's Jewel Records was responsible for a lot of blues, soul, funk, and swamp pop in the 60's and 70's, including a lot of Christmas music. Merry Christmas Baby collects most of it, including gems by Lowell Fulson, Charles Brown, Jimmy Reed, and the mysterious Hot Rock Mays. [read more]

Christmas Time's A-Coming. When I first dove into hip Christmas music, Emmylou Harris' 1979 album Light Of The Stable was newly minted. Decades later, it has aged very well, indeed. Much like the rest of Emmylou's forward-thinking country music, the album is joyful, mournful, traditional, and visionary - without contradiction. [read more]

Hooray For Santa Claus! Rhino Records' Punk Rock Xmas is not your normal Christmas compilation. These are songs for people who love to hate Christmas - 18 slices of noise ranging from relative superstars like the Ramones, the Damned, and the Dickies to forgotten heroes like Fear, Pansy Division, and Celibate Rifles. [read more]

Rowdy and Violent Young Men. As I started my journey into hip Christmas music, the Yobs (aka UK punk band the Boys) were a key influence on me. Their 1980 Christmas Album is raucous, weird, sacrilegious, and scatological. More music would follow, but it never got better - or more disgusting - than this. [read more]

And It's Sexy, Too. While Motown's mighty Temptations were arguably the label's toughest, funkiest act, their 1970 Christmas album brought out their softer side. That said, tracks like their brilliant "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" were built on an irresistible groove - I think it's the best version of the song ever recorded! [read more]

Devoted Sisters. I've been a fan of quirky, East Coast folksters the Roches since I was an impressionable college student. Nerds of a feather, you might say. Their lone Christmas album is less quirky than I'd prefer - mostly a cappella and/or traditional - but it stands out thanks to the three sisters' amazing empathy for each other's voices. [read more]

The Saddest Time Of The Year. Yuletunes (1991) is a power pop collection that often sounds more like an indolent Big Star ballad than a raucous Raspberries rocker. Most songs dwell on the melancholy aspects of the holiday season, even when the music feels joyous and jangly. Artists include the Shoes, Matthew Sweet, and Material Issue. [read more]

A Rocky Mountain Christmas. You had to grow up in the 1970's to have a fondness for John Denver. His earnest folk pop is very much of an earlier age, and his four Christmas albums reflect the same aesthetic. But, the albums all have their charms - especially his classic country weeper, "Please, Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas)." [read more]

Merry Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! An adjunct to the Hot Rod Rock series, Hot Rod Holiday (1997) collected 16 festive songs by vintage rock artists popular with grease monkeys and the ladies who love them. Only one song is actually about a car, but most Christmas collectors (and gearheads) will enjoy the hell out of it. [read more]

And Away We Go! Best remembered as an actor and swashbuckling personality, Jackie Gleason also waxed a long series of urbane instrumental albums including two holiday records, Merry Christmas (1956) and 'Tis The Season (1967). To be sure, Gleason's music listens way too easy for me, but devotees of "beautiful music" swear by the stuff. [read more]

Bronx Bomber. Back in the 50's, Dion & The Belmonts accounted for some of the most thrilling white doo wop around - "The Wander," Runaround Sue," and many more. By the time Dion recorded Rock n' Roll Christmas, he'd gone through many changes and emerged as an elder statesman of the New York rock scene. [read more]

Euphemisms for Boring. Columbia's Acoustic Christmas (1990) was a harbinger of a genre that we would struggle to put a name to before settling on Americana. Most of the tracks are, indeed, acoustic, and nearly all of the arrangements are spare, if not altogether solo. Some are lovely, but they sure don't rock, roll, swing, or twang. [read more]

Yulesville U.S.A. The collective brilliance of Motown's holiday music was one of my first - and certainly abiding - fascinations. The 1973 compilation A Motown Christmas is all most people will need. But, there's a lot more, including Top 20 Albums by the Temptations, the Jackson 5, and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. [read more]

Come On Get Happy! You have to be of a certain (advanced) age to like - or even remember - the Partridge Family. As a person of that age (with a boy-crush on David Cassidy), I think their music is just fine - bubblegum pop of the highest order. And, their Christmas album follows suit. Great? Nope. Enjoyable? Absolutely. [read more]

Farting On Santa's Lap. Hip-O Records' 2000 collection Sleighed: The Other Side Of Christmas aims to present an alternative-rock-meets-Dr. Demento view of the holidays. It falls short of that mark, but 10 of the 12 tracks are pretty great all the same, including big names like Beck, Sonic Youth, the Smithereens, and (ahem) Spinal Tap. [read more]

What Was New In 2025? Christmas has come and gone, but you might be curious what the big news was last year. For most folks it was new releases from Herb Alpert, Lady A, Trisha Yearwood, Gwen Stefani, and Kylie Minogue. For me, it was new albums from Futureheads, Sofia Talvik, and Swansea Sound, compilations from Chess and Wicked Cool Records, and a whole lotta wicked cool singles. [gimme gimme]

A Christmas Gift For You. Every year, I offer free MP3's from my voluminous collection - all unavailable easily or legitimately in the music marketplace. Last year, I dug up rare gems from Charles Brown, Mike Nicolai, the Pretenders, and Save Your Breath, plus the last track from the storied 1983 EP, A Boston Rock Christmas. [listen or download]