The Christmas Songs You Might Not Know You Need

Let's face it, we're all listening to the essentials, but are there any less well known ones you're missing?

Yes. These may be some of them.

Of course there are also some I'm missing, so tell me if there are any you know of that aren't here.

Donner And Blitzen - Badly Drawn Boy SPLINK

The soundtrack to the film About a Boy is crazily good. Seriously, there is no reason for it to be anywhere near as good as it is. Tucked away at the end is this little gem. It's a little bleak if you listen to the lyrics, but it's just so damn Christmassy. It's been in so many adverts over the years that I'm sure you'll recognise 30 second snippets from it. Any song that can pull off the line "Baby it's not your sleigh-ride" must be good.


It's Clichéd to be Cynical at Christmas - Half Man Half Biscuit SPLINK

 In true HMHB tradition, a song that is in danger of being just a brilliant title for a song. It manages to avoid this by inserting pure distilled Christmas music to the degree that you don't even have to listen to the lyrics if you don't want to. It's got choirs of children, strings and oddly I Saw 3 Ships Come Sailing in. What more could you possibly want?


Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) - The Darkness SPLINK

Okay, so you may know it, but do you know it's actually really quite good? You sort of assume The Darkness are bad, but they're really not. In fact the whole of Permission to Land is most definitely worth a re-listen. Yeah, it's overblown and slightly ironic, but hey, why shouldn't it be? It's also pretty much guaranteed to get stuck in your head so it's value-for-listen; you can hear it all day.


Lonely This Christmas - Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine SPLINK

If you've heard of Carter USM you probably find it heard to imagine how this will sound, unless you know it already. If you haven't then you're probably still sniggering at the name. Don't deny it, I'm watching you. But I really don't understand what's so hard to grasp, it's a indie-punky acoustic version of a WHAM song, so what? But yeah, if your Christmas is feeling over-polished and too commercial, this is what you need. 


Songs for Christmas - Sufjan Stevens SPLINK

Okay, okay, it's not really a Christmas Song, more a 5 CD collection of 42 Christmas songs. But being a 5 CD collection of 42 Christmas Songs, I'm not going to go scouring through it trying to find the best one for you. Therefore I'll just tell you that, overall, it's good. There's a bit of padding, granted, but there are some crackers (please, no pun) too.


Have Yourself a Very KT Christmas - KT Tunstall SPLINK

Well, if I'm allowing myself albums now, we'll have this one. When you think about it, of course KT Tunstall should have a Christmas EP, she's just got one of those voices. Granted, a fifth of it is a cover of Fairytale of New York which I haven't even brought myself to listen to. But the rest of it's ace. It's also got 2000 Miles on it which is apparently that Christmas song, you know THAT one, which you never knew the name of.


Well, come on, show me what you've got for me, now. Tweet me or comment, whatever, I don't care.

Merry Christmas and all that.