The very best Christmas songs

Let me just start off by saying that I totally understand that there are many people who hate the winter holiday season, and that there are a million extremely good and justifiable reasons for feeling that way, without even getting into people’s personal experiences and traumas and relationships.

And I also recognize that of course not everyone subscribes to a faith or culture that would even let Christmas become a going concern in their lives. And even as someone who is Jewish by birth, I have absolutely no experience with any holiday experience other than Christmas.

So with all of that in mind …

I fucking love Christmas, man. It’s always been my favorite holiday, and although I haven’t been active in the Christian faith in close to 20 years, I still adore pretty much everything about it. I love the food, the decorations, the traditions (Santa, the tree, my family’s countdown calendar). I love getting gifts for people. I love compiling a stocking. And of course, I love the music.

So here is a sampling for you of some of my very favorite Christmas songs (not carols, although I like those, too).

[NOTE: out of respect for those of you participating in Whamageddon, I will not post “Last Christmas,” but otherwise it is on my list. I am also, as of this writing, still in Whamageddon somehow. (It’s December 11.)]

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You: Let’s not fool ourselves, this is the gold standard. If you don’t like this song and you say you like Christmas, I just don’t think you and I understand one another.

Hanson - What Christmas Means To Me: Yes, obviously the Stevie Wonder version is awesome, and more or less definitive, but the Hanson version is probably my favorite. I will not be taking questions at this time.

Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson - Winter Song: Some songs (like we’ll get into later) aren’t necessarily Christmas songs specifically, but they definitely count. I don’t even remember how I came into contact with this song initially, but it was probably via Twitter. Remember when you could discover cool things on Twitter? When that was essentially what it was for? Good times.

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