Top 10 Alternate Christmas Songs

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As you get older Christmas isn’t all about sleigh bells ringing and chesnuts roasting on an open fire. Magic is no longer really found in waiting up for Santa until 3am but perhaps in stumbling home full of festive cheer at 3am. With that in mind as you scroll through our list of alternative Christmas numbers you may well notice that our favourite artists don’t necessarily subscribe to the idea of a “Merry Christmas” but that won’t stop us celebrating, even if it is to the sound of forlorn, jingling, indie gems.

10. Eels – Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas

We’re not really sure what the hell the O.C montage that accompanies this video has to do with Christmas but we can’t resist a song that contains the lyrics “Baby Jesus, born to rock.”

9. The Walkmen – Holiday Road (Lyndsay Buckingham Cover)

The National Lampoon associated classic gets a festive once over courtesy of these Santa hat sporting New Yorkers.

8. The Flaming Lips – Christmas At The Zoo

Ahh that ol’ Christmas tradition of going to the zoo?! To be honest, Wayne Coyne and co have probably done stranger things than freeing Peacocks and Lama’s on Christmas Eve.

7. Belle and Sebastian – Santa Claus (The Sonics Cover)

Recorded as part of John Peel’s Christmas Session in 2002, Glasgow’s favourite alternate export Belle & Sebastian covered The Sonics classic 1964 Here Are The Sonics extra ‘Santa Claus.’

6. Sufjan Stevens – That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!

Whether he intended it or not Sufjan Steven’s releasing Christmas specials has become a bit of a tradition but this number from 2003′s Ding! Dong!: Songs for Christmas, Vol. III> has a more special place in our heart than most.

5. Elliot Smith – Kings Crossing

Haunting half sung vocals, endless flickering reverb and an overwhelming sighing sadness: would Christmas with Elliot Smith ever bring anything else?

4. The Knife – Christmas Reindeer

Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer bring you a juddering, bass heavy beast of a festive number in the spiralling, panic inducing beats of 2006′s ‘Christmas Reindeer.’ We won’t judge you if you just keep this on repeat until their new release in April.

3. Death Cab For Cutie – Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

Because we’re hopeless romantics at heart we can’t resist the dulcet tones of Ben Gibbard covering Darlene Love’s 1963 original.

2. Tom Waits – Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis

For the title alone, Wait’s 1978 classic get’s a worthy inclusion at no.2.

1. Low – Just Like Christmas

Low’s ‘Just Like Christmas’ just has to take the no.1 spot for many reasons. Not only do the jingling bells and bouncing rhythms underline a heartbreakingly nostalgic sentiment but it formed part of perhaps the best record dedicated to the holiday season in recent memory. The Christmas EP was release by the Minnesota trio in 1999 and has been on our Christmas day playlist ever since.