3 Great Holiday Songs To Get You Through the Festive Season

Soon, if not already, we’ll be inundated with the holiday season and the many songs we’ve heard a thousand times that, perhaps, at least a few of which we’d rather never hear again. So while we muddle through somehow, allow this list to offer a few choice holiday cuts to get you through the festive stretch.

“Take Me Home (4 Christmas)” by Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Rodrigo’s new holiday song describes meeting a romantic partner’s family for the first time. The couple is three beers deep at a bar when Rodrigo tells her lover that she’s ready for the next step: meeting his family. Rodrigo envisions a future of partying with his sister, crushing drinks with his parents, and being the “coolest in-law daughter.” “Take Me Home” was written by Rodrigo, Dan Nigro, and Amy Allen.

Woke up late, but your momma don’t care,
And she walked in on me in just my underwear.
Now your whole family’s peeking under the tree,
Oh, look at that, a bunch of gifts they got from me.

“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” by Phoebe Bridgers

I think the best Christmas songs are the sad ones. And that probably says more about me than I have space to write about here. Which brings me to Phoebe Bridgers’s take on this wintry standard from Meet Me In St. Louis—a distillation of how many feel during the holiday season. It’s also the point where joy and grief overlap. When we understand just how fleeting these moments are. It’s tough to beat Judy Garland’s flawless rendition from the film. But Bridgers, atop a haunting baritone guitar figure, emphasizes the gap between longing, togetherness, and the obstacles that often keep us apart.

Someday soon we all will be together,
If the fates allow.
Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow,
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

“Christmas In Hollis” by Run-DMC

Mariah Carey has long dominated the charts with “All I Want For Christmas Is You”, but this holiday jam by Run-DMC tops our list today. Co-produced with Rick Rubin, the rap legends invite listeners to experience Christmas in Queens. Ella Langley may have broken Carey’s Billboard Hot 100 record. But instead of “Choosin’ Texas”, this year, I’m choosin’ Hollis.

In the fireplace is the Yule log,
Beneath the mistletoe as we drink eggnog.
The rhymes that you hear are the rhymes of Darryl’s,
But each and every year, we bust Christmas carols.

Photo by Michael Le Brecht II/Disney via Getty Images