Do you actually enjoy those Christmas songs from the 70s-90s?

Gosh, when & where I was a kid (1970s) all we could hear on radio on Xmas day were the ancient choir type songs, carols. We went caroling many years so I like those carol songs, but they got very tired.

I LOVE modern Christmas songs for rescuing us from all those hyper traditional sometimes dirge like no variation too twee frozen in time tunes.

Love them! I know Christmas has arrived when I hear Slade on the radio 😂

"Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall?" 🎶 🎄

The 70s and 80s ones would have felt fresh at the time. The only real 90s one is the Mariah Carey and that was 30 years ago.

Anything since then just feels flat. But then look at the state of the Christmas number 1 every year. It's no wonder people stick with the nostalgia given the state of popular music.

Yes I absolutely love them and genuinely listen to them on repeat round Christmas time.

You'll see me scowling at anything Christmas pre-December but after that it's a free for all, I love it.

@LadyAmroth
Me too

I agree. I think us older mumsnetters have got sick and tired of hearing the same songs every December for over 50 years (in my case)

I quite like most of them - even the ones that make me maudlin, I don't mind. They trigger fond memories and I don't want to forget those things and feelings.

But there is one song that tormented me the year I worked in a shop over Christmas as a teen. If "Christmas Island" comes in the tannoy when I'm shopping, I get out ASAP. I spent days in those cold dusty dingy bright backroom passages ripping the plastic and packaging off stock while listening to that song on a loop. No fond memories 😤. Fuck you Guy Lombardo and your Royal Canadians, and The Andrews Sisters can fuck off too.

I love them - not keen on the pogues one.

I hate all Christmas music until at least halfway through December. And even then it's only a selection few. I love Pipes of Peace, Winter's Tale, When a Child is Born & for some reason A Spaceman Came Travelling! Oh and the one by The Darkness

This is one of the few I love. But only in December! It was one of my dad's favourite songs & we played it at his funeral

That's the thing about nostalgia, it's bittersweet. I do love that hit of nostalgia when I hear them but always with an underlying sense of deep sadness at the people I've lost.

But then Carols have the same effect on me. In The Deep Midwinter was my mum's favourite Carol, it's inevitably the first one of the season I hear and it cuts me like a knife! We lost her 9 years ago, it just never seems to get easier.

And the next line which makes no sense 'another year over, and a new one just begun'

I don’t like the John and Yoko one and Silver Bells by Bing Crosby makes me cry as it reminds me of my dad.
other than that, I LOVE Christmas songs and listen to the constantly as soon as the calendar reaches 1/12!

No they are AWFUL. I am in my 50s and that awful, screechy "it's christmas" song has been played every december for my entire life.

Radio utterly un-listenable at this time of year, and it's starting earlier and earlier. Mariah Carey can fuck right off, as can the rest of the shite. Podcasts all the way.

For pure nostalgia, can I add the theme tune to 'The Box of Delights'? I think music is like smell - can whizz you straight back to a time and place. As does the smell of the cold boxes of Christmas decorations brought down from the loft, and the gunpowder smell from a cracker snap

There's loads of alternative Christmas/winter playlists on Spotify now. There was a great thread last year where people were suggesting their favourite alternatives to the 70s/80s usuals.

I've just looked up 'December Will Be Magic Again' on Spotify and found a lovely playlist. Aaaaand now I'm going down a rabbit hole - see you on the other side!

Wow I didn’t know that was a thing. I definitely have nostalgic depression.

I absolutely love them.
Yes they're cheese but I find they're as much a part of Christmas as turkey and stuffing and gifts.

I Believe in Father Christmas was written by the late Pete Sinfield, his obituary is in today's Times.

He also wrote Land of Make Believe for Bucks Fizz and Think Twice for Celine Dion.

I hate them all. It's the time of year for me to avoid all pop stations like the plague and listen to absolutely anything else...and wear headphones in the supermarket!

I don't like a lot of them but would happily listen to the Pogues, Last Christmas and Band Aid on a loop.

I know that Band Aid hasn't aged well but it was absolutely ground breaking at the time. It spearheaded a massive change in attitudes to charity and provided a lifeline for millions of desperate people. I think that outweighs some rubbish lyrics.

I don’t mind the occasional Fairytale of New York but other than that, I’m with you, OP. Hogwood Messiah ftw.

(Actually Ella Fitzgerald did some lovely Christmas albums. So I’m not all classical but maybe 95%)

@spuddy4 awful. There needs to be a class action alleging a hostile work environment by retail workers imo. Is there any proof that they make people spend?? I usually turn round and walk out if the music is too much in a shop now.

I work in retail so after a few days I've had enough. If you are unlucky enough to be in retail at Christmas you'll know how little Christmas songs there actually are, it's just an endless loop of the same ones all day.

I don't mind them in general but I get what you mean OP. My current partner likes the Jona Lewie one, and so did my first husband who I last saw over 20 years ago, and it makes me feel simultaneously 100 years old and as if my sex life has telescoped into a few months.