Bittersweet Christmas songs

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Reading the Pogues Fairytale of New York thread on AIBU, got me thinking about Christmas songs that aren't saccharine horribleness!

Low - Just like Christmas
Pogues - Fairytale
Mike Doughty - I hear the bells

What others?

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is the saddest song I know!

Joy by Tracy Thorn is utterly beautiful. Also like When The Thames Froze by Smith and Burrows. Ooh, and Wintersong by Sarah Mclachlan. Love a bittersweet Christmas song, I have to have a separate playlist to the family one as DH thinks I'm too maudlin

December song by George Michael. I'm not sure that the Frankie one fits in the bittersweet category. Seems pretty straightforward to me. And only the video is Christmassy

I have to have a separate playlist to the family one as DH thinks I'm too maudlin

I think happy Christmas songs are sinister and for psychopaths!

That’ll be Christmas is a good one OP by Thea Gilmore.
Also Christmas lights by Coldplay and New year by the original Sugababes lineup are suitably bittersweet IMO.

I just cant get over the grouching against Feed the World.
Ffs. It may not fit today's ultra PC worldview. But do you think the mother of a starving child would have turned up their nose at a life saving ration on the grounds that rock stars half a world away had fuck all grasp on geography.
Should Bob Geldof and Sting and the rest of them have sat at home thinking, Well I'm a massive rockstar with a massive amount of social power, I could use every resource I do have to save lives. Otoh I'm a bit on the pale side and never listened in geography in school. Plus there are scammers everywhere who try to skim off anything anyone tries to do. Best sit back. Best let them die, in case sometime in the future, people complain I didn't do it to their standards. The standards of comfortable well fed future-people in some of the richest countries on earth.

There are people walking around today thanks to Feed the World. Children lived, they grew up and met and had families of their own.

How the hell does anyone think that there's any sort of comparison.

Sorry I'm ranting, it's not a personal attack. But real lives saved vs offended wokesters 30 years later. It riles me.

Anyway sorry for the rant.

I'm another that cries at White Wine in the Sun by Tim Minchin, every time. I don't have children, but I can completely imagine my dad signing it to me and I'm reduced to a childish sobbing mess. It's a beautifully written song.

I saw him in his recent tour and it was his encore. I had been smiling the whole way through the show and I left an emotional wreck.

Is the Mike Doughty song a Christmas song? I’ve certainly never thought of it that way.

George Michael “I dreamed of Christmas”

Jack Frost and The Hooded Crow by Jethro Tull is my favourite, but any song from The Jethro Tull Christmas Album is brilliant.

@AutumnRose1

Hear the bells are
Ringing joyful and triumphant

I think that's christmassy. And it's in December and the title is "I hear the bells". Also it's my thread so I get to decide!!!

The Heartache Can Wait by Brandi Carlisle. There’s a lovely album I listen to at Xmas called The Hotel Cafe presents Winter Songs and this is my favourite one on there. Also Winter Song by Sara Bareilles (she also wrote the music for the musical Waitress, gorgeous voice and great songwriter)

Silver Bells.

Winter by Tori Amos

And another vote for River by Joni Mitchell

My dad used to dig this out every Christmas when i was a kid I still remember the words to Senor Santa Claus.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Songs_of_Christmas

Keeping the Dream Alive by Freiheit

Christmas Eve 1914 by Mike Oldfield the Rochdale Cowboy. I loved the song so much when I was a teenager that I wore the track out on the old 33.

As is human nature I never thought about it and only now that my boys are grown up and independent I realise that they're almost 100 years younger than then. I would be a different mother waiting to hear whether they'd have come home. Probably not...

Somewhere in my Memory. Originally in Home Alone. It's beautiful.

If you want to have a good cry, Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan.

Home for the Holidays by Tim Wheeler and Emmy the Great (I love their whole Christmas album).

Someone has already suggested Christmas Lights by Coldplay and of course Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Oh yes Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas is so sad - "some day soon we all will be together" - you know they won't, she (or he, if the Sinatra version) is just trying to convince themselves

But the very worst is The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot - Nat King Cole. Now that is very depressing. I always used to skip that one on the Christmas albums (have set up Spotify playlist now so just include the ones I like!).

I also love Hely-Hutchinson's Carol Symphony - it's not exactly maudlin as such, but it's definitely not saccharine. It was used in the children's TV programme The Box of Delights back in the 80s, if anyone remembers that.

I've made myself feel sad now about Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - my grandad used to love that song and Christmas in general, and he died just over three years ago, so I'm now thinking about Christmas not being the same, like in the song.

He loved all those singers like Bing Crosby, Sinatra etc, so even though i love their songs they're always a bit bittersweet for me.

Sorry if I have gone too maudlin!

@zukiecat I have never heard anyone declare their love of the Jethro Tull Christmas album so your post makes me . First snow on Brooklyn is quite poignant but I love the reality of the whole album and pretty much play it every day.

Queen, Thank God it’s Christmas.

It's not saccharine, but it's not exactly bittersweet. It is my new favourite christmas song though.

Also...

@PrivateSpidey