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

[OnlyHerefortheBiscuits]

The only Christmas music I can listen to is classical/choral.

I find those 80s/90s childhood Christmas songs so painful. And it's because I had lovely Christmasses as a kid!

It was a time back when anything was possible for my future life. But here I am, late thirties, single, childless (or childfree? I don't know...), with no romantic relationship history at all, friends all married off playing their happy families all year.

Make sense?? They get increasingly difficult to listen to each year. 2016 was when I first got a knot hearing one in Tesco and panicked thinking "oh shit what if this is the status quo forever"

It's the end of another year I guess...always tricky. They're all over the bloody airwaves though

Yep total nostalgia fest when it comes to the 70s/80s music. As an 80’s baby it’s was all that you’d hear back then. My fave song is I believe in Father Christmas by Greg lake followed by fairytale of New York. I can only put up with driving home for Christmas and mistletoe and wine until a certain extent,..

Stay another day by East 17 makes me sad as the Christmas day it was number one was perfect .

It was 1994, I was 9. We were watching Top of the Tops.
I was building my new Lego set with my brother who was building his. My mum was making Christmas dinner and my dad asked who these strange men were on the TV.
It was peak life and I didn't even know it as was just a kid 😅 but everytime I hear it I'm aware how much time has passed.

A Winters Tale by David Essex gets me every year. It's a lovely video.

I am just so so bored of them all. They have no good/bad associations for me, but after 50+ years of some of these songs, I just want them to stop.

I'm totally fed up with Noddy Holder screaming "It's Christmaaaaasss!" every year from mid November until its all over.

A friend wrote a Christmas song , which got a small amount of airplay on local radio, but trying to break into the charts as an unsigned band was impossible.

Mariah shrieks her way through that song!

I love them all (except the Pogues one which reminds me of a bar job I had and having to hear it non stop on the jukebox all through December complete with pissed English people singing along) and the golden oldies too.

My favourites are Christmas in Hollis and Macy Gray doing Winter Wonderland 😊

I absolutely love all the classic Christmas songs!
Reminds me of the magic and excitement of being a kid, waiting for Father Christmas, going to the kids Christmas parties at the local working men's club....
Christmases past and it just makes me feel warm and childlike again, bring on the excitement!
Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens and Jonie Lewie (?) Stop The Cavalry being my two particular faves 🌲⛄❄️🎅

Yes, LOVE them, they bring me a lot of joy. Maybe it's an age thing? (I'm 50).
Btw
@SprigatitoYouAndIKnow only 9 years between the Mariah and Darkness songs!

Yes, I love them.
The power of love is my favourite, but I like them all.
Merry Christmas Everybody & I wish it could be Christmas everyday, make me very nostalgic.

Last Christmas makes me feel painfully nostalgic for 80s Christmas work dos when I actually enjoyed them.

I hadn't really thought about it, but yes so many memories!

Wham! - I'm 14 again with all the insecurities and hope that brings.

Jonny Mathias' When A Child is Born, East 17's Stay Another Day and David Essex's Winter's Tale all make me sad.

Fairy Tale of New York - late night pressie wrapping on Christmas Eve (why...every bloody year??)

Chris Rea's Driving Home for Christmas makes me happy.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas now makes me think of Lockdown.

Nat King Cole - one of my first jobs (played on a loop in the restuarant)

Fairy Tale of New York makes me feel sad as Kirsty McColl went to my school, and it always reminds me of the tragic way she died.

It’s certainly not my cup of tea and I’m in my 40s.
Luckily BBC Radio 1Xtra doesn’t play much of it! 😁

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.

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.

@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 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%)

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

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

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!

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