It seems Christmas is coming…
…earlier and earlier: the day after Halloween Sky 1 decided it was time to put on a Christmas classic “Jingle all the Way”. Everywhere you look Christmas adverts are sneaking on to telly as councils start to hang ancient Christmas lights from lampposts. And of course with Christmas adverts and Christmas films you just know that Christmas songs aren’t very far behind. Soon you won’t be able to switch on the radio or walk into a shop without hearing a winter anthem and this got me thinking…
“All I Want for Christmas”, “Let it Snow”, “Fairytale of New York”, “Last Christmas”, “Do they know it’s Christmas?”: all these and more are undoubtably festive favourites that are perfect for belting out after one too many sherries on Christmas Eve. But what do they all have in common? None of them were written this century.
Yes it seems somewhere down the line we’ve just forgotten the art of making a good Christmas song. Nowadays if you look at the charts, the Christmas number one tends to be whatever dross Simon Cowell and his travelling circus of generic popstars have decided to pump out following some easy publicity after X Factor has ended.
Just try and recall a good Christmas song made in the last decade. Personally the only one that springs to mind for me was The Darkness’ “Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)”, a pretty catchy tune from 2003 still gets played every year but usually after DJs have run out of the true classics.
Remember Coldplay’s “Christmas Lights”? Neither do I and that came out only two years ago. What about The Killer’s attempt “Don’t Shoot me Santa”? Well it didn’t even break into the top twenty, peaking at a mighty 34. To put that in perspective Mr Blobby had a Christmas Number One in 1993!
Maybe this year it’ll be different and someone will make a true belter but to be honest I’m not going to hold my breath.