Today is formally the first day of Advent, the start of the Christmas season. So, to kick off, here’s my list of the twenty best Christmas singles ever written:
- Fairytale of New York – The Pogues and Kirsty McColl
- Merry Christmas, Everybody – Slade
- I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day – Wizzard
- Saviour’s Day – Cliff Richard (less popular, but far better, than Mistletoe and Wine)
- I Believe In Father Christmas – Greg Lake
- Happy Christmas (War is Over) – John Lennon and Yoko Ono
- White Christmas – Bing Crosby
- One More Sleep ’til Christmas – The Muppets
- Stop The Cavalry – Jona Lewie
- 2000 Miles – The Pretenders
- Do They Know It’s Christmas – Band Aid (the 1984 original, not the rather pants 1989 and 2004 remakes)
- In Dulci Jubilo – Mike Oldfield
- Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) – The Darkness
- Walking In The Air – Aled Jones
- er….
- …that’s it
- unless you include Last Christmas by Wham!…
- …which is probably fair enough, even though George Michael is incredibly irritating
- but definitely not the Frog Chorus…
- …or any other attempt by Paul McCartney to write something festive.