MERRY KRISMAS 2025
33 Seasonally Attuned Songs
(Creative Art illustration)
CONTENTSPLAYLISTS
• Merry Krismas 2025 on YouTube and Spotify
ONE SONG
• Jingle Bells by Rose Cousins – a unique version by
the underrated Halifax-based singer extraordinaire.
TRACKLIST
• See the complete 33-song list below.
It’s an eclectic mix that goes from country to neo-classical,
jazz to folky ballads, country to a capella and more.
SEE ALSO
• Kurated No. 233 – Merry Krismas 2024
• Kurated No. 4 – Jingle Bell Rocks: A Mitchell Kezin Christmas
LYRICS
• New Years Day by Mary Chapin Carpenter
– The closing piece is a hopeful tune that “dwells in possibility”.
MERRY KRISMAS 2025
Beyond the mainstream’s bandwidth there’s a world of songs that celebrate (or diss!) the Christmas season
Here’s my second throw in a row at making a Christmas playlist. For many years I paid little attention to the one-month deluge and flurry of seasonal music that filled airwaves, malls and our ears. There were some pretty good songs, some pretty bad ones and the inevitable repetition overload.
It wasn’t until I met Vancouver’s Mitchell Kezin that I was introduced to the Christmas genre’s vast scope – one which embraces all the other genres under it’s big and beautiful, raucous and jolly tent. Beyond the mainstream’s narrow Xmas bandwidth there’s a world of foreign voices, ethnic beats, alternative radio, Christmas bands and genres like punk, rap, EMO and shoegaze that celebrate (or diss) the season – all in the span of one intense and jam-packed month.
Mitchell had a passion for Christmas and deep resonance with its varied music. He studied it, shared it and, eventually, made a superb film about it called Jingle Bell Rocks. Read about Mitchell in Kurated No. 4 which he wrote in 2018. Sadly, Mitchell died early in 2024 leaving a unique legacy.
The 33-song playlist
My playlist is ecelctic and gentle. And, I hope, lively and fun too. Compared to Mitchell’s annual MerryMix CD’s and streams, I’m merely scratching the surface. Mine may not be dinner music but it might make a good musical backdrop for a Christmas Eve party or hanging out on Christmas Day. It’s a mix that goes from a capella to country, neo-classical to jazz, folky ballads and more while ranging from new songs to those that go back more than two centuries. Silent Night, for instance, was written in the early 1800’s.
Artists you’ll recognize include Sarah McLachlan, Aretha Franklin, The National, Johnny Cash, Jacob Collier, Rose Cousins, HAIM and Kacey Musgraves.
• You’ll hear Haida Gwaii musician, artist, lawyer and indigenous activist Terri-Lynn Williams Davidson singing in Haida. On the Spotify version she sings Happy Xmas (War is Over). On the YouTube playlist she sings White Christmas because Happy Xmas is unavailable on that streaming service.
• Claus Vs. Claus is a cheeky feminist-forward assertion that Mr Claus isn’t acknowledging Mrs Claus’s role in the family business.
• Christmas in Your Arms features a couple who have opposite day/night work shifts and aim to wake in each other’s arms on Christmas day.
• Anoushka Shankar blends her sitar with Nitin Sawhney‘s acoustic guitar on Last Christmas.
• There are three very different and excellent versions of Silent Night:
– Johnny Cash and the Carter Family deliver a minimalist version with his deep and resonant voice in the foreground.
– Four-woman American jazz supergroup säje offer a rich a capella rendition.
– Montreal pianist Alexandra Streliski presents a subdued instrumental version.
• Legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz wears many titles including The Bird of the East and the Soul of Lebanon. She lends her moving and tender voice to Talj, Talj (Snow, Snow) written in 1979 by her son Ziad.
• Nothing For Christmas sees veteran second wave US punk band New Found Glory revel in the love they’ve found in the past year. Who needs presents? Life is good.
• Aretha Franklin’s beautifully arranged composition – First Snow in Kokomo – finds itself on Christmas collections because of its snow reference. Easy and fluid, the song shares relaxed observations and, unlike many of the songs Franklin wrote, has a loose meandering feel.
• Montreal-based Francophone chanteuse Klo Pelgag sings a version of Marie-Noel, a very popular Quebecois tune. It was written and first sung by beloved Quebec artist Robert Charlebois and co-written Pierre Claude Gauthier.
And there’s much more. Enjoy!
12 December 2025
Track List / 33 songs
New Year’s Day Lyrics
by Mary Chapin Carpenter
We are sitting at a table in a bar in Baltimore
It’s the last night of December and the room is nearly full
And the front door pulls a draft in every time it opens wide
And you are telling me a story from another time and life
And the waitress brings our order and we’re tucked in mighty close
And I feel like we belong among the living and these ghosts
And I know that I am dreaming as I memorize each part
In the telling lies a reverie, in the details lie the heart
[Chorus]
Like the folds of summer dresses
Like the scent upon my wrist
Like the way you played guitar
Like a boxer punches with his fist
And taken or just lost to me
It’s better now to say
I dwell in possibility
On New Year’s Day
There’s a jukebox or a bandstand and we’re on another round
And the night’s just getting started or the night’s just winding down
And your stories are not clouded yet by the ale or by the gin
They just make me feel as if I’ve known you all my life againl[Chorus]
Like the folds of summer dresses
Like the scent upon my wrist
Like the way you played guitar
Like a boxer punches with his fist
And taken or just lost to me
It’s better now to say
I dwell in possibility
On New Year’s Day
And this is what it looked like when we started walking home
The night sky bleached to silver against the city’s bones
In dreams or in our waking, it’s just enough to say
Love and grace and endless flowers be ours on New Year’s Day
[Chorus]
And the folds of summer dresses
And the bangles on my wrist
And the way you played guitar
Like a boxer punches with his fist
And taken or just lost to us
It’s better now to say
We dwell in possibility
On New Year’s Day
