15 Weirdly Delightful Christmas Songs (Videos)
When is it ok to start listening to Christmas music? There are three schools of thought.
The earlier the better! One month isn’t enough.
The day after Thanksgiving
Make it stop!!! Turn off the Christmas music.
If you subscribe to number 3, I ask, “Why are you reading this blog? (But thank you!!)”
At Agile Video, the answer is 1. No, we don’t listen to it all year long. But as soon as the calendar hits November, anything goes. Usually, around the second week of November, the Christmas mood kicks in and Spotify is dialed into all things Christmas.
In the first year of this blog, we focused on Christmas songs by Minnesota artists. This year we expanded the list and chose to focus on some pretty strange holiday tunes. Some are traditional. Some are sweet. Some are familiar. And some are, well, downright risque.
Throughout this list, you’ll find everything from Gangsta “Wrap” to barking dogs to celebrity crooning to a Star Wars mash-up. These are in no particular order. We hope you enjoy it and please, please send us your favorites.
Me-me-me, Me-me-me, Me-me-me-me-me
We start off with those loveable puppets - the Muppets. There are a ton of choices but I went with the most misunderstood Muppets of them all, Beaker, the Swedish Chef, and Animal!! To the untrained ear, all you hear is are puppets repeating the word “Me. and Mer.” For those who live, eat and breathe Christmas music, we hear angelic voices putting a unique twist on this holiday classic. Sure, James Pierpont is credited with writing Jingle Bells back in the 1850s. And yes, many like Frank Sinatra, Dolly Parton, Bing Crosby, The Wiggles, and Bart Simpson have made this song popular. But nobody OWNS this song like Beaker and the Swedish Chef.
2. Heavy Metal Holiday - Traditional
He’s known for songs like Breaking the Law, Turbo Lover, and Painkiller. When you think of Rob Halford you think of Judas Priest, leather, screaming, and Living After Midnight. But, he’s got a softer side. In fact, Rob Halford actually has TWO full-length Christmas albums. And, I might say, they are AWESOME. The hardest part of this selection was choosing what song to post. He’s recorded traditional hymns such as We Thee Kings, Away in a Manger and God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.
But the song I play over and over is Get into the Spirit, a Rob Halford original. It’s heavy and it’s beautiful.
3. Heavy Metal - You Won’t Hear this in Church
They’ve had drummers spontaneously combust. They wrote a touching love ballad called, Lick my Love Pump. Their skeletons are colored neon green. I’m of course talking about the best satirical heavy metal band of all-time, Spinal Tap.
While Rob Halford stuck to the spirit of the season, Spinal Tap decided to include a little evil character in the band’s Christmas original… Christmas with the Devil. Normally, the Christmas Music Committee (CMC) at Agile Video leans toward happy, fun, light, and crisp music during the holiday season. But we love this one.
It’s a little devil-ish, but dang it’s catchy. Turn this one up to 11!
4. Christmas For the Dogs
Literally, this next song is FOR dogs. We stumbled across this tune accidentally. (We were looking for the right video for #5 on this list.) The CMC clicked on the link and instantly, Mozzie, our owner’s dog, came running downstairs barking and wagging his tail. The song is called Raise the Woof… the First Christmas Song for Dogs.
It’s weird. It’s repetitive. It’s kind of annoying. And it’s WONDERFUL.
So treat your canine companions to this holiday dog treat.
5. Christmas Songs Sung by Dogs
Things got a little heated amongst the CMC when selecting this song. Half of the team favored a song by the Jingle Cats. And the other half wanted to hear the Barking Dogs. We fought like, well, cats and dogs when choosing this song.
But our owner, our top dog, just couldn’t choose the cats. He’s a dog person and couldn’t in good faith include cats in this post. I know, I know. This is controversial but the dogs won out. Here is a howling version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Editors Note - after further review, we’re sorry you had to hear/see this one. It’s not good.
6. Christmas Comedy
For those of you 45 and younger, Billy Crystal is a really funny comedian from the 80s. (If you are younger than 45, go to YouTube and search Billy Crystal.) He also starred in some pretty epic movies like When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride and City Slickers.
As a standup comedian he is known for his impressions and his famous phrase, “You look mah-vuh-ous.”
But not many people know about his fabulous take on the standard Christmas Song. Again, if you are 45 or older, you will get this song. There are tons of impressions that people under 45 will not understand.
This is one of our all-time favorite Christmas Songs. It’s MAH-VUH-LOUS!!
7. Yippie Ki Yay it’s Christmas!
What’s the best Christmas movie ever? Well if you ask us, it’s Christmas Vacation. Coming in second is Christmas Story. A close third is Elf. And then there is Die Hard. Some say it’s a Christmas movie. Others will say, “No way in heck Die Hard is a Christmas movie.” We at Agile Video are firmly in the Die Hard is a Christmas movie camp.
Sure it has more gunfire, violence, and swearing than most Christmas movies. But from the moment you see that guy doing blow in his office all the way through the end when Hans Gruber falls to his death, you feel nothing but the Holiday spirit. Plus, the soundtrack has the songs Winter Wonderland, Christmas in Hollis, Let it Snow, and the long-forgotten and often overlooked Christmas classic Out of Bullets.
Here’s the tune, Yippie Ki Yay to lift your spirits.
8. A Star Wars Christmas
Did you see the Star Wars Christmas Special? Don’t! It’s terrible. I mean REALLY bad. It’s not Hallmark Channel bad meaning it’s so bad you have to keep watching. I mean it’s so bad even Hallmark Channel wouldn’t show this pile of Christmas crap. (Pardon my language.)
This next tune DOES NOT come from that awful special. It’s a mashup that should have been done a long time ago…
What do you get when you cross the greatest villain of all time with one of the best Christmas songs of all time?
Carol of the Bells + Imperial March = Pure magic.
9. A Gangsta Christmas “Wrap”
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a gangsta rap version of James Brown’s masterpiece Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto.
This song is the stand out composition from the album Christmas on Death Row.
Underneath the drug references, yule (see what I did there?) find a truly inspirational anthem. The original was nearly perfect. But it missed something. It needed the vocal and lyrical stylings of Snoop Dog, Nate Dogg, Tray Dee, Daz Dillinger and Bad Azz.
Give this song a chance. It’s really catchy.
Editors note: You can catch Ray Romano singing a version of this during one of the Christmas episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond.
10. A Corona Christmas
This one almost didn’t make the list. The CMC thought pandemic jokes were becoming passe. We’re two years into this pandemic and the jokes have been played out. Plus, this video is a little sophomoric for this list.
But there’s something about this guy that just kept us coming back for more. We give him credit for going after it.
The guy’s name is Ginger Billy and I dare you not to chuckle during this song.
11. Iron Man’s Soft Side
During his career, Robert Downey Jr. has done it all. Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes, Weird Science. Ally McBeal. Since he’s conquered both the big screen and the small screen, there was only one thing left to do.
Record a Christmas song.
Before you snicker and roll your eyes, trust us, this is good. We didn’t include this one as a goof. Robert Downey Jr. can sing. He tackles one of the lesser known classics River. You’ve come a long way since Back to School.
12. Killing it on Kristmas
At Agile Video, our Spotify playlists are jam packed with songs from the 80s. We’re still in denial that Motley Crue and Van Halen are now considered classic rock. So you can imagine we all thought we had discovered the next big thing when we heard this next song.
It’s called The Cowboy’s Christmas Ball by this up and coming band called the Killers. Finally, we were hip to what the kids were listening to. Our bubble burst when we figured out they have been around for more than 20 years. Who knew?
Anyway, we love original songs and this is about as original as it gets. This also wins “Best Video” on this list because it has cowboys and robots.
13. Punk Goes Christmas
We’ve got heavy metal, classical, gangsta rap and even barking dogs on the list already. What’s missing? PUNK! This was by far the toughest category for the CMC at Agile Video.
Who knew there were so many punk Christmas songs. There are even entire albums devoted to this category. We spent about a week listening to punk variations and narrowed it down to two selections.
The committee kept going back and forth and eventually, our president said, “Hey, we need to get some actual work done! Let’s just include both!”
So that’s what you get. A double-dose of high-energy Christmas punk. The first is a frantic version of the Home Alone Theme by a group called August Burns Red. Turn this one up loud!
14. Punk Part 2
The Ramones always told it like it is. Their Christmas contribution is a delightful ditty called, Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight.) Despite the title, this song is surprisingly upbeat. Here are some sample lyrics:
I love you and you love me
And that's the way it's got to be
I know it from the start
'Cause Christmas ain't the time for breaking each other's heart
This is how the Ramone’s promote peace and harmony!
15. Merry Rick-mas!
We’ve reached the end! The CMC scoured hundreds of videos and narrowed our favorites down to 15. We made some tough decisions. But this last one was unanimous. We had to include Rick Astley! The 80s crooner gifts us with the newest tune on this list, Love this Christmas.
Released in 2020, this song is snappy, catchy, and joyful.
It really is the most wonderful time of the year. At Agile Video, we’re thankful to all of our clients who helped make 2021 a successful year. We’re thankful to all of our partners for making us look good! And we’re thankful to be able to enjoy the holiday season with our family and friends. To all of you who chose to take the time to read through this silly list, thank you too, and Merry Christmas.
Todd Vaske is the president of Agile Video, a video production company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We love to hear your comments. If you are looking for advice on your next video project, please reach out. If you’re a video production specialist, feel free to connect and talk shop (and Christmas music.)