The dead grass is perfectly visible, the trees are dark and bare, the tacky, multicolored blinking lights can be seen hanging in windows of uncomfortably small dorm rooms—the Holiday Season is here, ladies. We haven’t had snow since it made many of us leotard-wearing cats slip, half-naked, in our heels on Halloweekend, and we’ve probably been too busy saving seats in Butler to even consider going to downtown to see the lights or to skate in Rockefeller Center. But it’s the little things that count, like when you come home from a long day of classes, take a sip of that Starbucks holiday drink, turn on your “Let It Snow” Pandora playlist, and pretend like those six finals, highlighted and boldly underlined in your planner, simply don’t exist. Everyone likes a good holiday song. Who doesn’t want to sit around and enjoy and sing along, warn our fictional lovers baby, it’s cold outside and imagine this city as a winter wonderland? Given the plethora of cheerful holiday songs to get you in the spirit, Pandora doesn’t have much work to do. But still, no matter how hard you try, those few bad songs are bound to pop up and kill the mood.
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Nothing ruins the holidays quite like jokes about people dying. Yes, of course, Alvin and the Chipmunks harmoniously whining about Christmas can make a room pretty somber, but not exactly like grandma dying can. So, around this time, I always wonder why anyone would want to listen to Dr. Elmo’s song, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, ” during the holidays, (or ever, for that matter). Some might say it’s a great song for kids—it proves Santa Claus is real and everyone can have a good laugh at the end. I suppose that’s true if you find having an alcoholic grandmother, who is attacked by a herd of large animals and trampled to death and, subsequently, having to wearing mourning dress to Christmas dinner, to be comical.
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But don’t get me wrong; the holidays are not about being perfect either. There is the embarrassment of your drunk uncle who makes that same, crude joke every year. There is the awkwardness of opening a heinously tacky shirt from your aunt and having to wear it over to her house the next day.
For these reasons, I love Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song.” In this stupid, little song, Sandler combines all of the inappropriateness—the stereotyping, the racial jokes, the drinking, the general sacrilegiousness of a good holiday season, and reminds us why we love it. What what a holiday be without that random cousin from Vermont showing up unannounced and uninvited in the middle of dinner? Because, at the end of the day, that’s what you remember next year.
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As much as the holidays are about accepting the imperfections of our families, they are also about hoping for the chance to live the cliché moments. The best holiday song, therefore, is the one that makes you all tingly inside with prospect of the most perfect holiday season. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is that song. As soon as you hear that unmistakable voice begin to sing, you envision yourself taking tasteless pictures with your imaginary significant other, the lights on Fifth Avenue in the background. You’ll go out to buy mistletoe and hang it above your dorm room, hoping to get a moment of sweet, holiday joy out of a frat boy after a rowdy night at Mel’s. It’s one of those songs that gives you something more than just new outfits or an iPad to look forward to around this time of year.
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Whether you’re more into the classic Bing Crosby songs or the Taylor Swift renditions, holiday music can put even the biggest of Scrooges in the holiday spirit. From the worst to the best, holiday songs are meant to bring people together and to spread the joy. So in the end, it doesn’t matter whether you’re singing about grandma dying, getting drunk, or missing someone, as long as you’re around people you love.
So this season, listen to these songs and stay in the holiday spirit!
1.    “All I Want For Christmas Is You” Mariah Carey
2.    “The Chanukah Song” Adam Sandler
3.    “Santa Baby” Eartha Kitt
4.    “White Christmas” Bing Crosby
5.    “Last Christmas” Wham!
6.    “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” Andy Williams
7.    “Winter Wonderland” Johnny Mathis
8.    “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas” Johnny Mathis
9.    “Let It Snow” Dean Martin
10.  “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” Frank Sinatra
11.   “Little Saint Nick” The Beach Boys
12.  “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” Johnny Mercer and Margaret Whiting
13.  “Please Come Home for Christmas” Eagles
14.  “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer” Johnny Marks
15.  “Frosty the Snowman” Jimmy Durante