There is some new Christmas music I have been waiting to write about until after Christmas because I refuse to start listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. Since with the holiday this week there isn’t much else happening new music wise I figured today would be the perfect day to talk about some of the excellent new Christmas music available to you this season.

O Come All Ye Faithful by Hiss Golden Messenger

This album is a mix of your traditional holiday songs and new songs. This is the perfect Christmas album for people who aren’t super into Christmas music. The new songs mostly sound like they could be on any Hiss album and the covers of the normal Christmas songs still carry that same chill Hiss vibe that don’t necessarily make them feel like the super bright, cheery holiday fare that normally punctuates this time of year. As someone who much prefers melancholy Christmas music, this album is right up my alley. It also has one of the best Hanukkah songs I have ever heard on it. Not that I’ve heard many of them, so there may be a whole trove of songs about Hanukkah I just don’t know about, but the couple you hear in regular rotation are terrible. To highlight the songs on this album I shall leave you with “Hung Fire”, one of the original songs on the album. It pretty much encapsulates how I’m feeling this Christmas.

For Christmas by Amanda Shires

If you are someone who pretty much likes your Christmas music to be covers of the same songs just sung by different people, then this album is not for you as aside from “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve”, it is an album full of entirely original Christmas songs. Again it might appeal to those of you who aren’t so much into traditional Christmas music, but are interested in songs that give off a Christmas vibe. The music definitely has the same style and trappings of Christmas music, but with a wide variety of lyrics from nostalgic to tongue in cheek like “Gone for Christmas” I’m going to highlight “Home to Me” because it’s one of those melancholy Christmas songs that I love so much.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Allison Russell

The last Christmas music I want to highlight is a song, not an album. If you’ve been reading this blog during previous Christmases then you might recall that “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is my favorite Christmas song, and spoiler alert Allison Russell has made one of my favorite albums of 2021. So I was excited when she released her own version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. Even better she went with the superior version of the lyrics singing “until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow” instead of “hang a shining star upon the highest bough”. She also sings a version of it in French. It is definitely worthy of taking a spot in my top versions of this song.