Skip to main content

Christmas in Hollis

If you know anything about me, you know I love lots of really stupid things. Good Christmas music is on the list. But since I have some sort of self-respect (none), I've decided to make a list of the best Christmas songs that exist with brief explanations as to what makes them so great. These aren't all the standards, but you may recognize a few names.

The Backstreet Boys - It's Christmas Time Again.


A little-known ditty by a lotta-known band. I didn't know this jam until my much-much-better half took me to a BSB concert in December 2013. They were chatty, fun, energetic, and proud of their newest holiday jam. Take a look at the video and tell me they don't look as fresh as ever!

Kanye West (et al) - Christmas in Harlem


Another subtle, understated, insanely popular artist with a song that somehow kinda flies under the radar. Rappers have a tougher time getting into this habit lately, even though the namesake for this article exists and is seen below. Newish rappers have to maintain the edge that made them, you know, tough or whatever. They can't be rapping about nonsense and fun, they have to keep rapping about streets and whatnot. Either way, anytime someone can maintain street cred while talking about going to the Macy's Parade, I'm going to approve.

Quick aside - any list that includes "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" ought to be a list of worst things ever. That song is goddamn garbage.

Let's continue with three more.

Boyz II Men - Let It Snow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCbFpprZYKE

I don't think I need to do much justifying of this one because, I mean, these guys are incredible. It falls a little short of the live version of "In the Still of the Night" but it sure ain't bad. They hit every note, every soothing tone, and every ...well, you know.

The Darkness - Christmas Time


These guys are one of my favorite bands of all time. I saw them live and I'll support virtually anything they do. Their lead singer is the greatest showman I've ever seen and hearing him croon (?) about Christmas is enough to make anyone's holiday season a little brighter. The video has robots, for cryin' out loud. And the outfits! The best.

The namesake of this article....
Run D.M.C. - Christmas in Hollis

This is it. This is the one that changed Christmas for me. These were the biggest rappers in the world and they did a song that included the line "I'd never steal from Santa, cuz that ain't right..." because they could get away with that. You don't even have to listen to the lyrics (which are next-level phenomenal), just watch the video for a sense of the 1980s in all their glory. This was it, man. This is what people just older than me get to properly reminisce about and I'm stuck with the lame '90s and their incredible slate of Nickelodeon TV shows - not to mention the Buzzfeed articles that remind me every day how much I'm supposed to miss something...something that I still see every day on their site. But whatever.

So there you go. Those are my 5 need-to-know Christmas songs. I love them. You should too. Tell me about your favorites if you have some others.

Honorable mentions as actually great Christmas songs:
- Mariah Carey, of course, All I Want For Christmas Is You
- Brenda Lee - Rockin Around the Christmas Tree
- Madonna - Santa Baby (I'll love this forever, shut up.)
- Bing Crosby - White Christmas
- The Glee Cast's rendition of Last Christmas really got me
- *NSYNC - Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Duh.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I Have to Write about Basketball

I have about an hour to write out my thoughts about the NBA Finals since I didn't want to at 1 a.m. and I have to be at work soon (and I'll be there for a longer-than-normal day). So here goes. 1) Everyone wants to talk about Steph Curry, and everyone should  be talking about Steph Curry. I don't get it. He's the best shooter in NBA history - although Klay Thompson is hot on his heels - and yet there's something amiss at surprising times. I don't believe in "clutch" the way a lot of people do, because if Steph doesn't hit a million threes all the time, the Warriors are never in position for him to take a game-winner in the Finals (they also don't make the Finals). All of them are worth three points, so they need the first one as much as they need the last one. But something kind of happens, doesn't it? And doesn't it affect his legacy a tiny bit? Steph shot 34.3% on three-pointers this series. Toronto was all over  him defensivel...

Vienna Christmas, part 1

When I last left you, the two Koniecznys were about to arrive and we were going to do...well, something. And a week later we were all going to Vienna for Christmas to see some of my family members who live there (one of them is Norbert, who you might remember from canyoning). Carly and her mom got in on Sunday and we just kinda hung out the first day or two, but they wanted to see the sights and took off to see some nearby things and places, which is something they might tell you about if they were blogging but I don't think they are. Anyway, the real excitement started at the end of the week. Carly and her mom took an overnight train to Vienna on Thursday/Friday and Jenna and I had to wait until Saturday to go. We took a two-layover train; once in Verona to turn to the north and then a second stop in Innsbruck to switch onto an Austrian (OBB) train that would swoop through southeastern Germany en route to Vienna. It was a nearly 12 hour day of trains and, believe it or not, it...

New Year's Eve

One thing that seems to be a true worldwide phenomenon is the realization that my last name is used on New Year's Eve signs around the globe. At first I felt slighted, as if someone were cheapening the worth of my last name. In more recent years I've taken is as a weird sort of compliment and even occasionally tried to make it into a pseudo-attention-getting thing if I'm feeling very "look at me" on a particular day. But that's not what I'm supposed to tell you about because that's boring. What's not boring is that most of the big cities around the world do big exciting fireworks displays and celebrations that stretch way beyond a ball dropping down a pole and standing in a crowd of 500,000 people for nine hours. In short, New Year's in the states generally blows. In the northern US you either go overpay by insane amounts to go to a bar and then wait for three hours for a cab back home or you go to a friend's house and it's...fine. ...