Mistletunes

Seaside, OR's finest offer three new songs for Christmas 2025 via their Bandcamp page. "I Love Christmas Time" is solid pop-garage rock expressing delight at holiday memories, "Festive Trip" is a modern take on "Jingle Bells" dashing through the snow, although the visions appear to be courtesy of a tea made of 'shrooms, and "Lonely This Christmas" is a cool cover of the 70s UK classic by the band Mud. Doesn't appear to be on the usual streaming outlets, although I did discover a 2020 single, "Harehills Christmas," and a song on their 2002 album To Get A Better Hold You've Got To Loosen Yr Grip called "Every Day Is Christmas With You." Those appear to be widely streamable.

The long-running Philly punk band is still active, and for 2025 they dropped this wild synth-pop number about a deranged character doing business as Santa Claus and invading people's homes. It's fairly entertaining, and for now it's only on their Bandcamp page.

Haven't encountered this act before, but for 2025 they dropped this Yoko Ono cover with a female vocal, and they jingle-bell the arrangement up, making it sound very commercial. The original was the B-side of the John & Yoko classic "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," and it's nice that it seems to be getting a second life of its own in recent years. Streaming and download where you do business.

Andemic is Andy Williams, once of Philadelphia and now of Los Angeles, and once vocalist of Lefty's Deceiver. This 2025 release is seven fairly lengthy songs, giving it the playing time of an LP, but we'll defer to the artist's judgment here. Overall, this is modern hard rock with some of the drone-ish components of industrial, but there's just enough pop sensibility to make this listenable to folks who don't normally seek this kind of music out. Two of the songs are covers, a thumping "Jingle Bells" with the carol's full set of lyrics, and a driving one-chord take on "I'll Be Home For Christmas." The rest are originals, kicking off with "Everyone's Always Sick Every Single Christmas," a clever observation set to a Morphine-like backing; "Wanamaker, Wanamaker," an ode to the defunct Philly department store's annual Christmas light show and organ recital; "Massapequa Park," celebrating the holiday outdoors; "War On Christmas" recalls the defeat of the Hessians on Christmas Day 1776; wrapping up with "(There's No Such Thing As) Christmas Cake," which notes that there's no one particular such pastry attached to the holiday. Check this out as a download or a stream.

Cool rock 'n roll, Underground Garage-ready tune for 2025. Don't know much about these guys except they've been around since roughly 2017, but they haven't had anything lately until now. Having trouble making out the lyrics, but apparently this is the British meaning of "got the sack," as in "fired." Why? It's a mystery, says the chorus. B-side is "Run Rudolph Run," a perfectly fine rendition of the Chuck Berry favorite. As of this writing, the only way you can get it is from their website, as I can't find it on Amazon, Spotify or Apple Music.

The long-running British protest singer goes ultra-timely in 2025 with this broadside against right-wing xenophobia and fascism. It's directed against the UK's far-right agitator Tommy Robinson's hateful tirades against immigrants, but US audiences no doubt can substitute some names closer to home peddling the same messages. This is so fresh I don't see it on any of the usual services for sale or streaming, so here's the video.

I just heard about this Philadelphia band's cover of Counting Crows' "A Long December," which apparently only dropped two days before Christmas 2023. I discovered that this is just the latest in an ongoing series for this band, which has previously dropped new original Christmas songs in each of the last four years and is compiling them under the title For the Holidays. All these tunes are pensive mid-tempo indie-rock numbers and each of the originals is a gem.They include "Is It Snowing, Wherever You Are?," the lengthy "Christmas Lullaby," "Peace In Winter" and "Love Lives In Our Hearts, At Christmastime." Nice work, and 100 percent of the earnings from this go to Broad Street Ministry, which provides food and clothing to Philadelphia's homeless. Should make a note to check back each year for as long as this goes on. Visit them on Bandcamp. UPDATE: This year's additional song is a doleful original holiday ballad, "Old Time Christmas." FURTHER UPDATE: Add "Silent Night" to this collection for 2025.

The new collection of indie rock Christmas music from this Italian music blog has just dropped, so let's get right into it. Oscar Twins do a driving 90s rock tune called "Holy Fans," in which holiday commercialism takes a hit; Marcello Newman's "Natale hilare ex Roma" is a talking synth-pop narration of a different kind of 12 days of Christmas, cynical and funny; Setti's "Magica notte" is a folk-rock number in Italian, but I'm pretty sure the title translates as "Magical Night" and the rest of the lyrics proceed from there; Vanishing Muffins say they want to "Hit You With Snowball," but the lyrics to this fuzzy 90s rock tune are more about lusting after a lover; and e.p. nap featuring melody almroth offers this anti-Christmas number "john lennon, bono, bob geldof," a driving instrumental backing a recitation of an essay whose thesis is "Just be nice to people. Who gives a fuck about what time of year it is?" Assistant offers "Thank God We're Alive," a syncopated remembrance of past holidays that weren't so great; A Minor Place tills the same row with "The Story So Far (Christmas Time Not Doing Fine)," a bouncy number with twangy guitar and synths; No Other News covers The Aislers Set with "Cold Christmas," a more power pop tune; Baruf gives us a little hip-hop production with a brief "Christmas Time Is Here"; Baseball Gregg offers "Nevicare," a bit of slow-tempo surf-adjacent 60s pop-rock; and the Lost Cavalry offers "Christmas Wish," a sort-of R.E.M. tune with a hopeful slant on the holiday. Lac Observation's "Strungout Moonchild vs Arthur the White" follows an addict wandering around on the holiday; The Interpretation Cultures cover the Field Mice's "If You Need Someone" in a new-wave-via-Velvets arrangement; The Ian Fays perform "King's Cup," a rock ballad with sweet female voices mentioning cookie baking and the title-mentioned game; Steven Lipsticks and his Magic Band cover the Sonics' "Santa Claus" in a doomy, gothy synth-based arrangement; and Kristian Noel Pedersen does "Christmas All Over Again," not the Tom Petty song but a cool lo-fi rock 'n roll tribute to the holiday; Heron King offers "The Light," not Christmas but compatible sentiments; Deine Mutti's "Samurai" is in Italian, but it's a solid rocker and I did detect a "buon Natale" in the lyrics; Feduzzi takes on Charlie XCX with "Girl, So Confusing But With Guitars," the last part no doubt added by the artist; Easy Heart covers East 17 with "Stay Another Day";  Guimaraes offers "Damn Fine," a "Twin Peaks" tribute but not holiday oriented; and the Shalalas give us "After Hours," a Velvet Underground cover, also non-holiday. Buy this from Bandcamp and support Gaza Soup Kitchen with your purchase.

These guys carved out a niche for themselves many decades ago by being both Christian rock and heavy metal, so it's kind of surprising they haven't made more of Christmas before now. For 2025 they dropped this full album of old-school metal. The selections include the title song; "On This Holy Night," a midtempo take on the story of Jesus; "Still the Night," a fist-pumping holiday anthem; "Heaven Came (On Christmas Day)," and "Reason For the Season" as original holiday tunes by the band. They fill out the collection with a previously released version of "Winter Wonderland," plus "Go Tell It On the Mountain," "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night," and "Joy to the World." Weirdly, only Amazon has the full album; Spotify and Apple have "On This Holy Night" as an EP with "Still the Light" and "Winter Wonderland." Can't say listening to real live metal once more made me particularly nostalgic, but I wouldn't want to discourage fans of the genre from adding this to their holiday library.

We only got onto this particular bandwagon last year, but this ongoing compilation series of indie artists doing holiday tuneage has dropped a 2025 edition. Death Valley Girls offer the grungy synth anthem "Season of Dreaming," semiwestern's contribution is the thumping grinder "Merry Xmas Mary," Olivia Ellen Lloyd goes full country and western with "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!," Shannon Lay's "I'll Be Home For Christmas" is folky and spacy in equal measures, Zach Cooper makes a Hanukkah move with the almost spaghetti-western instrumental "8 Candles," Nightlands sings a choral ballad about a "Christmas Moon," Heavenly Peace cranks up the old-school modular synths behind a rhythm section for "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells," brend_zombley goes contrarian on us with "Scrooge Good," Eric Slick gives us an 80s synth-pop slow-tempo "The First Noel," Serious Bob evokes an ethereal "Magical Christmas" and Meridian Brothers wrap things up with an authentically Latino "Lloro Sonriendo En Navidad."  Unique takes on the holiday, up for streaming and download.

From Nashville, these folks are young hipsters obsessed with the crossroads connecting surf, punk and rockabilly. For 2025 they take a cue from the John Waters oeuvre, aided by a member of the band Cha Cha Heels, with this ode to the fashion accessory of the title. Flip side is "Female Trouble," the theme from the Waters movie of the same name, though not holiday oriented. Nevertheless, this is good stuff and you should playlist the A side for sure. Streaming and downloads, plus a Bandcamp page.

This 2025 collection results from an all-star music show broadcast live on Canadian television and recorded for your streaming and downloading enjoyment. Although Adams is nominally the artist on this, no doubt to facilitate easy searching, there are other big names involved here, including The Sheepdogs, Barenaked Ladies, Alessia Cara, Lights, and Alan Doyle. Given this was done for TV, there aren't any great creative leaps here, but there are plenty of good performances nonetheless. Selections include "Little Saint Nick," the Barenaked Ladies' "Green Christmas," Tom Petty's "Christmas All Over Again," "Jingle Bell Rock," "Deck the Halls," "I Saw Three Ships," "O Christmas Tree," "Christmas Time," "I'll Be There Christmas Eve," "Santa Man," "Make It To Christmas," and a new Adams original, "California Christmas." Downloads and streaming everywhere, no indication as to whether the original broadcast will be offered anywhere outside Canada at this time.

We've had these guys, San Antonio garage act dubbed the "Tex-Mex Beatles," on the site before with Christmas goodness. For 2025 they dropped this cool song, a 60s pastiche featuring a 6-year-old girl who asks Santa for "peace" for Christmas. It's part of an album called Christmas Candy, which is mostly made up of previously released tunes, many not holiday-oriented but do feature folks like Flaco Jimanez and Augie Meyers helping out. Anyway, this is aces, and there's an acapella version on the album too. Streaming and downloads everywhere, including Amazon and Bandcamp.

Hamell On Trial is an Austin, TX-based artist with almost 30 years of indie rock releases to his credit. For 2025 the artist has dropped a full album of holiday rock, rated somewhere between PG-13 and R. It starts with "Xmas Carol," a flashy uptempo album opener, and goes on to "Rudy," a profane talking folkie take on the red-nosed one's story; "Taut," a relentless beat obscuring the lyrics, couldn't make it out after a couple of tries; "POS," not a holiday tune, check the title in the Urban Dictionary if you're not hip; the album's title song, a bluesy strum backing a sketch about calling North Pole customer service; "Adele," an apparent love song to the pop diva that's also not a holiday tune, nor are the rockers "Dream," "Kisses" or "Amy";  "Gonna Miss U" is a poppy ode to not having someone in your life on the holiday, mentioning decorating the tree while "high as hell"; "Frosty" tells the snowman's story in Hamell's inimitable style; "Xmas List" is a folky strum about ditching the list in favor of love for all; and "Mailman" is the old joke about giving him a Christmas tip. Streaming and downloads everywhere, and a super-deluxe vinyl LP package is on offer through the Bandcamp site.

Haven't heard of Stephen before, but this 2025 release is a solid pop-rock ballad describing the usual holiday verities. Sedate but it's a new original tune, worth having in your pop holiday playlists. Streaming everywhere. 

AI alert: Tom Dyer of Green Monkey Records, when putting out a call for the songs that populated that label's two-volume Christmas compilation this year, included a memo about "cuss words" in the songs. Mark Brunke took the memo and some AI and created this entertaining little number. Most of you will probably not find this a useful addition to your holiday playlists, but it's funny and Christmas-related, so head over to Bandcamp and grab it.

This Olympia, WA record label last did one of these holiday compilations in 2020, although individual artists on the label have dropped some Christmas tuneage in the interim. This year, according to the label, they did a last-minute call for participants and got 33 responses, which led to there being volume 1 and 2 of this 2025 collection. Festivities kick off with Rusty Jason with Calamity Jason and the Editorial Review (whew!) throwing us "Retail Christmas," a country ode to Black Friday, The True Olympians faithfully covering the Sonics' "Don't Believe in Christmas," Across 35th offering a rocked-out take on the "Frozen" tune "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman," Mike Tye & Rosie Dyer offering a folky original "Christmas Spirit," Amy Denio playing all the parts on her original holiday nutritional warning "Sugar Sacks," Daven and Megan Tillinghast performing a choral gospel augmentation of "Angels We Have Heard On High," and Toxic Socket throw us an original rocker, "Jing Jing Lin." Richard Peterson's "On Christmas Day" originally appeared on his own album, Band Of Jays offers the syncopated, poppy "When It's Christmas," and Jim of Seattle's "Happy Holidays" is an imaginative solo piano medley of familiar Christmas carols in which he switches songs so quickly you have to work to figure the transitions. Throttle Body m/c does a "Silent Night" that isn't the familiar carol but an original folk-pop lament, Guidon Bear's "IWanna4GiveYou" is an indie-pop gem built on a Police-like rhythm and lots of female vocals, The Freewheelin' Joe Ros & Ed Portnow give us the bluesy shuffle "I Wish It Was Christmas," Fur For Fairies performs a lo-fi take on the Webber-Rice classic "Christmas Dream," Infra Ed does "Orange Grinch," which is the Grinch theme but in orange, and Chris Lund's "Christmas Time," a kind of power pop tune in which we hear equal parts Neil Young and Big Star, wraps up the proceedings. Click the cover or go to Bandcamp to get this volume. Vol. 2 gets a separate entry.

As promised, here's the second volume of Green Monkey's massive 2025 Christmas song drop. The True Olympians open things with the third version of their original "Fruitcake," previously on another Green Monkey comp and a Tom Dyer solo EP, Reggie Garrett and Christine Gunn offer "Personent Hodie," an antique number first published in a Finnish music folio in the 16th century and rendered here in a period-appropriate arrangement, Levi Fuller offers a politically astute dirge with the title "Merry Christmas (Everything's Fucked)," The Squirrels take a goofy tack on "Joy To the World," apparently donated from the band's own 30-year-old album, and Marke Brunke created the ragtime number "Old Christmas Rags" with the assistance of AI, although he put so much work into it it's hard to see what effort AI saved him. Kaz Murphy 3 offers the earnest original "Where Is Santa?," Krampus Choir does the ukulele ballad "Krampus," The Hyperdrive Kittens give us the punk energy of "All I Want," and Von Cube's "Christmas Time" has that 70s hard rock feel filtered through a lo-fi approach. The Olson Bros Band give us the acoustic swinger "Keepin' It Jolly," Daddy Daughter Datge DOD's "Jingle Bells" is fine if you're looking for parents getting their kid to sing a song, Tommy Lee Dyer's "John Lee Christmas" is a John Lee Hooker-styled holiday song, and Woo & Rooby do "Join Our Hands," a humorous acoustic novelty. The Dyer Family Singers perform "On Thanksgiving," a song for that holiday actually recorded on Thanksgiving, Dead Air Fresheners do "The Worst Noel," a film noir narration spoken over the familiar carol, The Elftones offer "Christmas is Here Again," a coming-home midtempo tune, and Ben Shaw wraps things with "The Man With the Beard," a folky ballad. As before, click the cover or visit Bandcamp.

Aphrose is a Toronto-based soul singer of Jamaican extraction, and for 2025 she drops this cool old-school soul midtempo ballad about living the whole year with Christmas spirit. Flip it over for "You Ain't Mine (At Christmas Time)," a little slower, also soulful, about missing someone on the holiday. Check these out for sure.

Fresh off her 2023 Christmas album, Cher drops a new holiday song in 2025, nicely uptempo and produced in the currently fashionable hit radio style. Has that kind of 90s-00s relentless rhythm often heard on the radio along with some synth-pop touches. Streaming everywhere, of course.

El Vez is nominally supposed to be an Elvis impersonator, but his past records show him parodying many other musical totems over the years. For 2025, he's dropped this single, which is unrecognizable as the popular carol of the title but is quite the old-school rock 'n roll raveup, so get this into your playlists. Flip side is "Tamalada," which is a Latino gathering where tamales are made and partying goes on, so not necessarily Christmas, but not necessarily not. Streaming everywhere, of course.

This New York group has dropped an EP in 2025 with four cool original holiday tunes in a lo-fi-pop-rock vein. "Fake Plastic Tree" is a 60s-influenced romp about enjoying the holiday in the glow of the title decoration, "Snow Day" is a midtempo rocker about craving that popular weather-related break in the week, "Cookies For Santa" brings in some background synths to support the story, and "Santa Don't Forget About Me" is a poppy plea for a visit from the jolly elf. Downloads and streaming from Amazon or Bandcamp.

The Maccabeats have brought the Hanukkah beats to the holiday before, and for 2025 they've gone completely bonkers with this nutty tribute to this year's streaming trend, "Kpop Demon Hunters." Lots of modern beats in this, with just the slightest suggestion of more traditional idioms. Streaming everywhere.

Sorry for the inadvertent hiatus in posting the last couple of days. My internet service was out for 36 straight hours over the weekend, and I had appointments yesterday and will have one today that may further delay posting. I'll try to make up for it over the course of this coming week. Meanwhile, I'll take this opportunity to remind you that our Amazon affiliation helps defray the costs of running this fine website, so consider using links from this site to jumpstart your shopping trips. Join Amazon Prime, get audiobooks from Audible, or stream Amazon Music. Thanks. 

Wicked Cool is Stevie Van Zandt's record label, and this 2025 compilation is the label's second after Christmas a Go-Go from 2008. Like that collection, these songs are all previously released as singles, and nearly all of them on Wicked Cool. As they're all solid examples of what you'd hear on Sirius XM's Underground Garage channel, the rock 'n roll bonafides are not in question, although regular readers here have probably heard most or all of them before, or at least read our reviews here. Among the tunes I've previously missed are "Christmas With Me" by Jessie Wagner featuring Rocco of the Snow, a nice uptempo girl-group influenced tune; "Gimme Christmas" by Prima Donna, a cool thumper that will remind you of the Ramones; "Santa's Coming (Ho Ho Ho)" by the Woggles, a bluesy stomp straight out of the garage; "To Heck With Ole Santa Claus" by Ryan Hamilton, a rockabilly cover of the Brenda Lee tune; Steve Conte's cover of the Kinks' "Father Christmas" is a solid tribute to the original, as is Soraia's "Santa Claus," the Sonics' original; and the Chesterfield Kings' boogie take on "White Christmas." That leaves "It's Christmastime" by the Empty Hearts," "Another NY Christmas (Piss the Season)" by Wyldlife, "Christmas in the Sand" by Kurt Baker, and "Auld Lang Syne" by the Dollyrots as tunes you can search on this site for the original reviews. Streaming and downloads everywhere, no hardcopies that I can find.

This British band has only been around for a few releases, but this 2025 single is a thrashy punk ode to a disgruntled railway worker who makes the song title a reality. Flip it over for "Christmas Train," a lighter take on the holiday that's still punky and thrashy like its A-side companion. Downloads and streaming, and there's a link to a 7-inch vinyl artifact as well, but with Damaged Goods being a UK company I make no guarantees regarding shipping costs.

Guyton is nominally supposed to be country, and being Black she has had to work pretty hard to be noticed in Nashville. This 2025 collection, featuring some new songs and some old ones, isn't going to strengthen her case to be recognized as country, however; this is straight-up 2020s pop-rock with just the tiniest bit of soul added, that element being her voice. (I'll spare you an extended essay on how country is just whatever Nashville says it is on any given day.) Strong uptempo performances characterize such tunes as "Save a Little Christmas For Me," "Sugar Cookie," "It Won't Be Christmas," and the Michael Bolton duet "Christmas Isn't Christmas." "Mistletoe Kisses" is more of an old soul ballad, although the tempo is jacked up a bit compared to how this might have been approached at, say, Stax or Atlantic. The title song is more of a ballad, as is a pretty soulful take on "O Holy Night" and "Do You Want to Build a Snowman." Streaming and downloads everywhere, of course. Missing from this collection is another 2025 single, a duet with Drew Baldridge, "Joy to Your World," another midtempo pop-rocker with the kind of modern production you'll recognize instantly.

Bongo Boy Records is back again for 2025 with the 10th volume of their holiday series of compilations. Although we've found in the past that the word "Rockin'" is doing a lot of work when representing these collections, there's nevertheless been some good playlist candidates here, as always. Monique Grimme is apparently the star of this year's compilation as she's represented four times, starting with "Christmas Is Coming, the Goose is Getting Fat," a pop-rock duet; "First Snowfall Memory," a mildly funky, almost yacht-rock tune; "Silver Dust and Mistletoe," a minor-key power ballad with some solid lead guitar; and "My Favorite Part of Christmas," another ballad, this one more gentle in approach. Following on, we have "Christmas Time" by Inches From Sin, a cool midtempo tune that seems to combine 70s Top 40 with 80s synth-rock, and they return later with "Jingle Jangle Jingle," a fine uptempo 70s funk tribute. Simonne Draper gives us the orchestral instrumental "Flowertina," Boys 'n Barry offer us "It Was Santa," a poppy featuring with Sandi Kight, "Why Can't Everyday Be Christmas" by Steve Contino is an uptempo rocker with a bit of 80s drum machine propelling it, Wayne Olivieri & DJ Christ Ibe give us the synth-poppy "I Love Christmas Time," Kristin Hope punk-thrashes her way through "I Saw Three Ships," the New Bardots nod to the end of the holiday with the closing song, "New Year's Lullaby," a nice barroom rocker, and, as always, Jackie Kringle & the Elves give us the title song of the collection. Plenty of playlist candidates here, whether pop or rock. Streaming everywhere, click the cover to find it on Amazon.

This cool 2025 pop-rocker features an ex-member of 90s band Fuzzy along with the singer from Letters To Cleo. The disadvantages of Christmas, according to the band, include its inability to arrive more than once in any calendar year, and there's more in the same vein to be had while you're bopping along. Click the cover to sample at Amazon. There's a "deluxe single" in vinyl available from the band, shared with another band which I'll tell you about next.

Boston rockers The Other Girls dropped this 2025 rocking classic, which is split with Hilken and Melissa's tune, understandable since Melissa is in both bands. This one has more of that garage attitude, laying out the downside of the holiday with gusto. As with the other song, the band offers the "deluxe single" in vinyl, or you can chase it down from Amazon.