John's been on a bit of a Christmas novelty streak lately, and his latest effort is this 2025 cover of "Happy Birthday Jesus," performed by the above-mentioned Little Cindy. The original version appears on his A John Waters Christmas from a couple of decades ago, but I have to say it's one thing for this bit of kitsch to be presented without comment as it was originally, and another thing to reenact it. Nevertheless, there's an audience for this sort of thing and I'm happy for those folks to find this. Flip side is "A Pig Latin Visit From St. Nicholas," which is the holiday classic epic poem read, by Waters, in, wait for it, pig Latin. It's funny, but it's eight minutes long, which would make it a momentum stopper in your novelty playlists. It's on streaming but there's also a vinyl single available, click the cover to get it from Amazon.
November 2025 Archives
I wasn't aware that this popular actress had a music career going, but here she is in 2025 with a cover of the Band's classic tune, a poppy take but still very close to the original arrangement. Found it on Spotify but not on Amazon at this writing. While on Amazon I discovered her 2024 version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," along with a non-holiday album and a handful of other singles for you to check out.
The long-running emo ensemble got tabbed for 2025's Spotify Singles Collection, which means this is exclusive to that particular service for this year, anyway. Nice fast-tempo rock version of the Muppets classic with a guest vocal by Kermit. Other Spotify exclusives this year include Rayvn Lenae's pop-soul take on "O Holy Night," Poppy's cool pop-punk rendition of "Last Christmas," Sofia Camera's cover of Coldplay's "Christmas Lights," and Jordan Davis' country gospel "O Come All Ye Faithful."
Former ska-punk chanteuse turned talent contest mogul Stefani still records her own stuff, and for 2025 she drops this Amazon Exclusive, an uptempo number that will remind you very much of the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping." It's part of the soundtrack to an Amazon streaming movie called "Oh. What. Fun." Also exclusive to Amazon this year is Kylie Minogue with the jazz-pop "XMAS," Mariah the Scientist's cover of "Santa Baby," and Marc Anthony covering the Jose Feliciano "Feliz Navidad."
Taylor was Cindy Lou Who in the Grinch movie featuring Jim Carrey back a quarter-century ago, and since then she's done a bunch of things including fronting the rock band named above. For 2025 they're capitalizing on their singer's history in releasing this EP, six songs kicked off with Jay Leno introducing the grade-school-age Taylor on the Tonight Show, two of which, "Where Are You Christmas?" and "Christmas, Why Can't I Find You," originate with the above-mentioned movie, although they're both actually the same song, the former starting off with the young Taylor's voice flown in followed by the band kicking the song into a rock tempo. The latter is a short ballad in keeping with the original. The rest are band compositions, with "I Wanna Be Your Christmas Tree" and "Christmas Is Killing Me" being strong uptempo rock numbers and "Blues On Christmas" pretty much as advertised, with some tasteful lead guitar. "When We Were Young" is a short piano ballad that simply leads into the similar "Christmas, Why Can't I Find You." Not too shabby. Find it on Amazon or Bandcamp or just stream it.
A serviceable cover of the punk-era Christmas classic from a serviceable imitation of original Akron punks the Dead Boys in 2025. Cheetah Chrome is the last remaining original member and original lead vocalist Stiv Bators passed away after a road accident in Paris some 35 years ago. Good for nostalgia but the original version is out there somewhere if you need this in your playlists. (Stereogum claims there was a move afoot to do some Dead Boys tunes with an AI version of Stiv Bators, but this isn't that; current vocalist Mark Thorn does the honors here.) Click the cover to find it on Amazon or stream it from the usual suspects.
Red's got a history of dropping novelty Christmas singles, and this one, for 2025, is a faux-homespun story about, well, you saw the title, right? A little cornpone for some, but might be a playlist lightener for others. Streaming in all the usual places, though no downloads at this writing. There's an instrumental version in case you need a soundtrack for your Christmas slide deck.
Kelsie's a theatre brat with a Broadway debut in the jukebox musical "Six!" as well as an active recording artist you may have encountered through a collabo with Backstreet Boys' AJ McLean. For 2025 she drops this upbeat pop-rock sparkler that basks in the joy of a Big Apple holiday. It's on YouTube and is up for streaming and download in the usual places (click cover), though no hardcopy release has turned up so far.
Always room for another hard-rock take on the classic Dr. Seuss character's theme song, and for 2025 this Somerville, MA band offers up their version. This one has a bit of punk to it as well, partly due to its less than two-minute running time, but it's a cool and enjoyable rendition of the song. Doesn't appear to be on streaming yet, so go visit them on Bandcamp.
- The band Emery, which we've featured here before with their own pop-rock Christmas music, has been offering custom songs tailored to people and events for a while now, and now they're explicitly offering custom-made Christmas songs. If you want something special for your eccentric auntie or marketing supervisor (probably should skip your HR representative unless you're on really good terms with them), Emery's got you covered.
- We've featured the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club annually since we first became aware of them, and thought you should know they're back for 2025 with four new releases. Typically I like to review them once I've heard them, but due to the fact that they're based in the Netherlands, and the releases are limited, I've taken to linking you to them as early as possible so you don't miss out on actually acquiring them.
- Sorry for the late start to this year's postings, but I've been preoccupied with family matters and a new music-related side hustle. Meanwhile I remind you that your patronage is still treasured as it always was, and that I appreciate your use of links from this site to Amazon.com to help defray the cost of hosting this ancient, out-of-style but still unique musical resource. Thanks.
The Pogues classic has clearly become a Christmas standard over the years, with covers reaching across the punk, pop, rock, Celtic and country/Americana genres. Molly's a fine performer and her 2025 duet with Ketch Secor of Golden Highway is a worthy addition to the canon, although the lead fiddle pushes it farther from Americana and closer to old-school country music for my taste. But check it out on streaming, or click the cover to find it on Amazon.
From 2024, April is a Las Vegas-based entertainer who does ventriloquism in addition to singing and hosting talk shows. This is definitely a novelty tune, and folks who've done the breakup routine are the ones most likely to laugh at this, although it comes across as pretty amateurish considering the artist is an entertainment professional. Check it on YouTube or on streaming.
