Hip Christmas

Welcome To Hip Christmas! I think you'll enjoy my dysfunctionally vast web archive dedicated to holiday music that rocks, rolls, swings, and twangs. If you do, please support me by shopping at Amazon, Apple Music, and Sheet Music Plus! Regardless, the best of the season to you - no matter what month it is! [about me]

What Was New In 2024? Last year's new Christmas albums included lots of vinyl reissues, big names like Jennifer Hudson and Little Big Town, indie darlings like Dean & Britta and Phantom Planet, a full-length Tower Of Power album, a new collection from the Carpenters, and yet another Bear Family compilation. I've completed my annual obsessive, quixotic attempt to keep up with it all, including my Top 10 Albums and Top 25 Singles. [gimme gimme]

The Christmas Jukebox. My online Christmas music player is bulging with over 900 hip tunes - and counting! You can listen to the music I write about - the coolest, weirdest, and loudest holiday songs ever, all while enjoying my inimitable prose - or not! [press play]

My Face, Your Book. There's a lot of holiday hilarity going on over at Facebook, in case you can't get enough on my website - or vice versa. Check out the Hip Christmas page, and follow me for maximum holiday fun all year long. No Russian trolls, please. I also post cool cover art on Instagram and Pinterest. [follow me]

Hooray For Santa Claus! Rhino Records' Punk Rock Xmas is not your normal Christmas compilation. These are songs for people who love to hate Christmas - 18 slices of noise ranging from relative superstars like the Ramones, the Damned, and the Dickies to forgotten heroes like Fear, Pansy Division, and Celibate Rifles. [read more]

Gonna Be A Black Christmas, Baby. Shreveport's Jewel Records was responsible for a lot of blues, soul, funk, and swamp pop in the 60's and 70's, including a lot of Christmas music. Merry Christmas Baby collects most of it, including gems by Lowell Fulson, Charles Brown, Jimmy Reed, and the mysterious Hot Rock Mays. [read more]

It's A Punk Rawk Christmas. Pop punk icons (and sometimes Christians) MXPX put out a Christmas song every year for about a decade - mostly exclusive releases for their fan club - before finally compiling them on an album in 2008 for the rest of us - and then summarily deleting it. Great stuff, though, if you can find it. [listen & learn]

Bronx Bomber. Back in the 50's, Dion & The Belmonts accounted for some of the most thrilling white doo wop around - "The Wander," Runaround Sue," and many more. By the time Dion recorded Rock n' Roll Christmas, he'd gone through many changes and emerged as an elder statesman of the New York rock scene. [read more]

Snowman Magic. Power pop icon Dwight Twilley scored a handful of classic hits during his long career including "I'm On Fire" (1975) and "Girls" (1984). He kinda capped it off with Have A Twilley Christmas (2004), a charming and eclectic EP that, over the next few years, would be expanded into a full album. [read more]

Not So Easy Listening. The 90's lounge revival spurred a frenzy for all things swank and spawned an appreciation for vintage pop music outside the realm of rock - and a boatload of reissues to cash in on the craze. For the enthusiast, Croon And Swoon is a fine introduction to classic holiday pop, and for the dabbler it's a one-stop shop. [read more]

Big Hunk O' Love. Elvis Presley earned three spots on my Top 100 Songs  and none of them are "Blue Christmas." And, the King's 1994 collection If Every Day Was Like Christmas took home #1 on my Top 20 Albums list. Elvis loved to sing gospel music, and Christmas music is right next door: His heart was really in it, and it showed! [read more]

12 Worst/Best Songs of Christmas. I enjoyed this list from now-defunct Spinner Magazine (a division of also-defunct AOL Music) so much that I preserved it after the rag went belly up. I am proud to say I own all 12 best songs of Christmas - and all but one of the worst! [read more]

Everybody's Christmas Granddaddy. Ever since he started cranking out Christmas classics in the 1940's, Gene Autry has played a pivitol role in almost everybody's childhood experience of the holidays. His cornpone music can hardly be considered hip, but it is deeply buried in our collective unconscious. [giddy-up]

Top 40 Christmas Oldies Songs. The web is crammed with blogs and tweets, obscuring the fact that experts might know more than know-it-alls armed with a quick wit and a laptop. To me, that's sad, and this rock solid list from (now defunct) About.com shows why. [read more]

Man, later, like, dig? The subtitle "A Collection Of Rockin' Stocking Stuffers" doesn't quite do Rhino's Cool Yule justice. Almost bereft of hits, it compiles strange, wonderful, and rare sides from the halcyon days of rock 'n' roll - obscure slices of discomfort and joy that make Christmas music so fascinating and record collecting so much fun. [read more]

The Six Strings of Christmas. Compared to most of my holiday favorites, Chet Atkins is a pretty tame. But, if you appreciate great guitar picking, you need to check out his beautiful, gentle, virtuosic Christmas music. Easy listening? Sure. Memorable? You betcha. Heart warming? Absolutely. [read more]

Yo, Santa, whuzzup? When I first heard Snoop Dogg's hilarious "'Twas The Night Before Christmas," I assumed Christmas On Death Row would be more of the same. I was wrong. The compilation from the infamous West Coast rap label has some good stuff (including another joint from Snoop), but it's mostly soft-headed slow jams. Sigh... [read more]

Um, Hooray? I never miss a chance to say how disappointed I was when I finally heard Christmas With The Everly Brothers (1962). I love the Everly Brothers, but the album is dull and reverential - and gets trampled to death by the Boys Town Choir. It was finally reissued on CD by Rhino in 2005 and then sporadically ever since. [read more]

Wicked Reindeer Games. I'm old enough to have witnessed Chris Isaak's emergence as the "It Boy" of roots rock in the late '80s. Overall, his Christmas music lacks the fire of rockers like "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" and the smoldering passion of his greatest hit, "Wicked Game." But, there's still a lot to like. [read more]

A Christmas Gift For You. Every year, I offer free MP3's from my voluminous collection - all unavailable easily or legitimately in the music marketplace. In 2024, I revisited the legendary, exceedingly rare Flagpole Christmas albums, filling in some gaping holes and sprucing up the sound quality. [listen or download]

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