It's coming on Christmas, They're cutting down trees...

After seeing this list on Pajiba, I realized that all of my favorite Christmas songs are the really sad, depressing ones. Numbers 6, 5, 3 and 1 are my absolute favorites of all time (Fairytale of New York by the Pogues, Charlie Brown Christmas song, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and River, by Joni Mitchell). I remember working at Macy's Department Store and right after Thanksgiving the instore radio played nothing but Christmas music which after a while drove me up the wall. When those happy, peppy songs came on all I could think was, 'Screw Having a Holly, Jolly fucking Christmas, I wanted a river that I could skate away on.' And if I had to hear Paul McCartney's A Wonderful Christmas Time one more time I was gonna pour acid into my ears.

I like the sad Christmas songs because, I guess, they seem more appropriate and relatable. I think some people get sad during the holidays because "the cheer and the happy" can be such a frustrating expectation to live up to. Well, duh. I know that there are people who are happy at Christmas time, but I think they just might be the people who are happy most of the time. And though my life is much better and happier than it used to be, I still relate more to the melancholic than the jubilant side of Christmas. It's a lot to expect people to be so damn happy maybe that's why we get so excited about cheap flat screen TVs.

But, the truth is that I love Christmas time, but more like the Scrooged kind. The Christmas season as a catalyst for human kindness, charity, forgiveness, and love:



Makes me weepy every time. Every time.