What makes a great Christmas song? It could be anything from a memorable hook to a moving sentiment – or the simple fact that it gets excited in the mood for the holidays. Whether they fuel your seasonal cheer (or capture those holiday blues), the best Christmas songs all have one thing in common: they are timeless classics destined to come around every year.
Here, then, from Mud to mistletoe, are our 60 best Christmas songs.
Listen to the best Christmas songs on Spotify, and check out our 60 best Christmas songs, below.
60: Idina Menzel And Michael Bublé: Baby, It’s Cold Outside (2014)
Dating back to the 1949 movie Neptune’s Daughter, songwriter Frank Loesser’s wintry tête-à-tête between two lovers, Baby, It’s Cold Outside, has come to be regarded as one of the best Christmas songs of all time. To modern ears, however, the original lyrics can stir controversy, so it’s a pleasure to hear how Idina Menzel and Michael Bublé reinvented the song for the 21st century, replacing the lyric “Say, what’s in this drink?” with the less creepy “Was that a wink?”, among other minor tweaks. With a music video featuring child actors lip-syncing and dancing – an ingenious way to reclaim the song’s intended innocence – it’s not a stretch to see Menzel and Bublé’s version of Baby, It’s Cold Outside becoming the seasonal standard.