Blue Christmas

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• December 24, 2016

Christmas time is a dark time of year.  I mean that literally.  It’s the darkest time of the year.  The days are short.  You barely see sunlight because you’re stuck in an office during the day, thinking about the past year, questioning all your life decisions, inviting regret and guilt into your psyche as you eat your 1000th cookie for the day.  But there is good news… despite popular belief, suicides are at their highest in the Springtime.  Wait… I’m not sure that was good news.  Let me try again…

The warm, colorful lights in windows are mesmerizing, and your spirits are lifted as you’re reminded of the good times behind, and the good times that await.  Alas, maybe, even if you’re a blasphemous  heretic, the story of Jesus is still one of hope and redemption, and you can get on board with that… Just like Star Wars.

And, of course, there’s nothing better than the jovial Christmas music.  Except, of course, the really sad Christmas music.  I’m a big Christmas music fan (people are often surprised by this).  Though, a lot of my favorites are (not so surprisingly) rather blue:

10. Christmas in the Room – Sujfan Stevens

“Oh, I can’t see the day when we’ll die
But I don’t care to think of silence
For now I hear you laughing
The greatest joy is like the sunrise”

Sufjan Stevens didn’t just write one sad holiday song.  He made a whole album.  The whole album is is beautifully meloncholy.  This song is actually not that depressing, despite the lyric pull above.  It’s about two people in love ignoring the materialistic greed of Christmas, and celebrate what they have right now.

9. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Frank Sinatra

“Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow”

This song always reminds me that I’m going to die.  I think that’s the point of the song.  You are going to die, so go be with people you love.  Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas, for Christsakes.  Thanks Sinatra, for your nostalgic voice, you remind me of simpler times and that you can be a functioning alcoholic.

8. 2000 Miles – The Pretenders

“In these frozen and silent nights
Sometimes in a dream you appear”

This was one of my favorite Christmas songs when I was in elementary school.  And it still is!  My Mom is super cool, and always listened to a lot of great alternative music, and many, many songs remind me of riding in the car blasting music with her, or grooving in the house (music was always playing), hanging out on the deck, etc, etc.  But this is a lonely song.  Now, my Mom is actually approximately 1,100 miles away.  But missing people isn’t all that bad.  Missing someone is the aftereffects of so many pleasant memories.

7. Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis – Tom Waits

“Hey Charlie I almost went crazy after Mario got busted
I went back to Omaha to live with my folks
But everyone I used to know was either dead or in prison
So I came back to Minneapolis this time I think I’m gonna stay”

It could be argued this is not a Christmas song, but no one can argue how fucking depressing this song is.  Holy shit, Waits.  To quote Waits, “I like beautiful melodies telling me horrible things.”  I agree, Waits, and thanks for providing.  The song is exactly what the title says it is.  And it’s kind of hopeful, until the end of the song when it’s revealed the hooker just needs money. Fuckin’ hell.

6. Rocks & Daggers – Noah and the Whale

“And although
This boat is steady now
One wave could pull me under
And I’ll be stranded out at sea
And I will pray that those rocks
Will be there for me

And the sun always shines down on your shoes
Could be a blue blue Christmas for you”

I’m not exactly sure what this song is getting at.  But it’s oh so lovely.  Especially with the violin and the end… “there’s no need to play with my heart,” which is why it lands on the Blue Christmas list.

5. Silent Nacht – Mannheim Steamroller

All versions of “Silent Night” are bewitching to me, none more than this version.  Even when I was a kid and took the story of Christmas as fact, this song still make me feel melancholy.  It’s much better without the lyrics.  Composer Franz Xaver Gruber really nailed this one (not meant to be a Jesus on the cross pun).

4. Fairy Tale of New York – The Pogues

While I’ve loved this song for many years, as it was featured (with other songs from this list) on my Mom’s alternative rock Christmas album, “The Edge of Christmas,” it’s now especially distressing since I now live in poverty and my family no longer lives close to me.  Regretfully, this song is most relateable in the shitty year of 2016.

2. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Steven Sharp Nelson