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 1000 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]

Christmas In Vietnam. Most holiday music is escapist. Who, after all, wants to think about death and mayhem during the season of hope? Nevertheless, the Vietnam war intruded into this idyllic genre during the turbulent 60's, and we examine six songs that looked at Christmas through the eyes of soldiers and their families. [read more]

Too Good For Words! The Ventures are an obvious antecedent, but Los Straitjackets take second billing to no one - except Nick Lowe, who they frequently support. More to the point, the Nashville-based masked marauders have piled up a fair amount of Christmas music - two albums plus several singles and odd tracks. [read more]

Top 20 Christmas Albums. Actually, 40 - I started unwrapping presents and just couldn't stop! Anyway, who said Christmas music has to be boring? Not me! These sterling platters will put you in the Christmas spirit faster than you can say, "Go Cat Go!" [read more]

Christmas Was Better In The 80's. One of the last great Rhino compilations was VH1: The Big 80's Christmas, which chronicled the decade that brought Christmas music back in a big way - and teed up the internet age, when it went totally bonkers. Great singles by the likes of Billy Squier and the Pretenders signaled great things to come. [read more]

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]

Christmas In A Honky Tonk. Three vinyl volumes of The Austin Christmas Collection, released in the early 80's, gave rise to The Texas Christmas Collection, a compact disc released in the early 90's. They did a pretty good job of representing the regional music scene, past and present - albeit in a very Chamber-of-Commerce sort of way. [read more]

The Usual Rubbish. Not too surprisingly, the Beatles never recorded any formal Christmas music. But, they had a ball every year recording a Christmas message for their fan club. Collecting those little things is not an easy, inexpensive - or even legal - task, but it's worth the effort. Merry Krimble! [read more]

Come On Get Happy! You have to be of a certain (advanced) age to like - or even remember - the Partridge Family. As a person of that age (with a boy-crush on David Cassidy), I think their music is just fine - bubblegum pop of the highest order. And, their Christmas album follows suit. Great? Nope. Enjoyable? Absolutely. [read more]

Not-So-Smooth Grooves. Rhino Records' Smooth Grooves: A Sensual Christmas is a contradiction. First, lots of the songs aren't smooth at all - they're uptempo R&B jams. Second, it fails to live up to the standards set by Rhino's series of historic Christmas compilations - even though all 12 tracks are essential holiday listening. [read more]

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]

Cold Enough. Released locally in 1982, An Austin Rhythm And Blues Christmas was a harbinger that the Texas town would become a hipster mecca. Lou Ann Barton and Charlie Sexton would go on to greater things, and the album was picked up nationally after Epic Records struck gold with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. [read more]

Hey Sister, Go Sister! Patti LaBelle started out as lead singer of a girl group, the Bluebelles, and their 1963 Christmas album is charming, but not much more. LaBelle would record several holiday records befitting the diva she became, but none approached the funk grandeur of "Lady Marmalade" or the turbo-charged polish of "New Attitude." [read more]

I Want You Back. The Jackson 5's Christmas Album (1970) is a good example why people thought the group would be the salvation of Motown Records. They turned out to be the label's last hurrah, but it's the single best holiday record Motown ever produced - and that's saying something. [read more]

Better Watch Out! In 2009, writer Jim Dees warned, "Don't get trapped in an uncool yule," and he thanked Hip Christmas for "their incredible array of Christmas tunes." You are welcome, Jim. The article was published in the Mississippi newspaper Oxford Eagle, but I have posted Jim's droll, insightful musings for posterity. [read more]

Follow Me To Christmasland. In the 1990's, elderly crooner Tony Bennett made a big comeback and, happily, that included the rediscovery of his fine 1968 Christmas album Snowfall. In the coming years, he'd make more - but he never topped his first foray onto holiday music. [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]