Top 11 Christmas Songs
- CJ Tiernan
- Dec 22, 2025
- 5 min read
By CJ Tiernan
This will be a list of Christmas Songs that skew more toward the secular side of Christmas or don't qualify as Christmas Carols. I also tried to choose only songs by the original artist, as there have been countless covers of the best Christmas songs over the years. I have a separate list for Christmas Carols, which you can view by clicking here. There was also an effort made to reduce the number of repeat artists, as my taste in Christmas music is relegated largely to the eclectic mix of Pentatonix, Alabama Christmas (I'm not a big country music guy, but this album is steeped in childhood nostalgia for me), and TSO (Trans-Siberian Orchestra). I love Christmas music and I've heard the same songs over and over for years and years and never tie of them. I also enjoy it when I encounter a new one. Christmas music is unmistakable, as there is an air of magic to it. Below is a list of my Top 11 favorite Christmas Songs I've ever heard.
1. Wizards in Winter - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Christmas doesn't usually walk hand in hand with hard rock. As someone who enjoys hard rock, I'd declare that a shame. Nevertheless, TSO stepped out of the shadows, said "Hold my beer," and made this head-banging Christmas classic. It is rare for me to encounter a song without lyrics that I really enjoy. I like to belt along from the mountain tops when listening to a song. A song without lyrics? What is this, Bach? But, it works so well. It is both heavy and yet feels Christmasy. Impressive.
2. Santa Claus (I Still Believe in You) - Alabama
I don't really enjoy country music. There are certain songs that have poked through the denim veneer and made it to me over the years, but they are few and far between. However, I love the Alabama Christmas album. It takes me back to my youth, as a kid in the backseat of the van on our way to Disney World (driving from Iowa to Florida) in the middle of the night. Plus, there is a lyric my siblings and I like to quote. "...and grandma and grandpa, just lookin' young, and lovin' life..."
3. You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Thurl Ravenscroft
This movie is a classic and this song has stood the test of time as well. There are so many vivid, hideous images conjured from this song. "Arsenic sauce," "39-and-a-half foot pole," and "you have termites in your smile." It is so cool that one can simply sing along to this song just as they would Frosty the Snowman. What a world we live in.
4. The 12 Days of Christmas - Straight No Chaser
This song is a comedic Christmas medley. It mixes in classics like Rudolph, The 12 Days of Christmas, Jingle Bells, even The Dreidel Song takes a quick step into the spotlight. Then it goes off the rails. It ends to the tune of Africa by Toto. It is very funny, a great way to touch upon a bunch of Christmas Classics in short succession, and highly worthy of your time.
5. Christmas Eve / Sarajevo 12/24 - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
This song is largely a mashup of two Christmas carols: Carol of the Bells and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. And yet, I'm putting it on my Christmas Songs list because it works so well and is so beautiful as a song I simply couldn't bring myself to leave it off. It is a softer song than Wizards in Winter but no less musically wondrous.
6. Believe - Josh Groban
From the 2004 film Polar Express, we have this lovely ditty from the golden pipes of Josh Groban. Belief and faith, much as is the case in religion, is a big theme in the secular Christmas involving Santa Claus. Believe is a lovely encapsulation of the movie's message of recapturing a childlike sense of wonder and hope.
7. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
This song contains fun noises. There is some rockin' saxophone going on here. The fact that Brenda Lee was only 13 years old when she recorded this song is bananas. There is a level of rasp that I would've assumed is only generated from decades of chain-smoking (she must have started young). This song has so much energy. It's the one used in Home Alone when our boy Kev is moving Michael Jordan around the Christmas tree.
8. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Andy Williams
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year is my mom's favorite Christmas song. It's not hard to tell why. The joyful horns and chimes that lead into the start of the song get you in the holiday spirit right off the bat. Plus, Andy Williams offers a voice that works well for the situation. It also sounds like it would work well as the disembodied voice on a game show.
9. That's Christmas to Me - Pentatonix
Pentatonix has about 50 songs that I love and considered putting on this list. I was trying to restrict the list to original songs (and already kinda failed twice) so this is my favorite original by them. That beings said, Mary, Did You Know?, Hallelujah, and Carol of the Bells are all unbelievable covers. Harmony and vocal percussion are two awesome musical weapons that Pentatonix has under such complete control they need a license to carry when they go on tour.
10. A Candle in the Window - Alabama
So many country songs strike me as songs that were titled first, and then written around the pun in the title. It tends to be that one-note effort that pushes me away from country (along with superfluous twang). Therefore, I feel a little sheepish in celebrating this song, as it appears to have simply added an "ow" to the end of a famous Elton John song (and an "A" at the beginning). But no, I feel it delivers a powerful and universal message. The line "It don't take a lot of money, to know what riches are. Just a candle in the window, and Christmas in your heart" is a perfect message and I don't tire of listening to it (or warbling through it myself).
11. Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
The '80s were a wild time. I turned 2 years old in 1990 so I don't have any first hand memories of the '80s, only the glowing relics that pop culture has clung to and idolized. Through the music of the '80s, however, we are gifted a glimpse of the past. What a time to be alive it must have been. In a time when Perry Como and Dean Martin ditties weren't yet classics, we got this Christmas gift of a song. A New Wave song about Christmas that is part '80s pop, part Rom Com. What's not to love?
Final Thoughts
My current Christmas playlist has 194 songs in it. As such, it was tremendously difficult to pare down to 11. I will leave a list of a few songs that just missed the cut down below, but please set me straight in the comments if I missed your favorite one. I love Christmas so much. Getting to spend time with loved ones is simply a joyous gift every single year. I hope your Christmas is merry and your News Years is bright and filled with hope and love. Thanks!
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