December 21, 2025

by Jacob Ganz

This week, sitting in for critic Ann Powers, NPR Music’s editor takes a closer listen to the seasonal wallpaper.

Mariah Carey performs "All I Want For Christmas Is You"

Denise Truscello/Getty Images

How are you feeling, here in the fourth week of December, about Christmas songs? If you are anything like me, your humble (and temporary) newsletter author, you might have worked hard to never develop anything like an opinion — after all, what good could it possibly do? Every year, no matter what else is popular or worthy of recommendation, these tunes blaze back to life like a trick yule log just as the season turns frosty. In recent years, we’ve even had data to prove it: For a few weeks every year, Christmas songs are the most popular songs in the country — possibly the last surviving monoculture.

By now, even if you have already had more than your fill of sleigh bells and jingle bells and variously patterned Christmas rapping, you have to admit that there’s something everlastingly curious about our relationship with the songs of the holiday season. There just aren’t any other genres that we collectively embrace for one month, then completely forget about for the next 11.

And the more you think about it, the curiouser it gets: Why do we listen to the exact same songs every year? Does something chemical happen in our brains as soon as the new year arrives that causes instantaneous musical amnesia? Perhaps that’s the reason “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has never shown up on those lists of the best songs of all time when — by any metric available — it is one of the most effective pieces of songwriting and recording that has ever existed?

At NPR, we’ve been spending more time than usual this season listening closely to these songs that are possible to take completely for granted. And, for me at least, one more curious thing has happened: My appreciation of the artistry behind them has grown — well, at least half a size. Since we know their time is short, let’s dwell on a few of them for just a moment. We know we’re going to hear these songs over and over again. The best ones really earn that privilege. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but part of me will miss them when they’re gone.

The modern undisputed classic: You knew this one was going to be Mariah Carey. As of last week, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has officially spent more time at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 than any other song ever. Stephen Thompson has the full breakdown of its sleigh ride to history.

The classic undisputed classic: On this week’s installment of our All Songs+ podcast dedicated to old songs that have survived beyond their time, Ann Powers and Daoud Tyler-Ameen spin the post-WWII chestnut written by Mel Torme and Robert Wells and made famous — more than one time — by Nat King Cole. For a song dealing almost entirely in archetypes, starting with its title, “The Christmas Song” turns out to have a lot going on under the surface, from the history of its various recordings to its curious song structure.

The most disputed: NPR correspondent Scott Neuman asked a handful of experts, including NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson, to help him figure out why Paul McCartney’s dose of fluffy sweetness, “Wonderful Christmastime” is so remarkably polarizing.

The one basically everyone has been able to agree on without any controversy at all, for 60 years and counting: It seems like every few years, we air a story about the making of an unlikely cartoon classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas. This year, for its 60th anniversary, reporter Chloe Veltman tracked down one of the members of the children’s choir, now 72 years old, who performed on the special and its immortal, Vince Guaraldi-composed soundtrack.

The ones we don’t ever need to hear again, thanks so much: It is possible to get carried away with the spirit. Stephen Thompson (again!) helps Morning Edition host Michel Martin put together a list of songs to avoid if you don’t want to kill the festive mood.

The one with the hidden history: Older than “The Christmas Song” by a handful of years, “White Christmas” was among the first secular Christmas hits. It won an Oscar, topped the charts for months and was named the best-selling physical single of all time. But as Anastasia Tsioulcas reports, the story behind “White Christmas” is tragic and troubling.

The ‘Blue’ ones: Need some jazz on your holiday playlist? Jazz Night In America invited Blue Note president Don Was to dig through the vault and hand-pick the coolest Christmas songs the label has to offer.

A Christmas treat: This year, Sixpence None the Richer helps us revive an old Tiny Desk tradition by performing a tiny holiday concert of standards and originals (including “Kiss Me,” for good measure) inside NPR’s D.C. office.

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The best of 2025 from NPR Music

Our critic Tom Huizenga picked the 10 best classical albums of the year, led by a collection by Clarice Jensen album that blends cello and subtle electronics into something mesmerizing.
NPR Music’s reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento has been tracking the news that moved music all year, and last week, she gathered them into a timeline of 2025’s biggest stories. Reading it, I found myself shaking my head in disbelief upon realizing that multiple stories (Cowboy Carter’s Grammy win? The deaths of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson?) happened in the last 12 months.
Dora Levite and Mitra Arthur joined All Songs Considered host Robin Hilton for another annual tradition: our “Songs that hit hard” episode, featuring listener-picked songs from 2025 with deep personal connections. It’s one of my favorite episodes of the year.

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