At this time of the year, I’d argue that music plays a bigger part in making memories than presents or pudding. Whether you cringe at the first spin of ‘White Christmas’ over the loudspeakers at Woolies or greedily covet the bluetooth speaker come Christmas morning, what we listen to in December hits different. Even if you don’t celebrate the holiday, somehow a strange end-of-year ennui always creeps into the music we absorb at this time of the year.
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The fact that ‘How To Make Gravy’ is kind of Australia’s unofficial national Christmas song says a lot about our psyche – and equally as much about what makes a truly great festive hit. For all the joy of ‘Last Christmas’ and unsettling terror of ‘Carol of the Bells’, the key to a song that gets you in the guts come December is a touch of melancholy.
A great Christmas song doesn’t even have to really be about Christmas. The best of the best can be holiday-adjacent just through their ability to evoke a feeling of home, friends, road trips and long summer nights. As long as it has just a little sprinkling of brine below the surface, it hits the mark. Sure, it helps if a song mentions December, Christmas lunch or fighting with relatives, but I think they can also just be songs that make you miss home. Or loved ones. Or fill you with the urge to jump in the car and get away from it all.
So in the great tradition of ‘How To Make Gravy’ – a sad song about a guy locked up in prison missing his dysfunctional family – here are a few other could-be classics for the Unofficial Christmas Hits list.
Amy and The Sniffers, ‘Hertz’
Is there any frontperson in the world right now as festive as Amy Taylor with her preposterously infectious punk energy? Amyl might not scream Christmas music, but ‘Hertz’ is a straight-up Aussie classic, bursting with the things that make you want to pack the car and fang it to the beach on Boxing Day.
It’s a song that has all the perfect elements for a Christmas banger: road-trips, sunsets, a couple of nervous lovers, mosquitos, and fish and chips. It encapsulates everything about the great summer road trip, escaping your family, being free, existential ennui. Chuck it on first thing on the 25th to knock Grandpa’s socks off.
Cold Chisel, ‘Home and Broken Hearted’
Truth be told, just about any Chisel song could make the cut here. There is simply something about the pained yelps of Jimmy Barnes and Don Walker’s ear for a hook that always stirs something up come December.
With its sad-sack tale of lost love and that iconic key change, ‘Flame Trees’ makes a very strong case as a kind-of Christmas carol, but it would be criminal to overlook the band’s 1978 hit ‘Home and Broken Hearted’ – a song about a guy trying to get home for Christmas, getting there only to be dumped by his girlfriend and then spending the season a bit drunk and alone.
Dick Diver, ‘Year In Pictures’
Just chuck Dick Diver’s ‘Melbourne, Florida’ on sometime this holiday season and you’ll be in for a beautiful nostalgic ride. On that 2015 album Dick Diver struck just the right balance between sweet guitar jangle and bright-eyed pop perfection. But it’s ‘Year In Pictures’ that sticks in the guts the most, evoking a wistfulness that feels just right for the season.
In its sweet, hazy chorus there is an abstract sadness that stirs up the melancholy peculiar to when you’re a couple of gins deep with Grandma on Christmas arvo, staring into the blazing sun and wondering how it’s only a week until the end of the year, again.
King Stingray, ‘Get Me Out’
With their driving force and kinetic energy, King Stingray write quintessential road trip songs. The band’s extraordinary self-titled debut is stacked with them, and ‘Get Me Out’ is one of their best. A song about going home, but also missing it.
It’s soaked deeply in a sense of longing and also an understanding that even when you’re far away from those you love, you still share the same sky with them. It’s a true beauty. One for when you can’t be where you want to be this month.
Vika and Linda, ‘Grandpa’s Song’
Vika and Linda sure know a thing or two about festive songs (in fact, they’ve just released a gorgeous Christmas covers record). While it’s not actually a Christmas song, their 1996 classic ‘Grandpa’s Song’ feels made for the season, and if you can get through it without shedding a tear, then congrats on your heart of stone. While this is a deeply personal song for the sisters – one of the first they ever wrote together – the story, and Vika and Linda’s singular vocal melodies, resonate deeply, especially at this time of the year.
Julia Jacklin, ‘To Perth Before The Borders Close’
Julia Jacklin writes records made to choke you up a bit – aka perfect Christmas soundtracks! This 7-inch she released for the Sub Pop Singles Club in 2020 summed up all the melancholy and longing of the pandemic. Two years on it feels like it could have been released as a Christmas ballad, replete with a deep longing for home and bittersweet hopefulness.
Dirty Three, ‘1000 Miles’
When Dirty Three marked the 25th anniversary of ‘Horse Stories’, they did so with this message: “Ladies and gentlemen, sit back, get yourself a drink, recall the phantom images of friends and lovers long gone and lose yourself in the pellucid depths.” Pour yourself a whiskey, chuck a rumball in your gob, prop your legs up on a lazy boy and pop this on the record player. The perfect end-of-year sentiment, if there ever was one.