Are the pickles already hanging on the tree? If it were up to Oos Kesbeke, the Amsterdam pickle king became a media personality this year. His matching Christmas song ‘Christmas in Amsterdam’, sung with his team, is considered a ‘joke’, but it is a difficult one to ignore. ‘Tulips from Amsterdam’-like hook of size. With doggerel like instant pudding (“Winter night, light on the canal, Christmas in Amsterdam”) and cringeworthy festive imagery – “With a jar of pickles in our hands we sing side by side.”
Folk pop is looking forward to ‘the most wonderful time of the year’. Popular artists like Mart Hoogkamer and Yves Berendse ‘finally’ have their own Christmas track. Smooth tunes, sing-along rhymes and the simple message: being together is better. One blow in favor of Berendse for the playful language discovery “Wouldn’t want me to have Christmas wrong (because without you it wouldn’t be Christmas is).”
For some it is a comeback, for others it is a joke and only a few know how to put a truly original spin on it: the Christmas song. Cheerfully infectious, a hit attempt for a short peak at the end of the year. Often recorded in the summer, in specially decorated studios, Christmas sweaters and a flurry of fake snow to get into the mood.
Christmas hits served on an autotune bed of jingle bells, leave that to singer Cher. With the looks of an immortal ice queen she brings support and love in difficult times. The sexy-sweet Christmas from pop diva Kylie Minogue: really nice. And this year Nederpop is dealing in duets from connection to messy retro: Douwe Bob sings with Miss MontrealEllen ten Damme with Blanko, and Katja Schuurman who is out with Babette van Veen a Christmasy extension of their comeback.
The traditional corner
In the traditional corner (hey, there’s ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ again) come records from country greats LeAnn Rimes and Trisha Yearwood. The latter continues the corny Christmas romance in a duet with husband Garth Brooks ChristmasTogether (2016). Okay, the modernized, seriously electronically lifted ‘Carol of the Bells’ by LeAnn Rimes is quite plum.
But if we ignore the countless AI-generated Christmas songs inspired by famous artists… yes, even Alexander Klöpping (“Christmas is at home with you”) can do that. create an instant Christmas hit… What is new and really fun, or can even move you? The trick is, who really makes something different?
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Canadian pianist Chilly Gonzales forms Jarvis Cocker with Pulps an unexpected Christmas combination in beautiful sobriety: ‘Xmas Kiss’. The nice stirring rock Christmas song by Roos Rebergen (Roosbeef) and Lars Kroon also stands out. It is as sharp as it is tender and slightly absurd, and sweeps away everything that is soft about Christmas. “You always make such a fuss about Christmas/The Son of God has risen for you and me/Wear something nice for heaven’s sake Close your eyes, pinch your nose.”
Also heavier, but forced attempts come from Fall Out Boy and Good Charlotte. Also beautiful: the nostalgic Christmas indie folk of the Norwegian King Hüsky (‘December 95’).
But it can be much more sultry on cool nights. Just look at the socks, leather armchair and mahogany mantelpiece on American soul singer Eric Benét’s album cover. Not alone The Co Star (2025) his first album in almost ten years full of duets, but also, in traditional Nat King Cole style – tranquility, elegance, warmth – a Christmas album. Simple, It’s Christmas. “Merry Christmas babe!” he sings. And hear his version of ‘My Favorite Things’ in classic smooth R&B.
Comfort song
It’s interesting how ‘My Favorite Things’ has become inextricably linked to Christmas. Once sung as a comfort song during a thunderstorm in a musical The Sound of Music (1959), ‘My Favorite Things’ has since lived in many worlds: musical/film, jazz and Christmas. The winter images of ‘snowflakes on my nose‘ or ‘warm woolen mittens‘ that Oscar Hammerstein II wrote, the warm melodies in Richard Rodgers’ simple waltz in classic musical harmony, often supported by soft strings, and the radio that played it every December, have made this song a nostalgic Christmas cracker. Precisely warmth and security through the simple lists of small, positive details (‘raindrops on roses‘).
The song became famous through the 1965 film version with Julie Andrews. But on saxophonist John Coltrane (1961) it became a widely performed jazz standard. The versions of jazz Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett: classic, unforgettable.
And now we see the song having a revival again. Soul singer Eric Benét with his sultry version. The acclaimed country singer Trisha Yearwood is throwing herself into it a very sweet Disney variant with magic-enhancing strings. Just like this eye-catching performer: pop icon Christina Aguilera, who broke through in the late 1990s, is singing her way back into the spotlight this year.
Burlesque Christmas diva
She chose her performance of ‘My Favorite Things’ as a calling card for her Christmas concert film Christmas in Paris. Against the backdrop of the illuminated Eiffel Tower, surrounded by present-waving dancers, ballerinas and an orchestra in tuxedos, she is a burlesque Christmas diva with a still extremely skilled voice, whose age cannot be guessed.
It is a carefully glazed recipe that super diva Mariah Carey has been using for years: a reintroduction to young audiences through pompous Vegas Christmas shows. Glitter, orchestras and bells do their work in a routine spectacle that relies more on decoration than innovation. The singer (now in her mid-fifties) only uses that once so incredible voice, which once glides through 5 octaves, sparingly. But the public swallows it all like a sweet cake.
And all because of that song All I Want for Christmas Is You (1994) which has been at number 1 in America for weeks now. With more than 2.37 billion streams, Mariah Carey remains the ultimate Christmas queen.
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