“Get to know the people in your house,” they sing. Probably the song that goes on in Don Draper’s apartment after Lou Rawls, when the hip young kids have arrived. The Free Design Close Your Mouth (It’s Christmas) Saint Etienne I Was Born on Christmas Dayįrom fire and brimstone to prosecco and chocolate, bursting with optimism for the winter: “Getting groovy after Halloween / Mid-November, got back on the scene / I’m so glad that I just got my pay / I was born on Christmas Day!” A song as sweet as a selection box. And it helps, naturally, that it contains a reference to “Satan’s power”. The most oddly foreboding of all the big Christmas songs suits the grinding and roaring. How would Christmas sound reimagined by Black Sabbath? Almost exactly as you would imagine, to be honest. Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Rudy Sarzo & Simon Wright God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Rawls made a ton of Christmas albums, but his first from 1967 is the best. One imagines this would be the soundtrack to Don Draper’s Christmas – as creamy as eggnog, with a supple swing that’s nagging but not unobtrusive, it’s exactly the sound of an idealised Christmas from the 60s. So, given Christmas is all about the kids, bless their souls, let’s have a song by an actual kid who promptly disappeared from the pop world. Rock’n’roll and rockabilly are a treasure trove of Christmas novelty numbers (try Marlene Paula’s I Want To Spend Xmas with Elvis), but we’ve only got room for one. Sounding much more like Ash than Emmy the Great – and the loudest, most raucous thing on their 2011 Christmas album – this is a song that sounds joyous, but is really about the desire to escape, to anywhere that isn’t cold.

Number one karaoke song of all time