From Steve Perry to Kelly Clarkson: 8 New Songs to Refresh Your Playlist This Holiday Season

The holidays are traditionally marked by classics like “The Christmas Song,” “Jingle Bells,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and all the standards sung by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Brenda Lee, and more through some of the most popular contemporary staples like Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s unforgettable “Fairytale of New York,” and Mariah Carey‘s epic festive hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and The

New renditions and interpretations of the classics also trickle into each season. This year, Lady Gaga debuted her take on “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” for the return of A Carpool Karaoke Christmas with Zane Lowe. Laufey redid Earth Kitt’s untouchable rendition of “Santa Baby,” while the wonders of technology spliced V of BTS into “White Christmas” with Crosby.

Each year also delivers some original songs to bring in the season with Dan + Shay‘s “Parson Brown,” an homage to the clergy character in “Winter Wonderland” (“Are you married?”), Saweetie’s Christmas rap “I Want You This Christmas,” “All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy” by Megan Maroney, and more.

Here’s a look at eight new holiday songs released for the 2024 season, that you should add to the holiday playlist.

[RELATED: The Story Behind The Pogues’ Drunken Holiday Classic “Fairytale Of New York”]

“Sweet December,” Brett Eldredge, Featuring Kelly Clarkson

Written by Brett Eldredge and Alexis Kesselman

Brett Eldredge collaborated with Kelly Clarkson on “Sweet December,” from his eight-track holiday album Merry Christmas (Welcome to the Family). “Sweet December” marks the second collaboration for the two since they worked on “Under The Mistletoe” on Clarkson’s 2021 holiday released When Christmas Comes Around… 

I need a holiday
I felt so out of place
I find the only truth
Is in your eyes
The world feels upside down
You turn it back around
Through wind and snow, you are my northern star

Baby, baby, turn on the Christmas tree
Take me home and set me free
A blanket’s good but your love’s even better
Baby, baby, put on the classic songs
You make me wanna sing along
Your heart’s good at making me remember
It’s gonna be a sweet December

The year was long, it’s true
But I’m holding onto you
We’re melting by the fire
As it pops
And the holly fills the air
There’s beauty everywhere
And you lead me to the light
Don’t ever stop

“Evergreen,” Little Big Town

Written by Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, Philip Sweet, Dave Cobb

To commemorate their 25th anniversary, Little Big Town went big in 2024. The trio went on tour with Sugarland, performed their NBC holiday special Little Big Town’s Christmas at the Opry, and released a greatest hits album. The trio also released their first holiday album The Christmas Record, featuring covers of Merle Haggard‘s “If We Make It Through December,” Stevie Wonder‘s “Someday at Christmas,” Amy Grant‘s “Tennessee Christmas,” holiday classics like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

The Christmas Record also features several originals, including “Glow,” “Christmas Night With You,” “Believe in Christmas,” the closing “Holiday,” and the more nostalgic “Evergreen,” in remembrance of loved ones who are no longer around.

I remember me and daddy cutting down our family Christmas tree
On an early morning in December, coldest winter, 1983
We were driving home to mama, snowing like we’d never seen before
Forever in my memory, red plaid apron standing in the door
Forevermore

It’s evergreen, it’s evergreen
And I believe, it’s evergreen

Flying down Highway 20, crossing that Alabama line
My heart is full of memoriеs, like a rearview mirror in my mind
Grandaddy’s telling stories, everybody’s staying up all night
Without a care, without a worry, way to young to know to hold on tight
But that’s alright

“Under the Tree,” Ed Sheeran

Written by Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran said he wrote his first “sad Christmas song” for the Netflix animated feature That Christmas, which is based on Love Actually director Richard Curtis’ children’s book. “Under the Tree” tells of a lonely Christmas. “It’s the one thing I’ve wanted to write,” said Sheeran, who was asked by Curtis to contribute a holiday song to the film and later directed the music video. “I’d never seen the need [to write] a sad Christmas song until writing this on,” added Sheeran. “This is quite a lot of people’s realities at Christmas.”

I’m alone this December
It’s the last light of the day
Oh, I can’t help but wonder
If you feel the same
Oh, I guess I’ll surrender
To the tears and the pain
And the cold we are under will remain

You were the hearth light, my fire that died
Waiting for morning sunrise

There is nothing under the tree
That I wished for
I want you to come back to me
And be like before
Have I lost you
And nothin’ will ever fill the hole?
My heart will be here under the tree
Just letting you know

“Santa for Someone,” Jennifer Hudson

Written by Jennifer Hudson, Frederico Vindver, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Michael Pollack

For her fourth album, Jennifer Hudson recorded her first Christmas release, The Gift of Love. A collection of 16 renditions of holiday standards, the album also features four originals she co-wrote, including “Find the Love,” “Make It to Christmas,” “Almost Christmas,” featuring Common, and “Santa for Someone.” The latter centers around the more special gifts that money can never buy.

I gotta get this paper so I can wrap these gifts
(What am I gonna get DOJ and the boys?)
I hope I don’t forget nobody on this long, long list
(I ain’t forget anybody, did I?)
Anybody in the spirit? (Hallelujah)
Well, throw a little my way (Ooh)
I got the whole car filled up to the brim, it’s like I’m driving a sleigh
(Driving a sleigh, let’s go)

I just wanna get you presents from the heart
But the ones that you want gon’ break my credit card
I’m runnin’ around, and it’s got me all stressed
I just want your Christmas, baby, to be the best

“Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call,” Bleachers

Written by Jack Antonoff

Jack Antonoff described the Bleachers’ plaintive “Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call,” as a song “for everyone who experiences the holidays as a time to clean out those who have done you wrong.” The lyrics revisit painful old relationships. “This for anyone who has come to realize someone’s been chipping away at them,” added Antonoff, “and does not intend to stop.”

To the tempo of your uptight
Is the flicker of a streetlight
You know this moment don’t ya
And time is strangely calm now
‘Cause everybody’s gone it’s
Just you and your anger

Oh, golden boy, don’t act like you were kind
You were mine, but you were awful every time
So don’t tell them what you told me
Don’t hold me like you know me
I would rather burn forever

But you should know that I died slow
Running through the halls of your haunted home
And the toughest part is that we both know
What to happened to you
Why you’re out on your own
Merry Christmas, please don’t call

“Maybe This Christmas,” Michael Bublé and Carly Pearce

Written by Michael Bublé, Jann Arden, Chase Mcgill, Gregory William Wells

After releasing his first holiday album Christmas in 2011, Michael Bublé’ has continued adding new contributions during the seasons. In 2024, it was “Maybe This Christmas,” a duet with Carly Pearce, a song following two people trying to reach out to one another. “’Maybe This Christmas’ will likely resonate with anyone who might face the challenge of going through another holiday alone or has been through that experience in the past,” said Bublé. “Honestly because it comes from so deep within me. It’s something that happened to me, something I went through, and sometimes God just gives you the words. Sometimes you’re just a conduit.”

I’ve been running all my life
I’ve been trying to get it right
Sentimentally, the thing I do well
But it’s Christmastime again
And I’m missing all my friends
A million miles away, a toast to their health

Now it’s a shot out in the dark
I’m just wishing on a star
And I wish I knew just what to do
Lord, I think I need your light
On this cold and silent night
I’m just hanging on, it’s all that I can do

And all the snow
Falling down on the city, and the good souls below
It ain’t the same
When it comes down and turns into rain
‘Cause it’s Christmastime
I can’t be alone again

“How You Know It’s Christmastime”

Written by Jimmy Fallon, Ido Zmishlany, and Nick Long

Along with his previously released duets—“It Was a… (Masked Christmas)” featuring Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion from 2021, “Almost Too Early For Christmas” with Dolly Parton in 2022, and the Megan Trainor duet “Wrap Me Up,” released in 2023—Jimmy Fallon’s debut holiday album, Holiday Seasoning, also features collaborations with a collection of special guests from the Roots, Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Will Ferrell, Chelsea Handler, and Cara Delevingne.

Fallon also sings several original songs he co-wrote solo, including the nostalgic “How You Know It’s Christmastime.”

Christmastime is here, my favorite time of year
You can put a tree inside your house and no one will think it’s weird
Twinkling lights, snowball fights bring smiles from ear to ear
That’s how you know that Christmastime is here

Grandma’s drunk on eggnog, grandpa fell asleep
The kids are shaking all the presents underneath the tree
Sinatra’s singing carols, bringing all your loved ones near
That’s how you know that Christmastime is here

Mother sets the table, father carves the roast
Your aunt’s mad at your uncle ’cause he’s telling dirty jokes
Home Alone and mistletoe, all good tidings and cheer
That’s how you know that Christmastime is here

“Call Me Irresponsible,” Steve Perry

Written by Jimmy Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn

Even though “Call Me Irresponsible” is not an original Christmas song, it hasn’t been covered as often as some of the more classic holiday songs with some previous renditions by Frank Sinatra, Gloria Estefan, and Michael Bublé. This year, Steve Perry delivered his version with an unexpected guest, his late father Raymond Francis Perry (1919-1998). “My father, Ray Perry, was a singer and when I was a child he would sing to me at bedtime,” said Perry of the track released on his holiday album The Season 3. “I recently found a karaoke cassette of my dad singing that he sent me back in 1993 for Christmas. “The one song that touched me the most was, ‘Call Me Irresponsible.’ His voice was lovely, but the karaoke track was not.”
 
His father’s voice was pulled from the old cassette and weaved into a new duet with Perry. “Once that was done, an unfulfilled dream of singing with my father was now possible,” shared Perry. “You see, mom and dad divorced when I was 7, and dad and I never saw much of each other after that. Singing with my father after all these years was a very emotional experience for me.  His voice was just as I remembered it as a child.”

[RELATED: The Writer’s Block: Steve Perry]

Perry added, “At the end of his cassette dad says, ‘Merry Christmas, God Love Ya.’ To hear him speak again brought tears to my eyes.” 

Call me irresponsible
Call me unreliable
Throw in undependable too

Do my foolish alibis
Bother you
Well, I’m not too clever
I just adore you

Call me unpredictable
Tell me I’m impractical
Rainbows I’m inclined to pursue

Call me irresponsible
Yes, I’m unreliable
But it’s undeniably true
I’m irresponsibly mad for you

Photo: Steve Perry (Theo Wargo/WireImage for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)