A personal journey through decades of Christmas music, from childhood midnight Mass to performances in retirement homes and wine bars, showing how music creates connection, joy and nostalgia.

As we head into December 2025, both Brenda Lee and Bobby Helms are in the Top 5 on Billboard’s Holiday 100 — for 1958’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and 1957’s “Jingle Bell Rock,” respectively.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We wrote this back in 2021, but with Christmas upon us again we felt like it was the perfect time to update it. There's nothing that brings the world together more than sharing opinions ...

We might be a little biased, but Billboard firmly believes music is the best part of the holiday season every year. That includes songs from all time periods, and certainly some of the Christmas canon ...

J.S. Gornael has a BA in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis in Poetry and an MFA in Fiction. He has taken workshops in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction (though mostly the second). Half-cinephile ...

As the nights draw in and the first frosts begin to glisten, many of us are already looking forward to the warmth, light and ...