By Meagan Aguilar
Like many retail employees, the playlist at work is fully out of my control and endlessly on repeat. The results are some sick experiment, the kind usually preserved for adorable monkeys, permanently using up my brain’s capacity to memorize the grossest, most soulless, commercially profitable songs and leaving things I would LIKE to memorize spilling out of my ear (things such as what I studied for my finals, my mother’s face, or god-forbid music I actually like). And despite all that, I come back paycheck after paycheck ready for more, more of the same that is.
I clock out at the end of the day, comforted in the knowledge that the music can’t follow me from whatever royalty free hell they crawled from. Sadly all that goes out the window during christmas time. Beloved classics that served as the backdrop to favorite Christmas memories have become bastardized versions of themselves, and leaving Minimum wage Maygan to play Ebeneser Scrooge in the musical of life, Bah Humbugging songs that I used to love!
Work already takes my pride, dignity, and time away from me, I can’t let it have my christmas spirit too! So I decided to craft myself the perfect christmas playlist that brings me season cheer without reminding me of snot nosed middle aged customers pulling on my sleeve to get the manager.
With a little bit of christmas magic and a spotify premium account I did it! My christmas present to you is showing you how. It’s important you make it for yourself using your own experience because the songs that make me feel like there are really little reindeer poking holes in my roof shingles may be the same songs that play on loop during your darkest retail hours. Which brings me to my first step:
- Run in the opposite direction
Subject yourself (for just a moment) to thinking about the songs at work? Beyond the obvious adjective of nightmarish, how would you describe them? Perhaps so old you can hear the dust collecting? Slow and dreary? Unbearable up beat and sugary sweet? Whatever it is, find it, name it, and move musically as far away as possible. Personally the songs that have me grinding my teeth are up-beat cheery pop songs soooo instead I’ve been having a sad Christmas. Because these songs are completely different, listening to them fills me with Christmas nostalgia the way society intended. Here’s what I’m listening to :]
- Little Saint Nick – The Beach boys
- Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley
- Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call – Bleachers
- Covers are your friends
Now maybe things are worse than I first thought, maybe on day one of Christmas (you remember back in july right?) just maybe they played one of your favorites! And you smiled and all was well! And then they played it the next day and the next and the next until you can’t remember if the crying children are actually a part of the original recording. (That is just the sort of thing they don’t think to take out until the 20th anniversary remastering) *Sigh* Sometimes bad things happen to employed people. But here’s the fix! Find a cover of your favorite songs! You wouldn’t believe the amount of hacks out there willing to make a quick buck by re-recording a classic holiday favorite. So many artists start salivating at the mere thought of their albums getting listened to every year endlessly that one of these hacks are bound to already be on you spotify wrapped! And sometimes venturing out into the unknown of original Christmas songs starts to become an endless cycle of skips, so it’s nice to find a song where you know all the lyrics. Singing christmas carols is a whole thing you know, might as well indulge.
Here are some of my favorite covers :]
- Little Saint Nick – She & Him
- Winter Wonderland – A Very Laufey Christmas
- Sleigh Ride – Skatune Network, Esteban Flores
- Christmas Movies are Uncharted Territory
My final tip for finding christmas music you’ll love is to look no further than your favorite christmas movie! All movies have soundtracks. They are different from scores, but for our purposes both would work. Soundtracks tend to have lyrics which I appreciate so I’d push you more towards them. A movie you already have a positive association with is sure to be riddled with hidden musical gems. The more hidden the less likely it’s been played at stores. And the next time you watch, you may notice the music more, making the whole experience nearer and dearer to your heart!! This tip is so great you’re probably thinking, “jee-wiz Maygan is so smart and funny, I’d listen to their radio show” JINK! You owe me a song rec! No take backsies. Also polling for everyone’s favorite christmas movie (farming for more songs of course) is a great question to ask your coworkers while buttering them up to switch shifts with you. (After you clap and cheer at their wonderful down to earth yet esoteric movie choice, throw in one more compliment before asking them to take your christmas eve closing shift. Trust me it’ll help.) Some of these songs are more christmas-y than others but it’s nice to know that even when you need a mental break from Christmas music you still have some connection to it.
Here are some of my favorite songs from (christmas) movies :]
- Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses (Featured in the movie Surviving Christmas)
- Run Rudolph run – Chuck Berry (Featured in the movie Home Alone)
- Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying – Labi Siffre (Featured in the movie
Hopefully you found at least one of these tips helpful and you were able to squeeze even one song from this list. If you have any songs that ooze Christmas music that wasn’t mentioned here please let me know! I’m of the firm belief that playlists are forever works in progress.
