Cory Graves
Our Collection Of Well Over 100 North Texas-Penned Christmas Tunes Definitively Proves That The Dallas-Area Music Scene Loves This Time Of Year.
It’s been about four years since we’ve last done one of these local holiday song round-ups, and so many new ones have been crafted in that span.
Just this year alone, we’ve gotten all manner of different takes on the theme — from roots duo Devil Sooty Brother’s contextualizing the season as an acceptable form of elf slavery and RayBurger’s trap edit of a Jose Feliciano classic to Tee Fitch’s raunchy baby-making number and Pedigo’s Magic Pilsner’s unbridled joy at the magic that seems to be inherent this time of year.
Oh, and then there’s Kirby Brown’s reminder that Christmas isn’t necessarily a happy time for everyone. Taking things a step further, Old 97’s released its own first full-length featuring mostly new original Christmas songs. Meanwhile, Arlington a capella group Pentatonix released its fourth holiday album.
What we’re saying is, if you’re looking to score your holidays with a little local flavor this year, you’ve got options.
Below, we’ve gathered links to where you can listen to each of these instant classics. Beneath those, you can take a stroll down memory lane with a number of local holiday tunes from the days of yore, some dating back as far as 30 years.
Songs of Christmas Present
Devil’s Sooty Brother — “South Pole Coal”
Pentatonix — “When You Believe (feat. Maren Morris)” (From Christmas is Here!)
RayBurger — “Feliz Navidad”
Kirby Brown — “Shepherd’s Lament”
Pedigo’s Magic Pilsner — “Counting Back Down (To Next Christmas Time)”
J. Isaiah Evans — “Dallas Bound (Date Under the Mistletoe)”
Charlie J. Memphis — “Fairy Tales”
Not Ur Girlfrenz — “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
Upscale Divers — “A Christmas Cheers”
Brian Lambert — “All I Want For Christmas”
Sur Duda — “Xmas (BB Plz Come Home)”
Tee Fitch — “Christmas Up In Here (feat. Rania Khoury)”
Old 97’s — “Love The Holidays” (From Love The Holidays)
Songs of Christmas Past
Parker Twomey — “Merry Christmas and Goodnight”
Alsace Carcione – “Blxck Xmas”
Trey Johnson — “It’s a Boy”
Becky Middleton — “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Cory Coleman & Petra Kelly – “Yule Be Dead By Christmas”
Vince Vance & the Valiants — “All I Want For Christmas is You”
Norah Jones, Stephen Colbert and Jon Batiste — “Christmas is Now”
Lindby — “Christmas in Killarney” (From Christmas With The Hendersons)
Kacey Musgraves — “A Willie Nice Christmas” (From A Very Kacey Christmas)
Hares on the Mountain — “Merry Christmas Asshole”
Lindby w/ Leon Bridges — “Merry Christmas Baby” (From Gingerbread Rock EP)
Lindby w/ Doug Funnie — “Christmastime in Hyrule” (From Gingerbread Rock EP)
Lindby — “Skating With Debussy” (From Gingerbread Rock EP)
Lindby w/ Zach Mayo — “It’s Christmastime” (From Gingerbread Rock EP)
Skagg Phillips — “Bundle Up Baby Jesus”
Dome Dwellers — “I Saw Three Ships”
Bad Mountain — “The Gift of Christmas Eve”
WhiskeySour — “Through With Mary”
Andrew Tinker — “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”
Daniel Markham — “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”
Brandon Callies Band — “Silent Night”
Missing Sibling — “White Christmas”
W.A. Fite — “Our First Christmas”
Kelsey Lewis — “Christmas Beside You”
Pentatonix — “Mary Did You Know?”
LeAnn Rimes — “Hard Candy Christmas” (From One Christmas: Chapter One EP)
J. Paul Slavens — “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” (From A Very Merry Denton)
Bonnie Norris w/ Nick Norris — “Santa Baby” (From A Very Merry Denton)
Eric Pulido — “Do You Hear What I Hear?” (From A Very Merry Denton)
Brent Best — “Gumdrop” (From A Very Merry Denton)
Boxcar Bandits — “Footprints in the Snow” (From A Very Merry Denton)
Rosana Eckert w/ Tony Baker — “Sleigh Ride” (From A Very Merry Denton)
Mariachi Quetzal — “Feliz Navidad” (From A Very Merry Denton)
Steve Carter w/ Jeff Barnes — “We Three Kings” (From A Very Merry Denton)
Bubba Hernandez — “Happy Holiday” (From A Very Merry Denton)
Rhett Miller — “Christmas is Coming”
The Rocket Summer — “Grapevine Christmas Eve” (From Christmas Madness EP)
Lindby — “Christmas On My Street” (From Christmas On My Street EP)
Cozy Hawks — “Goddammit, It’s Christmas”
Ronnie Fauss — “Everybody Deserves a Merry Christmas”
Booty Fade — “Keep the Change”
Kelly Clarkson — “Underneath the Tree” (From Wrapped in Red LP)
Pentatonix — “Little Drummer Boy”
Dead Flowers — “A Lot Like Xmas”
Jeremy Turner — “Ugly Christmas Sweater”
Sarah Jaffe — “O Holy Night”
Zhora — “Last Christmas”
Robert Gomez & Eric Pulido — “Feliz Navidad”
Toadies — ” Santacide”
Chomsky — “Christmas Time Is Here”
Bethan — “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” (From Bethan Presents Christmas EP)
Nourallah Brothers — “Christmastime” (From A Light Connected LP)
Kirby Brown — “On the East Side”
Dallas Cowboys Legends — “The Twelve Days Of Christmas” (From Christmas With The Dallas Cowboys Legends LP)
LehtMoJoe — “Christmas Swag”
Hares on the Mountain — “Auld Lang Syne”
Stella Rose — “The Christmas Tree”
People on Vacation — “It Must Be Christmas” (From A Light Connected LP)
Chris Holt — “What I Always Wanted”
The Soft Light Orchestra — “The Lights Connected” (From A Light Connected LP)
Old 97’s — “Holly Jolly Christmas”
Centro-matic — “Fuselage (It’s Starting To Look Like Christmas Once Again)”
Smile Smile — “Santa Baby” (From A Light Connected LP)
Calhoun — “(Anywhere But) Home For The Holidays”
Crash Vinyl — “Snow Miser”
Lindby — “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” (From Christmas With Lindby And Friends EP)
Cowboys And Indians — “Santa, Santa” (From Honky-Tonk Holidays: Christmas in Deep Noellum)
Mutineers — “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” (From Honky-Tonk Holidays: Christmas in Deep Noellum)
Seryn (feat. Mark Apel) — “Go Tell It On the Mountain” (From A Seryn And Friends Christmas EP)
galleryCat — “Merry Ex-Mas”
Brave Combo — “Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah” (From It’s Christmas, Man LP)
Mon Julien — “Abandoned House”
Roy Robertson — “Christmas Song”
Kristy Kruger & Bach Norwood — “Santa Baby”
The Polyphonic Spree — “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” (From Holidaydream LP)
Deathray Davies — “I Got Coal”
Tim Halperin — “Dallas Christmas”
Reverend Horton Heat — “Frosty the Snowman” (From We Three Kings LP)
Elvis Presley & LeAnn Rimes — “Here Comes Santa Claus”
New Science Projects — “Festoon” (From Xmas Time EP) Vanessa Peters — “All That I Want” (From The Christmas We Hoped For LP)
Fishboy — “A Surprise Return”
Danny Balis — “Little Silver Cross”
The BAcksliders — “Christmas (Doesn’t Have To Be So Bad)” (From A Light Connected LP)
Rahim Quazi — “Merry Christmas Now”
Old 97’s — “Here It Is Christmas Time”
Ricki Derek — “Winter Wonderland” (From “Here’s To Christmas” LP)
Salim Nourallah — “Christmas Eve”
Brave Combo — “Winter Wonderland (Bump and Grind)” (From Christmas Present LP)
Black Tie Dynasty — “Christmas Time”
Centro-matic — “Christmas 83 (Make Fun Of My Sweaters)
Darlington — “X-Mas”
41 Gorgeous Blocks — “Christmas (Without You)”
Clumsy — “Roamin’ Holiday”
Eisley — “Oh Holy Night”
Adventures of Jet — “Waiting For Christmas”
Here Holy Spain — “God Damn This Christmas”
Darstar — “Rough Diamonds”
Caitlin Rose & Keegan Dewitt — “You Never Come Home For Christmas”
Glen Reynolds — “All The Beautiful Things”
Norah Jones — “Peace”
Old 97’s — “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” (From Honky-Tonk Holidays: Christmas in Deep Noellum)
Vibrolux — “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”
Falcon Project — “Little Drum N’ Bass Boy”
Pat Green — “Winter Wonderland”
Pinkston — “Father Christmas”
Eleven Hundred Springs & The Tejas Brothers– “Orale! Santa Claus” (From A Light Connected LP)
Slowride — “The Christmas Song”
The Mag Seven — “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”
Pleasant Grove — “Five Minutes Of Snow”
[DARYL] — “Wonderful Christmastime”
Shibboleth — “Timothy Dingle”
Josh T. Pearson — “Angels We Have Heard On High” (From Josh T. Pearson’s Rough Trade Christmas Bonus EP)
Trey Johnson — “Christmas Wishes”
Nate Kipp — “It’s Christmas”
Little Black Dress — “Holidays”
Dorrough — “I Want (Hood Christmas Anthem)”
El Cento — “Too Much Snow”
Eleven Hundred Springs — “Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You” (From A Light Connected LP)
PPT — “It’s Christmas Time”
Sara Hickman — “Kiss This Christmas Goodbye” (From This Christmas Wish EP)