26 Christmas Songs About Family (And When to Play Each One)
Caleb Turner · Head Songwriter & Creative Director
Updated September 8, 2026 · 25 min read
For the drive home, play 'Driving Home for Christmas' by Chris Rea. For the kitchen while everyone is cooking, 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' by Brenda Lee. For your grandparents, 'The Christmas Song' by Nat King Cole. For whoever could not travel this year, 'I'll Be Home for Christmas'. And for the first Christmas after someone has died, 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' is the one most families can actually get through.
A family Christmas is not one moment, it is about six of them, and they want different music. The playlist that carries a kitchen full of relatives will flatten a quiet evening with grandparents, and the song that lands on a video call to somebody stationed overseas will feel like an ambush over dinner. Most Christmas lists are sorted by decade or by genre, which is no help at all when what you actually need is something to put on right now, in this room, with these people in it.
So this list is sorted by the moment instead. One thing worth saying before it starts: the step people skip when they try to write a family Christmas song themselves is deciding who is singing it and to whom — a song addressed to the whole family ends up addressed to nobody, and the weak first drafts almost always open with we when they would work far better opening with one person naming one other person. The same test applies to borrowing a song. Ask who is being spoken to, and the right pick usually becomes obvious.
For the journey home
1.Driving Home for Christmas — Chris Rea (1986)
Play 'Driving Home for Christmas' by Chris Rea in the car, ideally in traffic, because that is literally where it came from. Rea wrote it in the early eighties while his wife drove them home from Abbey Road in bad weather, stuck in a jam and watching the other drivers, and the record keeps that stop-start patience in its rhythm rather than pretending the journey is romantic. It has become the default British Christmas travel song for a reason: it is the only one that acknowledges the drive is long and you are doing it anyway. Put it on when you cross into the county you grew up in. Wrong pick for the house itself, where its motion will feel restless once you have arrived — reach for '(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays' by Perry Como instead, which is about the arriving.
2.(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays — Perry Como (1954)
Cue "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays" by Perry Como for the first hour after everyone is finally through the door. Written by Robert Allen and Al Stillman and recorded by Como in 1954, it is built entirely around the idea of travel ending — people crossing distances to be in one house — which makes it the natural soundtrack to coats coming off and bags going upstairs. Its arrangement is bright without being frantic, so it holds a hallway full of arrivals and overlapping conversation without anybody needing to turn it down. Wrong pick for a small, quiet Christmas where nobody has traveled anywhere, since the whole premise is the journey — reach for 'Silver Bells' by Bing Crosby and Carol Richards instead, which works at a much lower volume and asks nothing of the room.
3.Please Come Home for Christmas — Charles Brown (1960)
Choose 'Please Come Home for Christmas' by Charles Brown when somebody in the family is late, absent, or has not been home in years. Brown's 1960 blues original charted repeatedly through the sixties before the Eagles took their version into the American top twenty in 1978, and Brown's is the one worth having: slower, warmer, sung by a man who sounds like he has been waiting a while and intends to keep waiting. It is a request rather than a complaint, which is a genuinely difficult tone to hold across three minutes, and it is the reason the song still works in a family where the absence is nobody's fault and nobody's to raise. Wrong pick for a full house where everyone has already turned up, because the ache will be doing nothing useful — reach for 'A Holly Jolly Christmas' by Burl Ives instead.
4.Somewhere in My Memory — John Williams (1990)
Use 'Somewhere in My Memory' by John Williams under a family slideshow or a photo montage, where it will do more work than any lyric could. Written by Williams with lyricist Leslie Bricusse for Home Alone in 1990 and nominated for an Academy Award, it is a choral piece about a house at Christmas rather than a story, and that vagueness is the point — it leaves room for whatever is on the screen. Families use it behind twenty years of photographs and behind the first Christmas video of a new baby with equal success, because it never specifies whose house it is describing. Wrong pick as background for conversation, since the choir will keep pulling attention off whoever is talking — reach for 'Sleigh Ride' by The Ronettes instead when you need music people can talk over.
5.Over the River and Through the Wood — Traditional (1844)
Sing 'Over the River and Through the Wood' with small children in the back of the car on the way to their grandparents, which is exactly the journey it describes. The words began as a poem by Lydia Maria Child published in 1844, written about travelling to her own grandfather's house, and it is one of the oldest surviving pieces of American family-Christmas writing still in general use — although it was originally a Thanksgiving poem, which is a good fact to have at a dinner table. It is short, repetitive and easy enough that a four-year-old will have it by the second verse and will then want it again. Wrong pick for an adult gathering, where it will read as a nursery song — reach for 'Home for the Holidays' by Perry Como instead, which makes the same journey for grown-ups.
For a house full of people
6.Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree — Brenda Lee (1958)
Put 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' by Brenda Lee on in the kitchen while the cooking is happening and the relatives are still arriving. Lee was thirteen years old when she recorded it in 1958, and in a genuinely remarkable piece of chart history it finally reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2019, sixty-one years after release. It is two minutes long, everybody in the house knows it regardless of age, and it is cheerful without demanding anyone's attention — the three things a kitchen record actually needs, and very few Christmas songs manage all three at once. Wrong pick for the sit-down part of the day, where its energy will fight the conversation — reach for 'The Christmas Song' by Nat King Cole instead once people are at the table.
7.It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year — Andy Williams (1963)
Open the day with "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams when you want one song to announce that Christmas has officially started. Written by Edward Pola and George Wyle and recorded by Williams for his 1963 Christmas album, it is a list of gatherings rather than a story, delivered with a brass swagger that gives a room permission to be loud. It is the most reliable opener on this list and one of the very few Christmas songs that genuinely works at eight in the morning, before anyone has had coffee and while the first presents are still being carried downstairs. Wrong pick for a family whose Christmas is small or complicated this year, where the sheer insistence of it can feel like being told how to feel — reach for 'Silver Bells' instead.
8.A Holly Jolly Christmas — Burl Ives (1964)
Choose 'A Holly Jolly Christmas' by Burl Ives for a mixed-age room where the youngest is four and the oldest is eighty. Written by Johnny Marks, who also wrote 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer', and sung by Ives as the snowman narrator of the 1964 Rudolph television special, it carries a nostalgia for grandparents and an immediate simplicity for children in the same two minutes. That double reach is rare, and it is why the song survives in houses that agree on almost no other music — it is the record that ends the argument about what to put on next, which is worth more on Christmas Day than musical merit. Wrong pick if you want the room to slow down or feel anything much, because it is deliberately weightless — reach for 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' by Judy Garland instead when the evening turns.
9.Sleigh Ride — The Ronettes (1963)
Play 'Sleigh Ride' by The Ronettes when you need music underneath a room that is already talking. Leroy Anderson wrote the tune as an orchestral piece in 1948 — during a heatwave, with no Christmas intent at all — and the Ronettes recorded this version for Phil Spector's 1963 album A Christmas Gift for You, which buries the melody in sleigh bells and handclaps. It is festive texture rather than a song anybody listens to closely, and that is precisely its job during present-opening or washing up: it makes a room sound like Christmas without ever asking anyone to stop what they are doing and pay attention to it. Wrong pick for a moment you want people to actually attend to, since nobody has ever stopped a conversation for it — reach for 'White Christmas' by Bing Crosby instead.
10.Feliz Navidad — José Feliciano (1970)
Reach for 'Feliz Navidad' by José Feliciano at the point in the evening when you want people singing rather than listening. Feliciano wrote and recorded it in 1970, deliberately pairing a short Spanish greeting with a short English one so that a room could join in without knowing either language well, and it has become one of the most played Christmas records in the world on exactly that strength. Two lines, a cuatro and everybody in — which is why it works at the point in the evening when several people have had a drink and the singing is going to happen whether you plan it or not. It is the most democratic record on this list. Wrong pick for a quiet or formal moment, where its bounce will feel like it arrived from a different party — reach for 'Merry Christmas Darling' by The Carpenters instead if the room has gone still.
For the grandparents in the room
11.White Christmas — Bing Crosby (1942)
Play 'White Christmas' by Bing Crosby for the oldest people at the table, and expect it to land harder than you planned. Irving Berlin wrote it for the 1942 film Holiday Inn, Crosby's recording is generally counted the best-selling single ever released, and it became enormous partly because it reached families during the Second World War who were spending Christmas apart. That history is still audible in it: this is a song about remembering Christmases rather than enjoying one, and it is sung from somewhere else, which is why grandparents so often go quiet halfway through and why it rewards being played once rather than left on a loop. Wrong pick if you need the room cheerful and moving, since it will slow everything to a halt — reach for 'A Holly Jolly Christmas' by Burl Ives instead when the mood needs lifting again.
12.The Christmas Song — Nat King Cole (1946)
Choose 'The Christmas Song' by Nat King Cole for the sit-down dinner, when the plates are full and the conversation has settled. Mel Tormé and Bob Wells wrote it in July 1945, reportedly trying to cool down by writing about winter, and Cole recorded it several times across his career — the 1961 stereo version is the one most people picture. Its pacing is unhurried and its arrangement leaves space, so it holds a table without competing with it. This is the closest thing on the list to a safe default for a mixed-age room, and the one to reach for when you cannot work out what the moment wants. Wrong pick for the kitchen or the drive, where its stillness will simply disappear underneath the noise — reach for 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' by Brenda Lee instead.
13.Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas — Judy Garland (1944)
Save 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' by Judy Garland for late in the evening, especially in a year that has been hard. Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane wrote it for Meet Me in St. Louis in 1944, where Garland sings it to a younger sister who does not want the family to move — the original draft was considered so bleak that Martin was asked to soften it before filming. What survives is a Christmas song that admits things are not necessarily fine, which is why families reach for it when somebody is missing. Check which recording you have, though: Sinatra asked Martin to rewrite a line again for his 1957 album A Jolly Christmas, and that more hopeful revision is the version most people now sing. In a grieving year the two land very differently. Wrong pick for the bright, busy part of the day — reach for "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams instead.
14.Silver Bells — Bing Crosby & Carol Richards (1950)
Use 'Silver Bells' by Bing Crosby and Carol Richards as low, unobtrusive background for a small Christmas or a quiet afternoon. Jay Livingston and Ray Evans wrote it for the 1951 film The Lemon Drop Kid, and this Crosby and Richards recording arrived first, in 1950; the duet structure — two voices trading and then joining — gives it a gentle back-and-forth that suits a room of two or three rather than twenty. It is the most underrated song on this list for a Christmas spent with one elderly relative, or for the hours of the afternoon when the visitors have gone and the house has emptied back out to the people who live in it. Wrong pick for a house full of children, where it will vanish entirely under the noise — reach for 'Feliz Navidad' by José Feliciano instead.
When somebody cannot be there
15.I'll Be Home for Christmas — Bing Crosby (1943)
Send "I'll Be Home for Christmas" by Bing Crosby to whoever in the family is spending this one somewhere else. Written by Kim Gannon and Walter Kent and recorded by Crosby in 1943, it was aimed squarely at American servicemen overseas and became one of the most requested songs at United Service Organizations shows during the war — it is written from the point of view of the person who cannot get back, not the family waiting. That perspective is why it still works for a nurse on shift, a student who could not afford the flight home, or anyone stationed abroad this year. Wrong pick to play in a full house as background, where its ending lands as a gut-punch nobody asked for — reach for 'Home for the Holidays' by Perry Como instead.
16.Merry Christmas Darling — The Carpenters (1970)
Play 'Merry Christmas Darling' by The Carpenters for the video call to the person who could not travel. Richard Carpenter set a lyric written years earlier by Frank Pooler and released it in 1970, and although it is addressed to an absent partner, families use it far more broadly now — it is simply the warmest recording available about spending Christmas away from someone. Karen Carpenter's delivery stays conversational rather than mournful, and that restraint is what makes it survivable on a call where everybody is visibly trying to keep it together. Play it before the call rather than during it if you would rather nobody has to talk immediately afterward. Wrong pick for a memorial or a first Christmas after a death, where its hopefulness assumes a reunion — reach for 'Where Are You Christmas?' by Faith Hill instead.
17.Happy Xmas (War Is Over) — John Lennon & Yoko Ono (1971)
Choose 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)' by John Lennon and Yoko Ono when the family Christmas is happening against a difficult year in the wider world. Recorded in 1971 with the Harlem Community Choir and released as a protest record as much as a seasonal one, it is the rare Christmas song that looks outside the house, and the children's choir gives it a sound families with teenagers can agree on. It is a good bridge between the half of a family that wants comfort at Christmas and the half that finds relentless comfort hard to sit through, and the choir keeps it from ever tipping into a lecture. Wrong pick if you want the day to stay entirely inside the family, since it deliberately widens the frame — reach for 'The Christmas Song' by Nat King Cole instead.
18.Grown-Up Christmas List — Amy Grant (1992)
Reach for 'Grown-Up Christmas List' by Amy Grant when the adults in the family need a song and the children have gone to bed. Written by David Foster and Linda Thompson-Jenner and first recorded by Foster with Natalie Cole in 1990, Grant's 1992 version is the one that made it a standard, and its premise is straightforward: an adult asked what they want and answering with something other than a gift. It suits a family that has a tradition of somebody saying something at the table, because it gives that person a shape to borrow instead of improvising, and it is short enough that the moment does not outstay itself. Wrong pick for the middle of present-opening, where a song about wanting nothing material will sit awkwardly against a pile of wrapping paper — reach for 'Sleigh Ride' by The Ronettes instead.
The first Christmas after a loss
19.Where Are You Christmas? — Faith Hill (2000)
Play 'Where Are You Christmas?' by Faith Hill for the family member who has quietly stopped enjoying the season. Written by James Horner, Will Jennings and Mariah Carey for the 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas, it asks where the feeling went rather than insisting it is still there, and that question is the entire reason it belongs on a grief playlist despite arriving from a children's film. The value of it is permission: it lets somebody in the room not be enjoying this without having to announce it, which is often all a grieving person actually wants from a Christmas playlist. Keep the volume low and let it pass without comment. Wrong pick for a room that is currently doing fine and does not need the subject raised — reach for 'Silver Bells' instead, which sets a gentle tone without naming anything.
20.Blue Christmas — Elvis Presley (1957)
Use 'Blue Christmas' by Elvis Presley when the grief in the room would rather be teased than consoled. Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson wrote it in 1948 and several artists recorded it before Presley's 1957 version turned it into a standard, and what makes his useful is the tone: the backing vocals are almost comic, so it names sadness without asking anyone to sit in it. Some families find that far easier to play than a sincere ballad, particularly ones who handle everything difficult by joking about it first — the song does the same thing, and it gives them a way in that a straight lament would close off. Wrong pick for a recent, raw loss, where its swagger can read as flippant — reach for 'Where Are You Christmas?' by Faith Hill instead.
21.Hard Candy Christmas — Dolly Parton (1982)
Reach for 'Hard Candy Christmas' by Dolly Parton for the Christmas that comes after a bad year — a death, a divorce, a job gone. Carol Hall wrote it for the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Parton's 1982 recording took it into the country top ten, and its subject is not really Christmas at all but the business of deciding to carry on. It is stubborn rather than sad, which is a tone almost no other seasonal song manages, and stubbornness is frequently the more useful thing to be handed in a year where comfort has stopped landing. Parton has said she thinks of it as a song about getting on with it. Wrong pick if you want something explicitly comforting, because it offers resolve instead of comfort — reach for 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' instead.
22.Christmas Makes Me Cry — Kacey Musgraves (2016)
Play 'Christmas Makes Me Cry' by Kacey Musgraves for the person who feels guilty about not being cheerful. From her 2016 album A Very Kacey Christmas, it is one of very few modern seasonal songs written specifically about the gap between how Christmas is supposed to feel and how it actually feels, listing ordinary reasons the season goes heavy — people missing, years passing, nothing dramatic. Because it is recent, it also carries none of the decades of family association that make the old standards so difficult in the first year, which is exactly why it can be played in a room where 'White Christmas' would be unbearable. Wrong pick for a shared playlist you want everyone to enjoy, since it is genuinely melancholy — reach for 'A Holly Jolly Christmas' by Burl Ives instead.
The ones the children will actually sing
23.Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer — Gene Autry (1949)
Put 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' by Gene Autry on for the youngest people in the house and let them run it. Johnny Marks wrote the song in 1949 from a character his brother-in-law Robert L. May had invented for a Montgomery Ward department-store booklet a decade earlier, and Autry's 1949 recording sold in the millions, reached number one in the United States and made the song a permanent fixture of the season. It has a call-and-response section built into it, which is the practical reason children latch onto it faster than anything else here — they get a part of their own, and a child with a part will play a song eleven times. Wrong pick for the adult part of the evening, where it will empty the room of anyone over twelve — reach for 'The Christmas Song' by Nat King Cole instead.
24.Frosty the Snowman — Gene Autry (1950)
Choose 'Frosty the Snowman' by Gene Autry for a car full of small children or a morning that needs momentum. Walter Rollins and Steve Nelson wrote it in 1950 as a deliberate follow-up to the success of 'Rudolph', and Autry recorded it for the same reason — it is a story song with a clear beginning and end, which is why a five-year-old can follow it and an adult can survive the eleventh play. Keep it for daytime and for journeys, where the story does the work of a distraction. It is also mercifully short, which matters more than anything else once it is on its fourth consecutive play. Wrong pick for anything that needs to feel like Christmas rather than a children's story, since it barely mentions the holiday at all — reach for 'A Holly Jolly Christmas' by Burl Ives instead.
25.All I Want for Christmas Is You — Mariah Carey (1994)
Play 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' by Mariah Carey when the teenagers and the grandparents both need to be in the same room. Carey co-wrote it with Walter Afanasieff for her 1994 album Merry Christmas, and it has since reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in multiple separate December seasons — an almost unheard-of afterlife that means every generation in the house has its own memory of it. It is a love song by content and a family song by usage, and the usage has entirely won — it now functions as the song that gets everybody out of their chairs at the point in the evening when the day could otherwise fizzle out. Wrong pick for a quiet evening or a grieving household, where its sheer volume is relentless — reach for 'Silver Bells' instead.
26.Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! — Dean Martin (1959)
Reach for 'Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!' by Dean Martin for the end of the evening, when people are staying put and nobody is going anywhere. Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote it in July 1945 during a Californian heatwave, and like 'The Christmas Song' it is a winter record made by two people sitting somewhere far too hot and trying to imagine cold weather, which may be why both of them sound so unhurried. Martin's 1959 recording is the loose, unhurried one, and the song never actually mentions Christmas at all, which makes it usable right across the season and well into the flat week between Christmas and New Year. Wrong pick as a centerpiece, since it is background by design — reach for 'White Christmas' by Bing Crosby instead when you want the room to listen.
How to build the playlist (and what to do about the empty chair)
Build it in blocks that match the day rather than shuffling one long list. A family Christmas usually has four or five distinct stretches — the travel, the arrivals and the cooking, the meal, the slow evening, and the bit after the children go to bed — and each one wants a different tempo. Three or four songs per block is plenty; a playlist of eighty tracks on shuffle will put 'Hard Candy Christmas' directly after 'Frosty the Snowman' and undo the room. If you want the music to carry gratitude rather than just atmosphere, there is a whole shelf of songs whose only job is gratitude worth raiding for the meal itself.
Decide in advance what you are doing about whoever is not there. This is the part families improvise badly, usually by avoiding it until somebody puts on the wrong song at the wrong moment. Pick one song, pick when it happens, and tell one other person so you are not carrying it alone — and if the absence is a death rather than a distance, our songs for remembering someone and songs about missing someone go further than a seasonal list can. For a family separated by geography rather than loss, a song made for someone far away has become a common way to close the gap on a video call.
Then think about who the day is actually for. If the answer is your grandmother, the playlist matters less than one thing addressed to her specifically — which is why so many families end up wanting something that names the person rather than the season. Real songwriters can write and record an original song for a grandparent from your memories of her, sung by real vocalists, and it arrives on a private page the whole family can play from on the day. If you would rather write it yourself, our walkthrough of how a song gets built covers the structure, and our songs about grandmothers are a good place to hear how other writers handled it.
- Travel: 'Driving Home for Christmas', 'Over the River and Through the Wood' with children in the back.
- Cooking and arrivals: 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree', 'Feliz Navidad', 'Sleigh Ride'.
- The meal: 'The Christmas Song', 'White Christmas', 'Silver Bells'.
- Late evening: 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', 'Grown-Up Christmas List'.
Where the music actually goes on Christmas Day
Most families use music in four places and think about none of them: the car, the kitchen, the table, and the video call. The car wants songs with motion and a clear ending, because a track that fades out over a satnav instruction is annoying. The kitchen wants records nobody has to attend to. The table wants something with space in it, since a busy arrangement makes people talk louder and then the room is shouting. The call — to whoever could not travel — wants the shortest song you have, played once, with somebody holding the phone still.
The fifth place, and the one worth the most effort, is the family video. Almost every family now has a phone full of Christmas footage nobody has ever watched back, and two minutes of it cut under 'Somewhere in My Memory' will be played more times than any present under the tree. Keep it short and let one song run its whole length rather than cutting between three. If you are also still shopping, our gift ideas for grandparents and gift ideas for parents cover the same instinct — something that holds a memory rather than a receipt — and the sentimental Christmas gift list goes further into it.
One practical note that saves more Christmases than it should: download the playlist. Country houses, church halls, grandparents' spare rooms and half the countryside will not hold a connection long enough to stream a two-hour list, and a playlist that stops halfway through dinner takes the room with it. Check it the night before, on the actual device you plan to use, at the volume you plan to use.
- Car: songs with motion and a clean ending.
- Kitchen: texture, not lyrics — nobody is listening and that is fine.
- Table: arrangements with space, or people start shouting over them.
- Video call: one short song, played once, phone held still.
- Everywhere: download it the night before and test the volume.
The first Christmas without someone
The first Christmas after a death does not need a better playlist, it needs a decision made in advance. The thing that goes wrong is almost never the wrong song — it is a song arriving unannounced, in a full room, when nobody was braced for it. So choose one, decide when it happens, and say so: after the meal, before the presents, whatever suits your family. Somebody should know it is coming so that the person it will hit hardest is not the only one who saw it arrive.
It also helps to lower the bar for the day itself. 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' has survived eighty years precisely because it does not claim everything is fine, and 'Hard Candy Christmas' is stubborn rather than consoling, which some years is the more honest register. Whatever you choose, play it once. Repeating it turns a moment into an atmosphere. And if what the family wants is not a borrowed song but something that says the person's actual name — the phrase they used, the thing they always did on Christmas morning — that is a song somebody can write for you, from your memories, and it becomes the thing you play every year afterward. If you are still finishing the shopping around all of this, our last-minute Christmas gift ideas assume you have had other things on your mind.
- Choose the song in advance and tell one other person when it is coming.
- Play it once — repeating it turns a moment into a mood the day cannot escape.
- Let people leave the room. Not everybody wants to be present for it.
- A song naming the person outlasts any borrowed one, and gets played every year after.
A song that says it out loud this Christmas
Written from your story, with their name in the chorus.