Offbeat Holiday Playlist 2025

Music for a Holiday Giggle

For as long as I can recall, this time of year always had an undercurrent of humor and music. We had a small record player that was built for 45 rpm single records. (That used to be a thing… buy a record in the store for one song.) Anyhow, from the very beginnings of my memory, Christmas was a time for novelty tunes.

It may have started with the Three Stooges singing Down Though the Housetop. (What’ll we do if he falls right through?). It could have been the Crew Cuts singing Dance, Dance Mister Snowman. How Much Is That Doggy in the Window? got a lot of play over the years.

Anyhow, for many years, I would haunt the record outlets in December looking for the latest December releases. I was on the lookout for the things that were right at the edge of festive holiday and rebellious posturing. Usually, there were a ton of new offerings. One or two would make it into the permanent collection.

The tradition evolved over the years. Divorces always create new holiday pathways. We went from an endless saturation of Christmas novelty tunes to a one day music day in a recording studio. We spent many years going out as a family for Christmas eve featuring a gospel group at a local roadhouse. We tried to always get tickets to the Christmas Jug Band concerts.

The whole idea was to focus on the Jolly part of the holidays. Seasonal music took the edge off of the long winter nights. One of the undercurrents were songs of veiled disrespect for commercial culture. Another was remarkable covers of well known material. Funny got a lot of points. Unexpected genres (Big Band, Blues, Country, Pop, Reggae, Irish) got a lot of play. The funnier the better.

So, here is this year’s Offbeat Holiday Spotify playlist. It’s a couple of hours of songs to play in the background. It would be a lot to listen to this with focused attention. It’s more like background music for holiday multitasking. Every once in a while, you’ll notice the music and it will make you giggle.