One can find several Xmas songs on non-seasonal albums, so this is hardly a complete list. Of course, what a Christmas song is has baffled many for decades.
Is Baby, It’s Cold Outside a holiday song? It shows up on a number of both seasonal and non-seasonal albums. Ditto My Favorite Things from The Sound Of Music; Kelly says YES.
I assert that River, from Joni Mitchell’s legendary 1971 album Blue, qualifies: It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – James Taylor, the last song on his 2001 album October Road.
There are at least a couple Lyle Lovett tracks. Christmas Morning is from his 1996 album, The Road to Ensenada, and The Girl With The Holiday Smile is from his 2012 album, Release Me.
2000 Miles by The Pretenders is from their 1983 album Learning to Crawl. Wikipedia: “It was most popular in the UK, where it peaked at No. 15 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1983. In the US, it was released as the B-side of both the 7-inch single and 12-inch single remix of the band’s hit “Middle of the Road”.
My father had, and I currently own, the LP Negro Folks for Young People, sung by Leadbelly. It included the very short Christmas Is a Comin’.
Christmas Tree Farm by Taylor Swift was included on her deluxe edition of Lover and the 2020 album evermore.
Child of Winter was a late 1974 Beach Boys track that I have on the 1975 Loss Leaders album The Works.
Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg was released as a single in 1980 and included on his 1981 album The Innocent Age.
A fave rave
Tom Petty’s Christmas All Over Again appears on A Very Special Christmas 2 (1992) but is also included on a CD in the Tom Petty box set. This is one of my favorite holiday songs.
Likewise, Jackson 5’s Christmas Album was released in 1970, but two of the songs contained therein, Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town and the somewhat treacly Christmas Won’t Be The Same This Year, appear in their box set.
Links to Simon & Garfunkel Christmas include a couple of early album cuts, plus Star Carol & Comfort and Joy from their box set. It also contains a couple of Amy Grant/Garfunkel songs. It ends with the bawdy Steve Martin piece, What Christmas Means to Me, with Simon and Billy Joel singing Silver Bells. But it does NOT include Getting Ready for Christmas Day from Paul Simon’s 2011 album, So Beautiful Or So What.
Finally, a video from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Merry Christmas And Happy Chanukah From “Weird Al” Yankovic
