Family Christmas Playlist: 121 Christmas Songs for Kids, Parents and Grandparents

Gene Autry's record hit No. 1 the week of Christmas 1949; Rudolph began as a 1939 Montgomery Ward store booklet.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

Written in 1950 as a follow-up to Autry's Rudolph hit; the cartoon special came along in 1969.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

Published in 1857 as a sleigh-riding song with no Christmas link; this 1943 Bing Crosby version sold over a million copies.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

Super Simple Songs turns this old English carol into an action song for little ones: clap, jump, stomp and whisper.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

John Denver and the Muppets opened their 1979 TV special with it; the soundtrack album has a separate recording.

• Everyone knows it

Gene Autry got the idea riding his horse in the 1946 Hollywood Santa Claus Lane Parade, where crowds shouted the title.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

Written in 1864, it's considered the first Christmas song mainly about Santa; Gene Autry's 1953 version is the best known.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

A call-and-response song set to an old German tune; Raffi's 1983 kids' version is a game of naming Santa's features.

• Parents' era
• Little kids

A BINGO-style spelling song: each round drops a letter of SANTA until the whole name is silent.

• Kids' era
• Little kids

The Hokey Pokey with antlers and a red nose; a preschool circle-time favorite for getting wiggles out.

• Kids' era
• Little kids

Super Simple Songs puts the Baby Shark idea in a Santa hat; a toddler sing-along with simple motions.

• Kids' era
• Little kids

Cole's track uses the carol's older title, Deck the Hall; the tune is a Welsh melody from the 1500s.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

The single from the Jackson 5's 1970 Motown Christmas album, which has sold over 3 million copies.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

Rosemary Clooney's 1951 song about a playful snowflake; a 1953 stop-motion cartoon of it still airs on Chicago TV.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

From The Polar Express: Tom Hanks sings it as the train's conductor during the movie's cocoa-serving scene.

• Kids' era
• Little kids

Brenda Lee was 13 when she recorded it; it finally hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2023, 65 years later.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

Bobby Helms' 1957 single has been on American radio every Christmas season since; it became his signature song.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

Irving Berlin wrote it for the film Holiday Inn; Crosby's version is the best-selling single ever, over 50 million copies.

• Everyone knows it

Garland sings it to cheer her little sister in Meet Me in St. Louis; she had the gloomier first draft rewritten.

• Grandparents' era

Written during a July heat wave in Hollywood, and the words never mention Christmas; Dean Martin's take is from 1959.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

Leroy Anderson dreamed up the tune in a 1947 heat wave; the Ronettes' version is from Phil Spector's 1963 Christmas album.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

Columbia didn't push it as a single in 1963; it reached No. 5 on the Hot 100 in 2020.

• Grandparents' era

Mel Tormé co-wrote it during a hot July in 1945; of Cole's four recordings, the 1961 stereo one is considered definitive.

• Grandparents' era

Burl Ives voiced Sam the Snowman in the 1964 Rudolph TV special, which introduced the song, then released it as a single.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

Written for the Bob Hope film The Lemon Drop Kid; Bing Crosby and Carol Richards made the first record in 1950.

• Grandparents' era

First recorded in 1948, but Elvis made it a rock-and-roll holiday standard on his 1957 Christmas album.

It's a sad song about spending Christmas missing someone who doesn't love you back.

• Grandparents' era
• Sad song

Eartha Kitt's 1953 original; it appears on lists of both the best and the worst Christmas songs ever written.

It's a flirty, tongue-in-cheek list for Santa, asking for furs, a yacht and jewelry, full of innuendo.

• Grandparents' era
• Grown-ups only

Frank Loesser's duet won the 1950 Oscar for Best Original Song; this was one of eight versions released in 1949.

Its lyrics, with a man urging a woman to stay, drew criticism over consent, and some radio stations pulled it in 2018.

• Grandparents' era
• Grown-ups only

Chuck Berry wrote it, but songwriting credit went to Johnny Marks because Marks held the trademark on Rudolph.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

About traveling long distances to be with family; Perry Como recorded it twice, first in 1954.

• Grandparents' era

Written to honor World War II soldiers who longed to be home; Bing Crosby's 1943 record was a top-10 hit.

• Grandparents' era

It flopped in 1963 and didn't reach the Hot 100 until 2018; Cher sang backup on the original.

• Grandparents' era

Brian Wilson and Mike Love gave Santa's sleigh a hot-rod makeover in this 1963 single.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

The title is Hawaiian for Merry Christmas; it turns up in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

Kay Starr made this swinging 1950 song about waiting for Santa popular; it charted through the early 1950s.

• Grandparents' era

Mariah Carey co-wrote it in 1994; it first reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2019, twenty-five years later.

It's a love song: Mariah says she wants one person more than any present.

• Parents' era
• Little kids
• Love song

George Michael wrote it in his childhood bedroom and played every part himself on synths and sleigh bells.

It's a breakup song: George Michael sings about the person who broke his heart last Christmas.

• Parents' era
• Breakup song

Paul McCartney recorded it during his McCartney II sessions; the whole song runs on synthesizers.

• Parents' era
• Little kids

Patty Donahue tells a whole frantic December in rhythmic verse; AllMusic calls it one of the best holiday pop tunes.

• Parents' era

Written as a protest against the Vietnam War, it became a Christmas standard sung with the Harlem Community Choir.

• Parents' era

Recorded in one day by British and Irish stars; it sold a million copies in its first week in the UK.

It's a 1984 charity song about the famine in Ethiopia, so the verses describe hunger and hardship.

• Parents' era
• Sad song

Chris Rea wrote it stuck in snowy traffic as his wife drove him home; he calls it a car carol.

• Parents' era

Elton John and Bernie Taupin's 1973 single first made the UK top 10 in 2018, 45 years after release.

• Parents' era

Slade's 1973 UK Christmas No. 1, and by far the band's best-selling single.

• Parents' era

Shakin' Stevens' 1985 UK Christmas No. 1; it returns to the British charts most Decembers.

• Parents' era

An Irish folk-style duet between Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl; it took the band two years to finish.

It opens in a New York drunk tank, and the couple trade insults, including a homophobic slur some radio stations edit out.

• Parents' era
• Grown-ups only
• Explicit lyrics

NSYNC's 1998 single played over the end credits of Disney's I'll Be Home for Christmas.

• Parents' era

An instrumental mix of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Carol of the Bells, inspired by a cellist playing in war-torn Sarajevo.

• Parents' era

David Foster first recorded it with Natalie Cole; Amy Grant's 1992 cover started the wave of versions that made it a standard.

• Parents' era

A 1934 song; ASCAP's 2007 count found the Eurythmics' 1987 version was the most-played take.

• Parents' era

Kelly Clarkson co-wrote it with Greg Kurstin and gave it a 1960s Wall of Sound, sleigh bells and all.

It's a love song about finally having someone to spend Christmas with after a lonely year.

• Kids' era
• Love song

In 2024, ten years after release, it became the first 21st-century holiday song to reach the Hot 100's top five.

It's a love song: Ariana asks Santa whether a new boyfriend really cares or will leave like others did.

• Kids' era
• Love song

Sia tells a snowman not to cry or he'll melt; a 2020 TikTok challenge had people sing 40 seconds in one breath.

• Kids' era

Taylor Swift grew up on a Pennsylvania Christmas tree farm and wrote this about those memories on December 1, 2019.

• Kids' era

A laid-back, reggae-tinged 2011 single that set a record for the highest Hot 100 debut by a Christmas song.

It's a holiday crush song about kissing someone under the mistletoe.

• Kids' era
• Love song

Meredith Willson wrote it in 1951; Bublé's 2011 Christmas album has sold more than 16 million copies.

• Kids' era

The Jonas Brothers' retro-styled 2019 single topped the US Adult Contemporary chart.

It's a love song: being with a girlfriend makes every day feel like Christmas.

• Kids' era
• Love song

Katy Perry wrote it about Christmas with family in Copenhagen; it was an Amazon Music exclusive until 2019.

• Kids' era

A 2008 dance-pop track that samples Deck the Halls and borrows a line from The Little Drummer Boy.

The lyrics are full of sexual innuendo, and some critics called it not for the family.

• Kids' era
• Grown-ups only

Ed Sheeran and Elton John's 2021 duet entered the UK chart at No. 1.

• Kids' era

Josh Groban's song from The Polar Express (2004) was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar and won a Grammy.

• Kids' era

Hit-Boy built this 2010 track on soul samples, including two Marvin Gaye recordings.

The rap verses include explicit language and crude sexual lines.

• Kids' era
• Grown-ups only
• Explicit lyrics

Famous since an engineer synced 16,000 house lights to it in 2004; families still use it for light shows.

• Kids' era

Gwen Stefani's 2017 title track, a country-pop duet with Blake Shelton inspired by holiday music from her childhood.

It's a romantic duet about a couple's holiday season, not about Santa.

• Kids' era
• Love song

Cher's 2023 dance single made her the only solo artist with a Billboard No. 1 in each of the last seven decades.

• Kids' era

Britney's 2000 song first came out on a compilation; it reached streaming services in 2020, twenty years later.

It's a love song: Britney asks Santa to find her someone to love.

• Kids' era
• Love song

The only original song on Pentatonix's 2014 a cappella album, which sold over a million copies that year.

• Kids' era

Robert Earl Keen's comic picture of a Texas family Christmas; his band only plays it from Labor Day on.

It's a comic portrait of a rowdy Texas family Christmas, with drinking, chain smoking and convenience-store runs.

• Parents' era
• Grown-ups only

A playful George Strait song about Christmas baking; Taste of Country ranked it No. 10 among country Christmas songs.

• Parents' era

Alan Jackson swaps the sleigh for a pickup on his 1993 album Honky Tonk Christmas; the Chipmunks later used it too.

• Parents' era
• Little kids

Alan Jackson wrote the title song of his 2002 Christmas album, and it became a top-40 country hit.

• Kids' era

Mariah Carey co-wrote it for the 2000 Grinch movie, where Cindy Lou Who sings it; Faith Hill recorded the released version.

• Kids' era

Alabama's 1982 single celebrates Christmas across the American South; the band re-recorded it in 2017.

• Parents' era

Roger Miller wrote this soft Christmas Eve song for his young son Dean and released it in 1967.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

John Legend sent this Christmas duet to Carrie Underwood late in making My Gift; it topped Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart.

• Kids' era
• Faith

An upbeat original on A Very Kacey Christmas, with girl-group harmonies, saxophone and handclaps.

• Kids' era

A Christian group's story song that reached No. 31 on Billboard's country chart and No. 1 on Adult Contemporary.

It tells of a boy buying shoes for his terminally ill mother so she'll look beautiful before she dies.

• Kids' era
• Faith
• Sad song

Donny Hathaway's 1970 song didn't reach the Hot 100 until 2021; ASCAP ranks it the 30th most-performed holiday song.

• Parents' era

Stevie Wonder was 17 when it came out on his first Christmas album, Someday at Christmas.

• Grandparents' era

Written by Motown's in-house team, the Corporation, for the Jackson 5's 1970 Christmas album.

• Parents' era

The title song of Stevie Wonder's first Christmas album came out as a single in 1966, when he was 16.

• Grandparents' era

Charles Brown co-wrote and recorded it in 1960; the Eagles had a hit cover in 1978.

It's a lonely blues song about a man whose girlfriend has left, hoping she'll come home.

• Grandparents' era
• Sad song

This 1947 original reached No. 3 on Billboard's R&B chart; Chuck Berry, Otis Redding and Elvis later covered it.

It's a love song thanking a sweetheart for a happy Christmas.

• Grandparents' era
• Love song

Destiny's Child's R&B spin on The Twelve Days of Christmas; it became the title track of their 2001 holiday album.

It's a love song listing gifts from a boyfriend, many of them luxury items.

• Kids' era
• Love song

Named for the Queens neighborhood where Run-DMC grew up; Rick Rubin co-produced it for A Very Special Christmas.

• Parents' era

Written in Austria in 1818; Bing Crosby's 1942 recording is counted among the best-selling records ever made.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids
• Faith

The carol began as an 1847 French poem; Mariah Carey's version is from her 1994 album Merry Christmas.

• Everyone knows it
• Faith

Pentatonix sing it with voices only; their 2014 version reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100.

• Everyone knows it
• Faith

Isaac Watts wrote the hymn in 1719; Whitney Houston's up-tempo gospel version is from The Preacher's Wife soundtrack.

• Everyone knows it
• Faith

An African American spiritual first printed in the early 1900s; Little Big Town's 2006 version reached country radio.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids
• Faith

The Peanuts gang sings it to close A Charlie Brown Christmas; the special kept a slightly off-key children's choir take.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids
• Faith

Listed on Cole's 1960 carol album as Adeste Fideles, the hymn's original Latin title.

• Everyone knows it
• Faith

One of the gentlest tracks on Carrie Underwood's 2020 Christmas album My Gift, under three minutes long.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids
• Faith

Taped for Bing's 1977 TV special weeks before he died; the 1982 single hit No. 3 in the UK.

• Everyone knows it
• Faith

Jester Hairston built this carol on a calypso rhythm from an old party song; Belafonte's 1956 single made it famous.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids
• Faith

Written as a plea for peace during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis; Bing Crosby's 1963 recording made it a hit.

• Everyone knows it
• Faith

José Feliciano wrote it in Spanish and English in 1970; in 2026 it joined the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids
• Spanish

Venezuela's Hugo Blanco wrote it in 1972; this children's-choir version, led by an 8-year-old, is the one Latin America grew up on.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids
• Faith
• Spanish

Raphael made this Spanish Little Drummer Boy famous in the 1960s; in Spain the song is still tied to him.

• Everyone knows it
• Faith
• Spanish

Ángela Aguilar was 11 when she sang this old Spanish carol with her dad, Pepe, on her first album.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids
• Faith
• Spanish

An Andalusian carol about the bells of Bethlehem, from Ángela Aguilar's 2014 album Navidad con Ángela Aguilar.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids
• Faith
• Spanish

Silent Night in Spanish, closing Luis Miguel's 2006 album Navidades, which earned a Grammy nomination.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids
• Faith
• Spanish

Salsa from the 1970 album Asalto Navideño, with Yomo Toro's Puerto Rican cuatro; Rolling Stone ranks it among the top salsa albums.

• Parents' era
• Spanish

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town in Spanish, big-band style; it was a lead single from Luis Miguel's Navidades.

• Parents' era
• Little kids
• Spanish

Gayla Peevey was 10; her hometown Oklahoma City raised money so she got a real hippo, which she gave to the zoo.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

Ross Bagdasarian sped up tapes of his own voice to make the chipmunks; it won three Grammys in 1959.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

A music teacher wrote it in 30 minutes after hearing his second graders lisp through their Christmas wishes.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

Written by Randy Brooks and first performed in 1979 by Elmo and Patsy, a husband-and-wife double act.

It's dark comedy: Grandma, tipsy on eggnog, is trampled by Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve.

• Parents' era
• Dark humor

Dominick helps Santa deliver gifts in Italy, where reindeer can't climb the hills; Lou Monte recorded it in 1960.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

That deep voice is Thurl Ravenscroft, not narrator Boris Karloff; he went uncredited in the 1966 cartoon.

• Everyone knows it

Six-year-old Barry Gordon sang lead on this 1955 million-seller about a kid owning up to his mischief.

• Grandparents' era
• Little kids

Jimmy Boyd was 13 when he recorded it; Boston's Catholic Church condemned it, thinking it was about an affair.

A child sees Mom kissing Santa, not realizing Santa is Dad in costume; little ones may take it literally.

• Grandparents' era
• May confuse little kids

Snoopy faces the Red Baron on Christmas Eve, and the two flying aces end up going their separate ways in peace.

• Grandparents' era

An original rap Tyler, the Creator made for the 2018 animated movie The Grinch.

• Kids' era

The vocal version is sung by children from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in San Rafael, California, for A Charlie Brown Christmas.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

First recorded in 1964, it became the Peanuts theme after A Charlie Brown Christmas aired in 1965.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

Guaraldi keeps the old German carol's melody and leaves room for soft jazz piano; it's on A Charlie Brown Christmas.

• Everyone knows it
• Little kids

Solo piano from George Winston's December, a triple-platinum album; the tune comes from a Ukrainian New Year's song.

• Everyone knows it

The flying song from The Snowman; choirboy Peter Auty sang it in the 1982 film, and Aled Jones had the 1985 hit.

• Parents' era

The theme of Home Alone, by John Williams with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse; it was nominated for an Oscar.

• Parents' era

Pachelbel's Canon with new Christmas words, sung by a children's choir over soft piano and strings.

• Parents' era
• Little kids