24
24
44 Christmas songs as an alternative to Mariah Carey
Coco Jones, Laufey, Lil Nas X, Olivia Dean, Megan Thee Stallion, Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Ariana Grande… In recent years, artists from all musical genres and generations have revived the ritual of the Christmas song. Numéro has selected the best festive anthems to add to its end-of-year playlists, alongside the everlasting Last Christmas by Wham and All I want for Christmas is you by diva Mariah Carey.
By Violaine Schütz,
and Erwann Chevalier,
and Nathan Merchadier.
Published on 22 December 2024. Updated on 24 December 2025.
A hot month of December with Kylie Minogue
Pop superstar Kylie Minogue is kicking off the holiday season this year by slipping on her sparkly Christmas boots once again and sharing her new track Hot in December. Released in December 2025 to mark the 10th anniversary of her 2015 album Kylie Christmas, the track features on a special reissue titled Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped), which she enthusiastically announced on Instagram on November 5th: “I can’t wait to share this album with you, featuring four new songs and a little extra sparkle. It’s coming on December 5th.”
Hot in December (2025) by Kylie Minogue, available now.
Poppy’s rock cover of Last Christmas
American singer Moriah Rose Pereira, aka Poppy, renowned for her transition from pop to metal, has unveiled a surprising take on a Christmas classic. As part of the Spotify Singles Holiday series, she delivers a rock version of Wham!’s Last Christmas. The platform regularly invites artists to offer anything but outdated tracks for the holiday season. This year, Ravyn Lenae is delivering a brand-new interpretation of O Holy Night. Last year, Kesha offered a soft, warm rendition of Holiday Road.
Last Christmas by Poppy (2025), available now.
Laufey’s cover of Santa Baby among the best Christmas songs
What recent Christmas songs to put on the tree this year? Without a doubt a Laufey track… Since her remarkable debut with her first studio album entitled Everything I Know About Love (2022), the Icelandic singer Laufey elegantly revisits jazz standards while bringing her contemporary sensibility. After collaborating with renowned artists such as Adam Melchor and the Philharmonia Orchestra, the artist, who is just 26 years old, unveils a sublime cover of the track Santa Baby, originally sung by Eartha Kitt in 1953. In short, the ideal tube to bring a little sweetness to the Christmas season.
Santa Baby (2024) by Laufey, available.
Coco Jones lights up the holidays with Call on Christmas
Even though winter is not yet here, American actress and singer Coco Jones is already lighting up the holiday season with Call on Christmas, a moving track from her latest EP entitled Coco by the Fireplace (2024). With its melancholic lyrics (“Why don’t you call me at Christmas?“), this track explores the nostalgia and lack that can sometimes accompany this period. Punctuated by original tracks such as Santa Is Me or String of Lights, this EP celebrates the bittersweet Christmas season, offering a refreshing alternative to the great holiday classics.
Call on Christmas (2024) by Coco Jones, available.
Entering the winter magic with Saweetie
It is one of the Christmas songs that will delight R’n’B fans the most this year… With the romantic track I Want You This Christmas, the American singer and rapper Saweetie takes us into the winter magic. As for the song’s video, directed by Jamar Harding, it transports the rapper to a glittering glacier or under a Christmas tree, surrounded by gifts, between glamour and nineties influence.
I Want You This Christmas (2024) by Saweetie, available.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Nonsense Christmas
To kick off the holiday season in style, Sabrina Carpenter will raise the mercury with her first Christmas Special entitled A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter, premiered on December 6th, 2024 on Netflix. In the meantime, fans of the new “bride of America” will revel in the track A Nonsense Christmas unveiled in 2022.
A Nonsense Christmas (2023) by Sabrina Carpenter, available.
Billie Eilish’s cover of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Gen Z idol Billie Eilish knows how to reinvent herself and surprise. The American singer-songwriter embarked on a cover of a Christmas classic, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (from 1944), on Saturday Night Live last year. And this very chic and refined version was very far from his current repertoire.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (2023) by Billie Eilish, available
Camélia Jordana’s reinterpretation of Silent Night
For Amazon Music Original, the 32-year-old French singer and actress Camélia Jordana unveiled a beautiful reinterpretation of the Christmas song Silent Night (composed in the 19th century). This version of the melancholic holiday classic is accompanied by a warm video where she is singing, sitting at a table, alongside some of her fans, invited for the occasion.
Silent Night (2023) by Camélia Jordana, available.
Apple’s Melancholic Christmas Card
A few weeks after announcing the arrival of her next album entitled Saisons, which should be released in two parts, the singer Pomme unveils a first touching single with the title _ dec carte de noël. While the first part of this album, Automne Hiver was released on December 1, 2023, the artist who unveiled the excellent album Les Failles in 2019, sends us beautiful Christmas wishes haunted by an intense melancholy.
_ Dec Christmas card (2023) from Apple, available.
Olivia Dean’s best wishes
“Merry Christmas to you” sings Olivia Dean in her cover of the song by the famous American jazz singer and pianist Nat King Cole entitled The Christmas Song, released in 2021. This ode to the festive season from 1961 is perfectly suited to the voluptuous and gentle tessitura of British singer Olivia Dean which carries us away with its warm timbre. Of the fireside song with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands, the singer explains, “Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald’s versions of ‘The Christmas Song’ have been so heartwarming to me at this time of year, so having the chance to cover it was super exciting.” This cover brought luck to Olivia Dean as the singer reached, for the first time, a place in the top 100 singles during its release week, in 2021.
The Christmas Song (2021) by Olivia Dean, available.
The track Last Christmas by Wham! taken over by Benjamin Biolay
A few months after the release of his excellent tenth album entitled Saint-Clair, the French singer Benjamin Biolay is releasing it for the holidays. And the singer-songwriter has decided to fully celebrate this season. In this new edition of the record, subtitled the midnight edition, we can discover six new tracks, three unreleased and three covers, including two of Christmas songs. We can therefore discover a suave and disillusioned version of the sublime Last Christmas by the band Wham!.
Saint-Clair (2022) by Benjamin Biolay, available.
Los Bitchos’ jubilant rock Christmas anthem
The crazy psychedelic rock band from London Los Bitchos continues to surprise us. The four musicians who mix cumbia, Turkish pop and garage rock offer an almost entirely instrumental Christmas anthem only punctuated by a few screams and this promising formula “Christmas Time, Sexy Time!“. Titled Los Chrismos, this joyful track full of sunny guitars and exotic percussion is accompanied by a vintage video in which the artists sport kitschy festive looks from the 80s. The soundtrack of a Christmas full of fantasy…
Los Chrismos (2022) by Los Bitchos, available now.
Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion’s Christmas special
The famous American host Jimmy Fallon, very popular in the United States thanks to his show The Tonight Show, knows how to make people laugh even in more than troubled times. Last year, he released the hilarious It Was A … (Masked Christmas), alongside singer Ariana Grande and rapper Megan Thee Stallion. This offbeat Christmas title describes what we have all experienced in the midst of Covid. “It’s basically about how tough last year was for everyone,” the host said in a statement at the time. But the video wants to play it down. A sled-down session, warm moments by the fire and a sexy nurse, the video accompanying the title reinvents Christmas with masks and laughter. “ This year, hang that mistletoe. I’m going to kiss everyone I know ” even warns Megan Thee Stallion.
It Was A … (Masked Christmas) (2021) by Jimmy Fallon, starring Ariana Grande & Megan Thee Stallion, available.
Mac DeMarco’s Trendy Christmas
Canadian indie rock singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco has already succumbed to covers of cult Christmas songs with a lo-fi reinterpretation of the track Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. But he continued the tradition with a rock, melancholic and underproduced reinvention of the great classic I’ll Be Home for Christmas in 2021. The track, recorded for the first time in 1943, had little to do with the original version. And you absolutely have to listen to it while watching its video, messy and poetic, in which a DIY inflatable Christmas tree goes home, in the middle of other trees.
I’ll Be Home for Christmas (2021) by Mac DeMarco, available.
Lil Nas X’s crazy Christmas greetings
In 2020, the American rapper Lil Nas X (who exploded with his hit Old Town Road released in 2019) unveiled the track Holiday and its heady chorus. With this pop melody, the 25-year-old artist reveals the eventful program of his holidays while in the video accompanying the track, Lil Nas X appears in a rather futuristic Santa Claus outfit. The video did not fail to delight her fans to the point of giving her a new nickname: “SantaNasX”.
Holiday (2020) by Lil Nas X, available.
