Best new holiday music 2022: Reeny Smith, Stars, Celeigh Cardinal, more 

It's time for CBC Music's annual check-in on the Grinch Heart Spectrum. From pea-sized to three-sized, where you fall depends on whether the sudden onslaught of non-stop holiday music is either a never-ending nightmare or a delightful dream come true. Whether you think holiday music is naughty or nice, 2022's new offerings have you covered.

Let us soundtrack your holidays with 15 playlists, including Classical Holidays, Reclaimed Winter Solstice, Marvin's Room Christmas and more. Access them all via CBC Listen's Holiday Playlists.

Song: "Christmas Letter to my Friends"
Artist: Celeigh Cardinal

The warmth of Cardinal's rich voice perfectly matches the stately, elegant arrangement of this gorgeous gift of a song celebrating friendship, love and the privilege of growing older together and apart.  

Song: "Where You at Santa?"
Artist: Reeny Smith

A silky smooth, fun frolic of a tune that's as coy as it is catchy. Come for the chorus as Smith promises that she's "got the best milk and cookies" and stay for the about-face in the final verse where she sings, "Let me be honest, I know I've been naughtier than nice," with an unapologetic wink.  

Song: "One Beautiful Thing"
Artist: Kinnie Starr

A planet-loving, eco-conscious, anti-consumerist Christmas tune? That truly is a beautiful thing.  

Song: "Marshmallow World"
Artist: Nikki Yanofsky

A bouncy, snappy, Saturday-night-at-the-Sands take on Bing Crosby's classic that's a delightful taste of time travel in the form of a jazz standard.   

Song: "Ave Maria"
Artist: PIQSIQ

Sister duo PIQSIQ (Inuksuk Mackay and Tiffany Ayalik) make spine-tingling experimental music rooted in Inuit-style throat-singing and electronic looping, and they return with what has become an annual tradition: a hauntingly beautiful reinterpretation of a classic Christmas carol that doubles as a powerful statement of decolonization.  

Song: "Christmas Morning"
Artist: Alex Whorms

This heartwarming holiday song seems destined for big things. Maybe a future Frozen special, the piano crescendoing as Anna and Elsa sing to each other across thousands of miles as they make their way home for a magical Christmas morning.  

Song: "Christmas Anyways"
Artist: Stars

Nobody does bittersweet and devastating quite like Stars. This new charity single, featuring co-lead singers Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan trading verses, is on near-constant repeat and destroys me every time, but in the best possible way.  

Song: "Little Christmas Tree"
Artist: Kadhja Bonet

A sweet, dreamy spin on the seasonal sadness that seeps into the holidays, Bonet's merry-sounding melancholy gives everyone a chance to groove through their grieving.   

Song: "We Should be Together"
Artist: Rosie Thomas ft. Sufjan Stevens

If you're nursing a recent heartbreak, or sifting through your memory file of exes wondering if one got away, do not press play on this song. It will wrench you in half with its chilling beauty and all-too-real lyrics ⁠— but that's also what makes it so dreamy and devastating.  

Song: "Red & Green"
Artist: Ellen Doty feat. Biboye Onanuga

The Calgary-based artist's new annual holiday fundraiser single shimmers and shines with a warm lift from Edmonton-based drummer/composer Biboye Onanuga  

Song: "Merry Christmas (From the Downie Dens)"
Artist: Villages

It's a Cape Breton Christmas! This folk jam is a jolly, Celtic-infused romp around the Christmas tree, soaring and swinging with a sweeping joy and loads of merry momentum.  

Song: "Cry Christmas"
Artist: Mother Mother

This brooding sing-speak electro-pop jingles and jangles, but with a heaping hand of bah humbug thrown in and some pretty on-point lyrics that counter and question many Christmas traditions.

The little ones are all but shunned
At that strangely degrading kids table.
The mistletoe says, "No you don't need a kiss,
You need divorce papers."
The turkey's dry and grandpa's high,
On OxyContin pumpkin pie. 

Song: "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence"
Artist: Electric Youth

This vivid and colourful reimagining of Ryuichi Sakamoto's theme song to the 1983 cult classic film of the same name is also a tribute in its own right to the composer-actor-musician's unquestionable genius and influence.  

Song: "Christmas in Prison"
Artist: Art of Time Ensemble ft. Tom Wilson

Tom Wilson softens the edges of his trademark growl to dig into the emotionally harrowing heart of John Prine's humble classic.     

Song: "Wrapped up in a Bow"
Artist: Jamie Fine

Get ready to drunk-dial your ex thanks to Fine's wrenching electro-soul-pop plea to get back the magic of Christmases past with a former flame. 

Song: "Single on the 25th"
Artist: Lauren Spencer-Smith

Smith's piano-driven pop lament might feature a little bit of woe, but it also packs a nice shimmer and a swaying beat that makes it perfect for a singles bar sing-along.  

Song: "Silver Bells"
Artist: David Myles

Pedal steel makes everything better, and that's just one of the excellent additions (flugelhorn! organ! Breagh Isabel's lush backing vocals!) in Myles's soul-stirring reinvention of this classic carol.   

Song: "All Together for Christmas"
Artist: Emi Jeen

Nothing like multiple, ongoing pandemics to make one look forward to the full family dysfunction of Christmas. Jeen's Pogo-like pop ode to discovering the spirit of the season will resonate with lots of folks who've given the heave-ho to their inner Grinches.

Song: "Xmas on the Beach"
Artist: Trans Trenderz feat. Blxck Cxsper and Aizysse Baga

Finally, a Christmas anthem celebrating a trans, queer, non-binary, drag yuletide paradise. Sundrenched vibes and "Franglish" verses, this electro-rap bop is a three-minute dream vacation.

Song: "So Much Wine (Merry Christmas)"
Artist: Phoebe Bridgers

Bridgers' cover of this beloved Handsome Family song is even sadder than the original, particularly with our deeper, and hopefully more compassionate, understanding of what it is to live with addiction disorder and the intergenerational trauma that compounds over decades. But what's Christmas without a cathartic cry, right? 

Song: "Silent Night"
Artist: Jesse Brown and Katharine Petkovski

This is just one of three offerings on the Canadian pianists and composers' charmingly lo-fi and aptly titled Christmas EP, All is Calm.   

Song: "A New Kind of Light"
Artist: Rose Cousins, Jill Barber, Meaghan Smith

The long-beloved (and out of print) 2007 Christmas album from Cousins, Barber and Smith is finally available to stream, with proceeds benefitting Feed Nova Scotia — which received $250,000 from the fundraising album when it was first sold on CD. This folksy original is a perfect example of why the record has become such a classic on the East Coast.