No one says Christmas quite like Sufjan Stevens, possibly because no one has said it, or better yet sung it, quite so much. With precisely 100 published Christmas songs to his name, Sufjan is the Christmas minstrel of our day.
This Christmas journey for Sufjan began in 2001, when he recorded his first Christmas EP Noel as a gift for friends and family. He’s continued this tradition every year, compiling the EPs into two separate box-sets in 2006 and 2012.
With so many songs in his repertoire, it can be hard to know where to start. Fear not Christmas reveler! I have listened to all 100 songs for you, and selected five — yes, just five! — to guide you into Sufjan’s particular style of Christmas glee.
1. “Put the Lights on the Tree” (from Vol. II Hark!)
“Put the Lights on the Tree” is an early attempt by Sufjan to create a Christmas classic: it’s catchy, straightforward and singable. It pulls you in with a call to decorate the tree (who doesn’t love that?) and then points you to baby Jesus. It also features Sufjan’s signature sound: quirky with layered orchestration, plus an awesome video.
2. “Lumberjack Christmas / No One Can Save You From Christmases Past” (from Vol. VI Gloria)
This is my favourite song from the second box-set, released last year. It’s just so full of joy, bursting at the chorus into “Ho ho ho ho ho ho hoooo.” “Would you like to stay awhile and dance with me?” I don’t even like dancing and I find it hard to resist this invitation. The second half of the song takes a more melancholy turn, reading like a thesis for the whole breadth of Sufjan’s catalogue: “No one can save you from Christmases past. / You’ll have to love it, or leave it at last.” Which transitions well into our next song…
3. “O Come O Come Emmanuel” (from Vol. I Noel)
Sufjan has had a complicated relationship with Christmas, which he recounts harrowingly on “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!” telling the story of an awful Christmas where his parents threw their gifts into a wood stove. Given this past, he makes room for the melancholy side of Christmas, coming back to “O Come O Come Emmanuel” as his remedy (he’s recorded three different versions of it). He’s since come around on the jovial holiday, as he says in his essay for Silver & Gold: “Christmas music does justice to a criminal world, marrying sacred and profane, bellowing obtuse prophecies of a Messiah in the very same blustery breath as a candy-coated TV-jingle advertising a string of lights and a slice of fruitcake. Gloria!”
4. “Star of Wonder” (from Vol. V Peace!)
An epic in its own right, “Star of Wonder” showcases Sufjan’s ability to build towards a climax. There are bells, xylophones, keyboards, trumpets and more. There are ascending harmonies, layered melodies, and a triumphant finish. And at the heart of it is a picture of the incarnation.
5. “Christmas Face” (from Vol. IX Let It Snow)
Contrasting with “Star of Wonder’s” seven-minute climax, “Christmas Face” shows just how much Sufjan can pack into a short song, which he does often: 39 of his Christmas songs fall shy of the traditional 2-minute benchmark. Sufjan steps out of the spotlight on this one, with guest singer Sebastian Krueger singing the lead, a common occurrence in this collection (other frequent guests include Cat Martino, Matt Morgen and Vito Aiuto). And the hodge podge “Christmas face” made of “holly hair and tinsel eyes” brings to mind cozy images of Christmas crafts.
So there you go: five songs that encapture Sufjan’s Christmas spirit. These of course are just the beginning. The centennial of songs range from the hopping beats of “Holly Jolly Christmas” to the electronic mess of “Christmas Unicorn.”
Go forth Christmas reveler, and explore!
Photo by Tammy Lo
