I’ve been working on making these Christian Creatives posts that highlight Christian artists that I believe are using their creativity to highlight the creativity of God, and I realized I had almost forgotten to highlight all of the amazing and creative Christmas music that is out there.

So here we go!

Note: This post is one of a series on creativity in Christian music. If you haven’t read the previous posts yet, click here check them out.

Nothing signals the Jones Christmas season like seeing the klompen out!

My attitude towards Christmas music is much the same as my attitude toward contemporary Christian music: I think that it has great potential, but it is often untapped. Christmas music is often reduced to the same staple Christmas songs being played over and over, from the radio to the mall to everywhere else you would be expected to go during the Christmas season.

The good news is that there is a ton of new and creative Christmas music out there if you know where to look.

I’ve mentioned Andy Gullahorn on this site before, and his Christmas album that he made with his wife Jill Phillips is a great place to start. It’s on this album that the song “I Will Find A Way” (which I previously discussed in this post) appears. Here’s that song again as a reminder:

Aside from hosting “I Will Find A Way,” Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips’ Christmas is filled with beautiful renditions of hymns not often heard – as well as a rather humorous version of the classic “Baby It’s Cold Outside” where Andy laments buying his wife a toilet brush for Christmas, among other things…

A few years ago, in 2016, Josh Garrels released a Christmas album entitled The Light Came Down, featuring a mix between traditional hymns and medleys to original Christmas songs. Some hymns – such as “Silent Night” or “O Holy Night” –  while being well-known, are done with Garrel’s signature joyously haunting stylings. Here, for example, is his rendition of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”:

Garrels also covered some lesser-known hymns, such as “The Boar’s Head,” which dates from the 15th century and is worth checking out as well.

But what shines the most from this album is the original Christmas music Garrels wrote, such as songs like “The Light Came Down”:

All that aside, it wouldn’t have been a Christmas season in the Jones household is Sufjan Stevens’ extensive collection of Christmas music wasn’t consistently utilized.

If you haven’t heard of Sufjan Stevens (pronounced soof-yan), I highly recommend him. He is an amazing artist that will probably end up getting his own post in a little while. But for now, his Christmas music will serve as an adequate introduction. From 2001 to 2006, Sufjan released multiple Christmas EPs, later compiled into one giant Christmas album entitled Songs for Christmas, with everything ranging from his own covers of traditional Christmas carols and hymns…

…to some of the most fun and original Christmas music I’ve heard, like this one called “Come on! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!”…

And if you prefer your Sufjan Stevens music to be a little more… eclectic… then you can listen to Sufjan’s Silver & Gold Christmas album, which is a little more electronica and a lot weirder, but still very fun to listen to. Like this song called “Mr. Frosty Man”…

Or this 12-minute ode called “Christmas Unicorn”…

And of course, no list featuring my childhood Christmas music would be complete without mentioning Relient K’s 2007 punk-Christmas album, Let It Snow, Baby… Let It Reindeer.

Here, Relient K shows their fantastic ability to take old hymns and add a little punk to a beloved Christmas song. Such can be seen in their upbeat rendition of “12 Days of Christmas”.

Aside from punk rock covers of Christmas classics, they also have a couple of original Christmas songs on the album as well that are worth listening to. Their song “In Like A Lion (Always Winter)” was inspired by C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and has beautiful lyrics to match.

That song is, in my opinion, almost as amazing as their song “I Celebrate The Day” off of the same album.

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever
...
And I, I celebrate the day
That you were born to die
So I could one day pray for you to save my life

Now those are some good Christmas lyrics.

All this to say that if you are willing to try out some different sounding Christmas music than you are used to, there is a whole world of Christmas music ready and willing to be listened to that won’t be the same 12 songs covered by every major band and sung in every mall in America. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Happy listening, folks! And merry Christmas!

To help you along your way, here are some links for places that I think would be good starting points:

Sufjan Stevens’ Songs for Christmas – YouTube, Spotify

Sufjan Stevens’ Silver & Gold – YouTube, Spotify

Josh Garrels’ The Light Came Down – YouTube, Spotify

Relient K’s Let It Snow, Baby… Let It Reindeer – YouTube, Spotify

If you would prefer a playlist of songs instead of individual albums, check out these playlists to get you in the Christmas spirit (unfortunately, I can only offer these as Spotify playlists. My apologies.) :

An Original Christmas, lovingly compiled by my sister Madelynne Jones, known for extensive music lists and an even more extensive music taste. Current Runtime: 18hr 12 min

A Creative Christmas, compiled by yours truly, known for slightly less expansive genre tastes in music but still filled with good (and different than his sister’s taste!) stuff none the less. Current Runtime: 14 hr 3 min

Quick disclaimer: knowing myself and knowing my sister, those playlists will inevitably get longer and longer. We tend to make playlists that you put on as background music for an entire day (or, you know, a week). But a quick shuffle of either of them will give you a good taste of some Christmas music you may be unfamiliar with.