Fairytale Of New York – The Poges
My tradition is to re-post this song every Christmas. I actually really like a lot of Christmas music, but to me this is by far the best Christmas song because it’s not really about Christmas at all. The other competitors for the title (‘Oh Holy Night’ springs to mind) have a certain majesty, an austere and genuine reverence for something beyond. Their beauty derives in no small part from the way they hearken to a different time, when we were driven by a different spirit.
What makes ‘Fairytale of New York’ the best song is the way it encapsulates what it means to be us, and in particular what it means to be now. In an era of disenchantment, when the magic and mystery often seem to slip through our fingers, we need to hear music that performs this loss – and in doing so struggles against it.
The tension in the song is, of course, whether to believe in the hope that they start out with, or whether to accept the pain of their conclusion. It would be a lie to pretend that you can simply wish away the bad stuff, but the sheer beauty of the song is the living proof that there must be something more.
It would be a lie to pretend the pain is false, but it would be an even bigger lie to believe that that is a sufficient truth.