Listening to Christmas FM is a favourite pastime for me in December. With inches of snow all over Ireland and the UK, there isn’t a Christmas song that isn’t even more apt this year for you lot. Here in Australia, though, so many of the traditional Christmas songs just don’t fit:

1. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
2. White Christmas
3. Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire
4. Frosty The Snowman
5. Jingle Bells
6. Walking In A Winter Wonderland
7. Sleigh Ride

Even Last Christmas by Wham! sounds weird with all those sleigh bells in the background.

 So I started thinking of an all-Australian Christmas song playlist, that I don’t have to keep skipping through. Here is my top ten.

1. Little Saint Nick – Beach Boys: anything from the Beach Boys has enough of a summer flavour to make it perfect for an Australian Christmas.
2. Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade: I know he talks about sleighs and snow here and there, but it’s a great Christmas party tune for people of my vintage.
3. Santa Claus is Coming To Town – Perry Como: the classic Christmas Eve tune, and I love Perry Como for a Christmas tune. However this version by Bruce Springsteen somehow fits the Aussie music vibe just a little better (jump about a minute and a half in)!
4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Judy Garland: the original version from the wonderful movie “Meet Me In St. Louis” – a guaranteed weepy. Alternatively, I also love this version from the Pretenders.
5. Six White Boomers – Rolf Harris: the quintessentially Aussie Christmas tune. From Rolf, of course.
6. Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt: never mind Madonna or Mariah, this is the original and the best.
7. Mary’s Boy Child – Boney M: maybe it’s the steel pans in the background but this is perfect for a hot sunny Australian Christmas. And watching yer man dancing is also excellent.
8. Do You Hear What I Hear – Whitney Houston: not the original but I love this version. All about the birth of the baby Jesus, and no mention of snow at all.
9. A Spaceman Came Travelling – Chris de Burgh: no Irish Christmas would be complete without this brilliant track from Christy Burke. Perfect anywhere in the world.

Any others from you fellow Aussies?