Track Listing

1. Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit - Christmas Jug Band
2. Christmas Eve Can Kill You - The Everly Brothers
3. Santa Came Home Drunk - Cadillac Baby Specials, Clyde Lasley,
4. Don't Believe in Christmas - The Sonics
5. Lonely Christmas Call - George Jones
6. Christmas in Vietnam - Johnny & Jon
7. Santa Got a DWI - Sherwin Linton
8. Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas? - The Staple Singers
9. Who Say There Ain't No Santa Claus - Ron Holden, , The Thunderbirds
10. Christmas in Jail - The Youngsters
11. Christmas Spirit - The Wailers
12. Christmas in Prison - Ry Cooder, Doug Legacy, , Legends of the West

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #113334 in Music
• Released on: 1989-07-31
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
So you say you're sick of people telling you to cheer up at Christmas? In fact, you'd like to wallow in your misery and bring a few of your pals down with you? Well, have we got the holiday album for you, loaded down with a dozen of the most downbeat Christmas songs of all time. From country weepers like George Jones' "Lonely Christmas Call" to rock sneers like the Sonics' "Don't Believe in Christmas," this set has something to turn everyone's smile upside down. But just when life looks its bleakest, you can treat yourself to a chuckle by hearing how things could be even worse, as on the one-two punch of "Santa Got a DWI" and "Santa Came Home Drunk." Raise a cup of Christmas jeer and sing along. --David Sprague

Customer Reviews

A True "Grown Up" Christmas Classic
This is my all time favorite Christmas CD... I first bought this in '89 and it has gotten me through MANY truly awful Christmases. It never fails to make me smile.

This is an adult CD, not because of language, but because of content. "Santa Came Home Drink", "Santa Got a DWI", and "Christmas in Jail" all deal with drinking and "Who Say There Ain't No Santa Claus" is about a murderer on death row (but it is very tounge-in-cheek).

So, if you are looking for a CD that acknowledges that Christmas isn't all sweetness and light buy this CD, break out the eggnog and remember - Santa won't be back next Christmas Eve.

It's in the air, can't you hear it?
This compilation album focuses on the unhappy side of Christmas. The songs tackle the subject in a variety of styles and with varying degrees of seriousness. For instance, the first song, "Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit", is a jug band song and it's played for laughs. While the second song, "Christmas Eve Can Kill You", is played seriously and is about the saddest Christmas song I ever heard. Both songs are great, however. In fact, there are a lot of great songs here. The only song I hate is "Santa Came Home Drunk", which is a slurred blues song that is basically an excuse for the singer to slip the names of as many brands of whiskey as possible into the lyrics. Anyway, if you are looking for a different kind of Christmas album, this may be for you.

Santa's drunk again...
This is probably THE best collection to whip out at those overheated Christmas parties, the ones where everyone ends up slumped in chairs, too zoned to go home and too wired up to fall asleep. Just hearing Clyde Lasley's "Santa Came Home Drunk" is enough to snap people out of it. The best part is the girl-group trio singing in deadpan, "ooooooh...oooh-ooh-ooooooooh.... Santa's drunk again...." George Jones' "Lonely Christmas Call" is a class country tearjerker, sure to set all the cowboys within several zipcodes to crying into their eggnog. There's also a pretty solid Staple Singers tune on here that hits hard. Buy it just to lower the pH of all those Julie Andrews records.