25 festive pop songs perfect for your holiday playlist

“River” – Sarah McLachlan

“River” is a perfect example of a song that wasn’t actually supposed to be a Christmas song, but managed to find its way into the Christmas catalogue anyway. It was originally recorded by Joni Mitchell for her 1971 album Blue. The song is set at Christmastime (“It’s coming on Christmas…”), and Mitchell sings about a recent breakup and how she wishes she had a river she could skate away on to escape from the pain.

The song has been covered by some major artists, like Barry Manilow and Idina Menzel, as well as on Sarah McLachlan’s 2006 holiday album Wintersong. She released “River” as the album’s lead single and peaked in the Top 10 of the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts. It was also the best-selling holiday album of that year.

This is another song to add to your sad Christmas playlist, because it will undoubtedly tug at your heart strings during the holidays. Mitchell’s version was already perfect, but McLachlan’s voice on this track just brings something else to it and makes it somehow even more sad and beautiful. This version even samples the melody of “Jingle Bells” at the end, as the song slowly fades out.