Christmas Isn't Christmas Without... Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas

By and large, the secular holiday songs we sing are staples from around the turn of the century, or the 60's when revolutionary ideas like a talking snowman were sweeping the nation.

The pop offerings tend to have little staying power, as they focus on the heartache of spending Christmas alone, and who the heck wants to dwell on that? 

A few, however, have made themselves indispensable on playlists: Wham!'s "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart;" or Sir Paul McCartney's "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time." My personal favourite is the more folksy collaboration of Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan combining "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We 3 Kings."

But they all pale in comparison to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

If this isn't playing at your office holiday party, get out now because you're surrounded by Scrooges and Grinches. 

I think what's really winning about this song is that it isn't about heartbreak, like Wham!; it isn't family friendly while still being cynical like Paul McCartney's. It is about love, a love that makes you giddy like a child about to go tobogganing and overheated in your snowsuit. You hear that first slow drawn out introduction of "I don't want a lot for Christmas..." and you know what's about to come next; it's exhilarating. And you can mostly sing along to it. Badly, because you're not Mariah Carey, but that's most of the fun anyway.