10 Christmas Songs That Are Total Downers

By Jack Kingston / December 23, 2014

3. Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)

Sample lyric: "I loved you from the start 'cause Christmas ain't the time for breaking each other's hearts. Merry Christmas, I don't want to fight tonight with you." By the late 1980s The Ramones were no longer as exciting or relevant as they had been a decade earlier. But they were still capable of thrashing their way through a deceptively poppy slice of festive dysfunction like this.

Released as a B-side to single I Wanna Live, Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) was not an instant success, but has grown in popularity over time.

Merry Christmas' success is down to a clash of the typical angry, aggressive punk style and frontman Joey's childlike preoccupations. His lyrics contrast an idealised Christmas of sugar plum fairies and Santa's reindeer with the endless arguments that don't even stop for the big day itself. The song gains an extra frisson from the sense that the fights that Joey is wishing would at least be postponed for the holiday season are those of his fraught relationship with bandmate Johnny.