Is This The Worst Christmas Song Of All Time?
By: Ivan Munoz
Every year, we hear the same Christmas classics on repeat: the cozy nostalgia of Bing Crosby, the jolly energy of Mariah Carey, and the inevitable singalong to Wham!'s “Last Christmas.” But lurking in the shadows of the festive playlist is something altogether different—a song so baffling it deserves its own snow-globe of shame. Ladies and gentlemen, gather ‘round the fire as I present to you this little chestnut from 1975, Linda Bennett’s “An Old Fashioned Christmas (Daddy’s Home),” arguably the most unintentionally hilarious Christmas song of all time. Step aside “Christmas Shoes” this one’s got you beat.
Now before we start, I want you to give this song a blind listen - no spoilers, just dive in with no expectations and let the story wash over you:
Pretty wild, right? Where does one even begin?
At first listen, you might think you're in for a syrupy Hallmark moment. The scene is idyllic: a family eagerly preparing for Christmas as they await Daddy’s triumphant return home. There’s a warm fireplace glow in the lyrics, and the music feels like it’s building to a wholesome, made-for-radio holiday classic. But then—plot twist! A radio broadcast interrupts with devastating news of a bus accident where it is announced that the bus the father was on skidded on a patch of ice and slammed into a tree.
The tone flips faster than Santa on a rooftop, and you’re left wondering if you’ve stumbled into a Christmas-themed soap opera. In the second act it gets even darker. The reporter comes back on the radio and announces that there were no survivors. The family begins to lament all lost future memories - the daughter asks who will walk her down the aisle at her wedding, but all the son can come up with is “who will buy me toys”
This sudden turn into tragedy feels like a whiplash-inducing holiday car chase. You brace yourself for heartache, clutching your eggnog tightly, when—plot twist #2!—Daddy bursts through the door unscathed, as though the previous 60 seconds of trauma never happened. Why is this? Well he missed his bus of course! What just happened? Is this a Christmas miracle or the auditory equivalent of a holiday prank?
And with that the final refrain comes in and the song ends. But what about all the other people on the bus? Are we to just forget about them entirely? What about their families and children? A typical city bus holds around 30 to 45 people, all of whom just died…on Christmas. The holidays will never be the same for the city ever again, that is a tragedy of momentous proportions, the kind that rips apart the fabric of a community. Yet we are supposed to forget about all of this as merely collateral damage because it doesn’t fit the narrative. Hardly and Old Fashioned Christmas.
At this point I’d like to mention the remarkably strange production of this record. It’s more of a collection of ideas, or a storyboard in sonic form with various vignettes moving in and out of focus as the song progresses. The radio station playing Christmas songs, the news on the radio, and the song itself. There are also indications in the recording that this song was thrown together somewhat quickly like when the announcer says “a bulletin has just been handed me” omitting the “to” entirely. The whole thing sounding like a half-baked idea recorded towards the end of a particularly debaucherous office Christmas party. The whole thing plays out a like a Tarantino fever dream.
The song’s jarring structure feels like it was written by someone who couldn’t decide if they were penning a Christmas carol or auditioning for a daytime drama. It’s as if they tossed two wildly different songs into a snow globe, shook it up, and declared, “Yes, perfect! Print it!” The result is a tonal Frankenstein: part festive cheer, part existential dread, and 100% baffling. And then there’s the performance. Linda Bennett delivers the story with such sincerity that you almost feel guilty for laughing—almost. But come on, when the newscaster interrupts with the kind of urgency reserved for asteroid strikes, it’s hard not to picture the producers high-fiving themselves for this “brilliant” plot twist. It’s campy, melodramatic, and weirdly entertaining in a way that only holiday kitsch can be.
What makes “An Old Fashioned Christmas (Daddy’s Home)” truly special (read: absurd) is how seriously it takes itself. There’s no wink, no nudge, no self-awareness. It’s a song that thinks it’s delivering a heartwarming message, but instead, it’s the soundtrack to an unintentional comedy of errors. It’s the musical equivalent of giving someone a fruitcake—they don’t ask for it, but they can’t stop talking about it once it’s in their hands.
To its credit, the song has achieved a sort of cult status among those who appreciate so-bad-it’s-good holiday moments. Is it the worst Christmas song ever? Maybe. Is it also one of the most entertaining trainwrecks (bus wrecks?) you’ll hear this season? Absolutely. So this year, when you’re sick of hearing “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for the 47th time, give “An Old Fashioned Christmas (Daddy’s Home)” a spin. It might not warm your heart, but it will leave you howling with laughter—and isn’t that what the holidays are all about?