I'm not a fan of Christmas. 

Let's first set aside the unclear and potentially contentious origins of this particular 'holiday', and my general apathy towards religiosity. (Christians celebrate it as the day of Jesus' birth, though some evidence suggests his actual birth was in the spring. Some historians also note that the Christian traditions of Christmas can be traced back to Pagan roots and the Saturnalia festival, and the chosen 25 December date was an attempt by church leaders to appropriate the pagan festival and increase religious popularity among non-Christians). 

I don't particular like the whole shtick of Christmas - it's hard to un-see the marketing tool that is the festive season, or the hyper-consumption generated by the tradition of gift-giving. I don't particular care for the lighting displays, nor do I care for Santa Claus (he isn't real, ya). 

But what I really don't like is the music. The endless jingles in every shopping mall, the uncountable Christmas albums from bands you may have forgotten about, Mariah Carey. The thing that perhaps grates at me the most is the general unoriginality of it all. Hundreds upon hundreds of covers just to essentially end up with the same song. It just feels so repetitive and stale. 

I don't dislike covers. In fact, I love them, but also only when they are interesting and do something different to the original song. Pop Goes Punk? Love. 

I recently discovered a Youtube channel that I am now slightly obsessed with - Sparrow Sleeps. "We create lullaby renditions of your favorite songs." says their description. I was directed to this channel from an Instagram story by Anberlin, mainly because of the punny title on one of my all-time favourite albums, Never Take Friendship Personal - Never Take Toddlers Personal is absolutely hilarious on so many levels. 

A lot of the bands covered by Sparrow Sleeps are exactly in my music wheelhouse - a lot of pop punk, emo, punk rock, all the usual Warped Tour staples. And the resulting lullabies are a treat. Familiar enough to be recognisable, yet so different in tone and timbre. (I will conveniently ignore the Taylor Swift and Post Malone covers.) And the album names are just *chefs kiss*. Three Cheers For Sweet Dreams (MCR), QUIET! (Paramore), The Bed Album (Weezer), The Is Nothing Left to Snooze (Foo Fighters). Man, these people have a proper sense of humour. 

Do these work as lullabies? I'm not sure. Maybe? I might experiment with a few over the next few nights of sleep. But the whole endeavour, and specific and particular as it is, makes me smile. They found their brand and are sticking with it, even with some videos only have a few hundred views (they really should have a lot more!!). And the covers are just really good - somehow, these normally loud songs also work well when stripped down to strings, piano and a xylophone. I am a fan, and I can't believe I haven't found about them earlier. 

Discovering such music makes me happy (to a slightly delirious extent, perhaps). It feels fresh and creative, it feels fun and different, and perhaps most importantly it feels unexpected and surprising. Everything that Christmas is not. 

So this Christmas, I know which jingles I will be listening to.