On December 14, a day after I initially wrote this blog, Bruce Springsteen hopped onstage at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park during a concert to support WhyHunger. His surprise performance with Steve Van Zandt and the Disciples of Soul included performances “Merry Christmas, Baby” and “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.” It wasn’t the first time he’d played these songs, and it surely won’t be the last.
Debates may rage over when it’s acceptable to start listening to it, but most Americans agree: Christmas music holds a special place in the American songbook. It’s equal parts tradition, celebration, and nostalgia. Across genres and generations, artists have returned again and again to holiday songs not just as novelty projects, but as opportunities to connect with audiences through timeless and uplifting themes of hope, longing, faith, and joy.
Several artists honored by the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music’s American Music Honors have made memorable contributions to this seasonal tradition—and of course, Bruce himself has some beloved offerings. Let’s explore just a few, from high-energy rock to reflective folk, soulful gospel, and contemporary country. Be sure to read to the end for a link to our special BSACAM holiday Spotify playlist!
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Rock and Roll Christmas
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have long embraced Christmas music in their live performances, infusing holiday classics with their signature energy. Songs like “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” and “Merry Christmas, Baby” are often (though not always) performed during December shows and tied to charitable causes. Unlike studio recordings, these live renditions capture a certain spontaneous magic.
Springsteen’s holiday performances reflect the generosity, humor, and audience connection that define much of his broader work. These additions to the E Street repertoire have become cherished seasonal staples—proof that Christmas music can be loud, joyful, and unmistakably rock and roll.
Clarence Clemons as pictured on the Backstreets holiday card, 2017. Courtesy BSACAM.
2023 American Music Honors Awardees
Darlene Love: A Holiday Anthem for the Ages
Few Christmas songs are as instantly recognizable as “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” and few voices are as inseparable from the season as Darlene Love’s. Her performance—full of yearning and power—has earned its place as one of the great holiday recordings in American popular music.
Love’s other holiday recordings, like “All Alone on Christmas” (written and produced by Steven Van Zandt for the Home Alone 2 soundtrack), reinforce that connection while showcasing both the enduring vitality of holiday songwriting and Love’s ongoing influence on generations of artists.
2024 American Music Honors Awardees
Mavis Staples: Gospel Roots and the Spirit of Christmas
Mavis Staples’s Christmas music reflects her lifelong commitment to gospel, soul, and songs of hope. As both a solo artist and a member of The Staple Singers, she has recorded and performed holiday music drawn from church traditions, spirituals, and African American sacred music.
Fun Fact: Mavis Staples lent her legendary gospel voice to “Christmas Vacation” for National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation—the only Vacation movie not to feature “Holiday Road.”
Jackson Browne: A Season of Conscience
Jackson Browne’s “The Rebel Jesus” offers a strikingly unconventional take on the Christmas tradition. Rather than celebrating familiar imagery, the song reflects on the moral and spiritual questions at the heart of the season, challenging listeners to consider compassion, justice, and social responsibility with lyrics like:
Well we guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus
“The Rebel Jesus” reimagines Christ as a radical figure calling for empathy and action in the present day—a reflective, socially conscious entry in the holiday canon.
John Mellencamp: Rockin’ for Charity
John Mellencamp represents a distinctly American voice—rooted in small-town life, social observation, and unvarnished storytelling. While not widely known for a large body of Christmas recordings, his seasonal work includes a playful rendition of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” recorded in 1987 for inclusion on the first A Very Special Christmas compilation album, which benefitted the Special Olympics.
As Mellencamp recalled in an interview, “Jimmy [Iovine] sent me some of the tracks that people had done and everybody, you know, they’d seemed to be done quite seriously, and I thought, ‘well, this needs…to be lightened up a little bit!’ ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,’ it isn’t, exactly, you know, ‘White Christmas;’ you didn’t have to be in that much of the Christmas spirit to record it because it is a tongue-in-cheek funny song…it was just another rock and roll song.”
Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp sign copies of A Very Special Christmas, 1987. Courtesy BSACAM.
Dion DiMucci: Faith, Tradition, and the Christmas Songbook
Dion DiMucci’s Christmas recordings reflect a deeply personal engagement with faith, redemption, and the spiritual roots of American music. Best known for shaping early rock and roll, Dion has also devoted significant attention to sacred and devotional music later in his career.
His holiday work, including traditional carols and gospel-influenced songs, approaches Christmas as testimony rather than spectacle. Dion’s understated delivery emphasizes the spiritual dimensions of the season, drawing on the gospel and doo-wop harmonies that informed his earliest recordings.
2025 American Music Honors Awardees
Emmylou Harris: Christmas Through a Roots and Folk Lens
Emmylou Harris approached Christmas music with the same grace and thoughtfulness that define her broader career. Her album Light of the Stable blends traditional carols with contemporary songwriting, offering a quieter, contemplative vision of the season.
With its emphasis on harmony, spirituality, and storytelling, Harris’s holiday work reflects an older American tradition—rooted in community singing and shared reflection. It stands in gentle contrast to more exuberant fare, reminding listeners that Christmas music can be intimate and meditative.
Smokey Robinson: Soulful Holiday Warmth
Smokey Robinson’s contributions highlight the enduring connection between soul music and the holiday season. From early recordings with The Miracles to his solo album Christmas Everyday, Robinson brings warmth, elegance, and emotional sincerity to both classic standards and original seasonal songs.
His work underscores how Christmas music has long been a natural extension of soul’s core themes: love, togetherness, and emotional truth.
Honorable Mention
Kenny Chesney: A Contemporary Country Christmas
While not an American Music Honors recipient, Kenny Chesney merits special mention for his recent visit to campus and for his many original contributions to the modern Christmas songbook. Chesney’s tracks, including “All I Want for Christmas Is a Real Good Tan” and “The Angel at the Top of My Tree,” balance humor and emotional connection, reimagining the season through his signature country meets coastal lens.
A Shared American Tradition
From Springsteen’s rock and roll exuberance to the reflective folk, gospel, and soul of American Music Honors recipients, these holiday recordings demonstrate the remarkable range of American Christmas music. Across decades, styles, and traditions, these songs mirror the diversity of American music itself.
As the holidays return each year, so do these songs—familiar, reinterpreted, and deeply personal. Through Christmas music, American Music Honors recipients and other friends of the BSACAM invite listeners not only to celebrate the season, but to revisit the shared experiences that define American musical life.
Click here to enjoy our special BSACAM holiday Spotify playlist!
Melissa Ziobro
Director of Curatorial Affairs
Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music
Monmouth University
December 15, 2025