Written by: Alex Green

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day/Their old, familiar carols play,” Longfellow once wrote.

Indeed, there is a familiarity to those carols and perhaps their well-worn melodies are a great comfort to Christmas enthusiasts, but every now and then, it’s nice to add to the canon.

The Pogues did it. Wham! did it.

And now, Chris Simmons has done it.

The British singer/songwriter’s first-ever holiday tune “A Cold December” is a ravishing, wonder of a track that captures the melancholic vibe that Christmas can deliver.

A meditative composition that examines the unromantic quotidian elements of the holiday—traffic, awful weather and delayed trains—”A Cold December” is a catchy, snowswept number that’s informed by memory and loss. As Simmons sings: “And we all remember/Those who’ve left us through the years/What I’d give to have them here/This Christmas.”

Summoning the effortless pop chops of Neil Finn or Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, Simmons inhabits the song with woebegone grace, making painful ruminations (“Talk of the years gone past/How they go so fast/What I’d give for one last spin round the sun with them”) roll with finesse and poise.

Later,  when Simmons sings: “Radio on/Same old songs/Simon Cowell will be number one/Tells the Tesco mums who to crush on,” he’s kicking against the Longfellowian notion that there’s comfort in familiarity.

“A Cold December” rebels against holiday convention in the most elegant of ways; it’s a Christmas song that feels familiar and evergreen while also being entirely new.

Not an easy task.