Holiday songs are not typically sad. There are some blues Christmas songs that would qualify, I guess. But usually, holiday songs are happy, joyful, and merry or contemplative, somber, and reverent. But there’s one holiday song that could be in the conversation for saddest songs ever, After the Holidays.
Just look at these lyrics:
Please stay with me
Till after the holidays
That’s when I need you so
Just say you’ll wait
Till after the holidays
Then I can let you go
Don’t make me face
This Christmas alone
After each wonderful Christmas we’ve known
Won’t you be kind?
Let me believe
You’re mine on New Years Eve
Just stay with me
Till after the holidays
I know it’s hard, but try
Try to pretend ’til New Years
Don’t make me face
This Christmas alone
After еach marvelous Christmas we’ve known
Won’t you bе kind and let me believe?
You’re mine on New Years Eve
Just stay with me
Till after the holidays
I know it’s hard but try
Try to pretend, ’til New Years
Then we can say goodbye
That’s brutal. A breakup is bad enough. A breakup at the holidays is even worse. But the pleading puts it over the top. It’s quite literally pathetic. Not in the inadequate sense, but in the arousing pity sense. The narrator is desperate. She says, “Let me believe/Until New Year’s Eve,” but we all know that’s impossible. The narrator would rather live a lie knowing that it’s a lie for a couple of weeks than face reality. Ouch.
So, there’s the saddest holiday song for you. It’s no Puff the Magic Dragon, but it’s still awfully sad.
