Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)

There certainly seems to be a scarcity of punk Christmas songs. I don't know if it's the heavy Jewish influence of punk rock or if it's just that punks don't give a shit (I'm leaning on the latter). There are, however, three (well, almost three) joyfully almost hopeful punk Xmas tunes.

The first one comes from punk royalty The Ramones. Joey, Johnny, Marky(replacing long-gone founder Tommy) and Dee Dee perform with the standard fury and speed you would expect from the boys from Forest Hills.

Off of 89's "Brain Drain," which also gave a great Halloween song(Pet Sematary) and an excellent cover (Palisades Park) displaying Joey's love of old 50's rock n roll, Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) is all about a young couple's trials and tribulations on Xmas Eve. Having fought for the rest of the year, the narrator pleads for a refrain from arguments as he asks "Where is Santa and his sleigh?/And tell me why is it always this way."

However for all the fighting they apparently still care for each as the prelude to the chorus states "I love you and you love me/And that's the way it's got to be," professing how "Christmas ain't the time for breaking each other's heart."

It's a cry for peace. Perhaps not in the same vein as John Lennon, but it's a cry for at least one night without constant bickering.