Considered among Swedes to be one of the best modern Swedish Christmas songs of all time, Mer jul (More Christmas) by Adolphson & Falk, from 1982, is, as the name suggests, about wanting more of Christmas.
“Give me temperatures of minus 30, elves everywhere and a forest of green pines. I want houses covered in snow, thousands of lights and colourful baubles in droves”.
It also has the benefit of being pleasant to listen to over and over again, which can’t be said of every Swedish Christmas song.
This is another classic Swedish Christmas song, but unlike Mer jul above it’s widely despised by Swedes who have had enough of listening to it on repeat since it was released in 1988.
Depending on when you moved to Sweden you may not yet have developed a hatred for this song, but spare a thought for your Swedish friends and colleagues and maybe leave this one off your Christmas playlist unless you want to face their wrath.
Tomten jag vill ha en riktig jul
The next one on this list is also from the 80s, which you’ll notice the second the synth kicks in at the beginning. Swedes either love or hate the out-of-tune children singing “Santa I want a real Christmas” and asking for things like a pinball machine, a radio-controlled plane and a Donkey Kong (which says something about how old the song is), but it’s a nostalgic classic for many.
The title of this song, from 1988 (the 80s were clearly a good decade for Christmas hits), translates as “Our Christmas ham has run away”, and that’s pretty much what the song is about. If you hear a strange song featuring oinking pigs, synths and over-the-top Swedish accents when you’re out doing your Christmas shopping this year, it’s probably this one.
Not to spoil it for you, but the ham apparently “said goodbye and went off to Hawaii together with Miss Piggy”.
The first Christmas song on this list which isn’t from the 1980s, Achtung X-Mas! is a song by humour group Tyskarna från Lund (The Germans from Lund), which is both a parody of serious German synth bands and an alternative Christmas banger. If you imagine Kraftwerk writing a Christmas song, but in high school-level German, then you’re pretty close to Achtung X-Mas!
If you’re more into traditional Christmas songs then O helga natt, the Swedish version of Oh Holy Night, is hard to beat. There have been a number of different versions throughout the years, but two of the most classic ones are Jussi Björling’s from 1959 and Tommy Körberg’s from 1989 (he also recorded an updated version in 2017).
This is another love-or-hate Christmas song, this time from 1994. It’s almost-but-not-quite a rap about how it’s Christmas again and how the holiday changes from childhood into adulthood. You’ll find yourself humming the hook hours after you’ve listened to it. It also samples a few classic Swedish Christmas songs which any parents will almost certainly have heard their kids singing around Sankta Lucia.
All of the other Christmas songs on this list are in Swedish, but we’ll make an exception for A Christmas Song by Björnzone, a spoof supergroup which started as a halftime show during Sweden’s Eurovision qualifiers. Despite the song’s boyband vibes, it was actually released in 2024. It’s ridiculously cheesy (that’s the point), was the most-played Swedish Christmas song that year and was the first Christmas song in history to debut at number one on the Swedish charts.
Ulf Lundell is as close to Bob Dylan as you can get in Swedish music, and while he’s written a few songs about Christmas Låt det snöa (Let it snow= is one of the best. It was originally released in 2000 and was re-released for his 2023 Christmas Album Rött Guld (Red Gold).
It’s more about the changing seasons than Christmas itself, and is Christmassy without being irritating.
The final entry on our list is also in English, but you can’t have a list of Swedish music without including Abba. Did you know that the band actually released a Christmas song back in 2021?
It’s their first Christmas song and is nostalgic and sweet, almost like a lullaby. It feels like the members of Abba looking back on their lives and their families and remembering Christmases long ago. It might not be as much of a classic hit as Dancing Queen or Mamma Mia, but it’s a great one for getting into the Christmas spirit.
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