Sufjan Stevens Wrote a Christmas Apology for Worst Christmas Ever!
Worst Christmas Ever! arrived on 6 November through Asthmatic Kitty Records: 15 holiday recordings chosen from more than 100, plus one new song. That song, On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better), is the first new Christmas song Sufjan Stevens has written, produced and performed in nearly 15 years, and it is an apology.
The record is the first time Stevens’ holiday music has been gathered on a single album, according to his label. It draws on the box sets Songs for Christmas and Silver & Gold, nearly five hours of music between them, and Asthmatic Kitty pitches it as “an accessible and affordable point of entry” to a catalogue that has grown every few Decembers since 2001.
On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better) Is a Song About Saying Sorry
The new track is built around apology, self-assessment and asking for forgiveness, the label says, and its central line puts that plainly. “On this Christmas, I ask forgiveness for all the funny things I’ve said and done,” Stevens sings.
He explained the idea in a statement released with the single on Asthmatic Kitty’s site. “I love the idea of a Christmas apology. A holiday characterized by the giving and receiving of gifts might be made even better by the giving and receiving of forgiveness,” Stevens said. He went further: “‘I’m sorry’ is the ultimate ice-breaker in a moment of conflict, contention, and misunderstanding.”
Stevens called the song a prayer. “Let’s try to be better this year: more loving, forgiving, welcoming and reckoning,” he said, before closing on a hopeful note: “I believe the world will find its way.”
That is a characteristic move. Stevens has long treated the season as something he can bend to his own purposes, and his label recounts a line he gave Vulture about his holiday catalogue: “There are no rules and regulations when it comes to Christmas culture.” A Christmas song that asks for forgiveness rather than presents fits squarely inside that freedom.
The label describes the catalogue’s appeal in similar terms: an unguarded enthusiasm for the genre, a freedom to celebrate it “with both reverence and rebellion”, and a belief that Christmas music carries sacred and secular meaning that is, in the label’s words, “ultimately ours for the taking”. The new song is the clearest example yet of that reverent side.
Fifteen Songs From More Than 100 Christmas Recordings
The selection pulls from both box sets. The perennial favourites are there, as the label’s release-day note lists them: Sister Winter, Put the Lights On The Tree, Only At Christmas Time and the title track, That Was The Worst Christmas Ever! So are Justice Delivers Its Gift, Stevens’ ecclesiastical take on the Burl Ives classic Silver & Gold, along with Christmas In The Room and Silent Night.
The running order mixes carols with originals across 16 tracks. It opens with Silent Night and closes with Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages), and it carries two takes on It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, one billed as the Christmas Infinity Voyage Version and the other as the Christmas Unicorn Version. The new song sits eighth, right in the middle of the record rather than tacked on at the end.
In order, the 16 tracks are Silent Night; Put the Lights On The Tree; Holly Jolly Christmas; Christmas In The Room; It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (Christmas Infinity Voyage Version); Sister Winter; Joy To The World; On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better); Angels We Have Heard On High (Christmas Infinity Voyage Version); Only At Christmas Time; It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (Christmas Unicorn Version); That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!; Sleigh Ride; Justice Delivers Its Gift; Auld Lang Syne; and Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages).
Worst Christmas Ever! is out on vinyl, CD and cassette, with a limited 7-inch of On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better). The vinyl comes in a spread of colours: candy cane in the Asthmatic Kitty shop, Christmas Explosion at Rough Trade, Mistletoe Split at Barnes & Noble, Peppermint Swirl at Dinked retailers and Rudolph Red at major and independent shops.
The merchandise leans into the joke of the title. There is an I Am Santa’s Helper beanie in a new colourway, a cover-art puzzle, a ceramic mug hand-glazed by Stevens, an ugly Christmas sweater and sweatpant combination, wrapping paper with the cover art, greeting cards and, as the label puts it, “a sad tree air freshener”.
How a Christmas Gift for Friends Became Five Hours of Music
It started in 2001, when Stevens set out to make a Christmas gift for friends and family and ended up with a seven-song recording he called Noel, Vol. 1. Every few Christmases he made another one the same way: one week in December, usually at home, pulling in whoever was around.
That open door brought in a long cast of collaborators, including Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National, Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire, Cat Martino, Gabriel Kahane, Casey Foubert, James McAlister, Rosie Thomas, Marla Hansen, Olivier Manchon, Sebastian Krueger, and Daniel, Elin, Lilly and Ida Smith of Danielson. Asthmatic Kitty released the first five volumes as Songs for Christmas in 2006, and five more EPs, recorded between 2006 and 2010, as Silver & Gold in 2012.
The two boxes are not uniform. Consequence wrote that they range “from traditional carols to Stevens’ own often melancholy, occasionally absurd takes on the season.” That range is the point of a single-disc edit: a newcomer can hear the solemn carols and the playful originals side by side without committing to all ten volumes.
A Hand-Painted Video Made With Friends and Neighbours
The video for the new song came out with the single on 2 November. Stevens directed and edited it, and filmed and created it with photographers Michael O’Neal and Cubby Graham. Its cast of friends and neighbours includes Meg Lui, C. Misha Handschumacher, Beccs, Graham, Olivia Busa and Stevens himself.
Inspired by the mixed media animation of Leesa Allmond, the clip is made from 6,000 stills that were printed, hand-painted by Stevens, O’Neal, Graham and Hannah Cohen, and then scanned again to create its overlay effect, according to Asthmatic Kitty. It echoes how the Christmas records themselves were made: friends in the room and a lot of hands on the work.
Stevens’ Return to Public View
The release follows a quiet stretch. In 2023 Stevens revealed he had been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare immune disorder that causes severe muscle weakness, Consequence notes. On 25 September this year he made his first live appearance in more than eight years, joining Meg Lui on piano during her show at Tempo in Kingston, New York.
Lui, whose debut album Instant Validation is out on Asthmatic Kitty, is also part of the new video’s cast. The label, based in Bloomington, Indiana, has released this holiday catalogue since the 2006 box set, and Worst Christmas Ever! keeps it in the same hands. For another songwriter choosing an independent route this season, read how Jake Bugg went independent and back to his roots on Alamo.
Why Worst Christmas Ever! Works as a Way In
For newcomers, the appeal is scale. Songs for Christmas and Silver & Gold together run to nearly five hours, which is a lot to ask of anyone wrapping presents. Worst Christmas Ever! trims that to 16 tracks, and the label frames it as both the perfect introduction for new listeners and an essential addition for longtime fans.
For longtime fans, the reason to buy is the new song. After nearly 15 years without a new Christmas original, Stevens has written one about the hardest gift to give, and he has placed it at the heart of the record.
The title promises the Worst Christmas Ever. The new song offers something gentler: a way to make the next one better.
