Your first Christmas together is the one you will keep bringing up for years. Below are eight real songs that fit a couple's first holiday, and one more idea: an original song written about your actual story, for $39.90, delivered in 24 to 48 hours. We start with the last one, because it is the example.
Listen: "Our First Tree"
What makes a first Christmas song actually land
The best first-Christmas songs are built from small, specific firsts, not grand declarations. A new couple does not have thirty years of history yet, so the moments that matter are tiny and recent: the tree you chose together, the first ornament, the drive home with the heater on. "Our First Tree" is about exactly that kind of night. That is the move for a new relationship. Pick one true first and let the song hold it.
This matters for two reasons. A specific detail tells your person you were paying attention, which is the whole point of a first anything. And a specific detail is something no famous song can give you, because the songwriter did not know about your tree.
8 first Christmas as a couple songs (new love, together)
Here is a short rule for choosing: famous songs are best when one already feels like yours, and a written song is best when you want your own details in the words. These eight are real, well known, and land for a couple's first Christmas.
- "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" — Gwen Stefani ft. Blake Shelton. Written by Stefani, Shelton, Justin Tranter and busbee for her 2017 album of the same name. It is a real new-couple duet about a person making the whole season feel different. For the pair who found each other recently, this is the one.
- "All I Want for Christmas Is You" — Mariah Carey. Carey wrote it with Walter Afanasieff for 1994's Merry Christmas. It is an uptempo love song about wanting the person over any gift under the tree. The default first-Christmas anthem, and for good reason.
- "This Christmas" — Donny Hathaway. Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor wrote it in 1970. Warm, grown, and about being together for the holiday, with "shake a hand, shake a hand" energy. For a first Christmas that feels like the start of something.
- "Winter Song" — Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson. The two wrote and sang this 2008 duet. It never names the holiday and keeps asking "is love alive." Tender and a little uncertain, in the way early love actually is.
- "Winter Wonderland" — the 1934 standard. Written by Felix Bernard and Richard Smith, its original lyrics are about a couple's romance out in the snow, dreaming by the fire. For the pair who like the classic, cozy version.
- "Merry Christmas Baby" — Charles Brown. A 1947 rhythm and blues standard recorded by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers with Brown on vocals. Slow, easy, and grateful for the person beside you. For a low-lit first Christmas at home.
- "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" — the Judy Garland version. Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane wrote it for 1944's Meet Me in St. Louis. Warm and a touch wistful, about being together now and hoping for more of it. Good for a quiet first Christmas.
- "The Christmas Song" — Nat King Cole. Mel Tormé and Robert Wells wrote it in 1945. Chestnuts, firelight, and the plainest wish for a loved one. The sound of a first Christmas you want to slow down and keep.
The lyrics
The lyrics
Our First Tree
Discount lot, December twenty-third
The leaning one — we took the leaning one
It barely cleared the radiator, scraped the ceiling tile
You held the trunk, I tightened screws, it took us half the night
Four ornaments — we bought them two by two
A paper star you folded 'cause the real ones cost too much
The whole world fits in one warm room
When everything you own is here with you
This is our first tree, crooked as it stands
Lit up like a promise in a rented little flat
Someday they'll be taller, someday they'll stand straight
But baby, nothing's ever gonna feel bigger than this
Our first tree — our first Christmas
The needles dropped by New Year's, we kept it anyway
Toast went black while we were dancing to the radio
You hung your two, I hung my two, we stepped back like it was art
The window doubled all the lights so it looked like twice as much
The whole world fits in one warm room
When everything I own is standing next to you
This is our first tree, crooked as it stands
Lit up like a promise in a rented little flat
Someday they'll be taller, someday they'll stand straight
But baby, nothing's ever gonna feel bigger than this
Our first tree — our first Christmas
Years from now, some bigger house, some box marked DECORATIONS
We'll dig out one paper star, gone soft along the folds
And hang it highest — always highest
That was our first tree, crooked as we were
Lit up like a promise that we kept
They got a little taller, we got a little gray
But nothing's ever felt bigger than that
Our first tree — our first Christmas
Discount lot, the leaning one
It held everything we had — and it held
Common questions
What is a good song for a couple's first Christmas together?
For a first Christmas as a couple, "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" by Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton and "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey are two of the most fitting choices. Both are about new love making the season feel bigger than it usually is. If you want the lyrics to name your own story instead of a general one, a custom song is the most personal route.
Should we pick a famous Christmas song or have one written?
Pick a famous song if a particular track already feels like yours from your first weeks together. Have one written if you want your real details in the words. A custom song from Songbond is $39.90 and arrives in 24 to 48 hours, with unlimited revisions, so you can do both and let the written one be the surprise.
What should a custom first Christmas song include?
Small, true things work better than grand statements. The tree you picked out together, the year you met, an inside joke, the way the morning felt. You fill out a short questionnaire about those details and Songbond turns them into an original song.
Give them the song that is only about your first Christmas
A famous song says how new love feels. A song about your own first Christmas says what it looked like the night you set up the tree. If you want the second kind, have a custom song written for your first Christmas as a couple for $39.90, delivered in 24 to 48 hours, revised until it is right. Tell us about the tree, the two ornaments, the year you met. We will write the rest.
From the same series: a personalized song as a Christmas gift and romantic Christmas songs.
