The ultimate Christmas song

Fairytale of New York is - hard to believe - more than two decades old. The 1987 collaboration between the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl has come a Christmas classic, in spite of itself. It's dark, serious material (the famous opening lines of the lyrics, after all, are "It was Christmas Eve babe/ In the drunk tank"), yet I'd put it up as an ultimate Christmas song: it's full of emotion, and isn't Christmas sometimes also about wistful thoughts of ruined, piercing self-reflection as anything else? 

I'm not alone. In 2004, the song topped a British poll of favourite Christmas songs. The Wikipedia entry notes that the song has come out on top on other surveys, and has been identified as a Christmas favourite of everyone from Cliff Richard (!) to Ricky Gervais.

The song has been re-released in recent years, largely to draw attention to MacColl's family's campaign to investigate her 2000 death in Mexico.

I think the song has become evergreen because it's kind of timeless; it's clearly set in the past (the reference to Sinatra has sparked at least two debates I've been privy to, pertaining to the era in which the song is set), but that doesn't really matter too much.

Here's an excerpt from a piece Alan Connor wrote for the BBC Magazine last year, on the history of the song:

The songs of the Pogues are populated by incorrigible rakes and ne'er-do-wells with bad language and worse behaviour who are more celebrated than condemned. In a smaller way, when Christmas gets a little intense, there may be a comfort in hearing Fairytale Of New York and thinking: at least everyone else is rowing as well.

The video, which features Matt Dillon in a cameo in its opening moments, is a gem. Here it is.