Sad Christmas Songs

As I've mentioned many a time, I love a good Sad Christmas Song. Barely any of my favorite songs, Christmas or otherwise, are happy. I guess my inner pessimist expresses herself through SONG! (Cue jazz hands)
A couple of my favorite Sad Christmas Songs actually aren't Christmas-specific. They're more Sad Winter Songs. The first, Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg, is clearly more of a Sad New Year's Song. This song kind of gives me the warm fuzzies, because one of the first things my best friend and I bonded over was our shared, age-inappropriate love of Dan Fogelberg. Seriously, what were 14 year olds doing listening to sappy 70s soft rock? Either way, this song has actually made me tear up on occasion. Just being real (need I remind you the first rule of Winfrey Fight Club is no frontin'?). I'm pretty sure this song is still aimed at people much older than I am, but it hits me in a much different way now. The last couple of lines have a simplistic poetry about them that I really enjoy.
Also, I know a lot of people that hate this song. You will probably be one of them!

While River by Joni Mitchell may mention Christmas, I wouldn't call it a Christmas song. It's more of a "I'm so screwed up that I drove away the man that loved me and now I feel like skating away even though everyone else is happy" song. I really love this song.

The sparse instrumentation and the plain sorrow in Joni's voice make this song extremely emotionally affecting. You know what would be great? If you added in a shit ton of instruments and had Barry Manilow do HIS spin on it! The song starts at about 1:30.

I don't think Barry Manilow had malicious intentions. I mean, I of all people understand the appeal of Manilow. This song, though, is truly terrible. Just hearing him sing lyrics like, "I'm gonna make a lot of money and I'm gonna quit this crazy scene," is like WHAT. What crazy scene? Look at all those middle aged ladies in the audience! That scene is the complete OPPOSITE of crazy. That scene is like a reasonably pleated pair of slacks.
Naturally, the radio station I have to listen to at work plays the Barry version and not the Joni original. I will never understand this world.