12 Songs of Christmas - #6 Don't Waste Your Wishes

The Killers 2006-2016

Disclaimer: All perspectives, opinions, and memories in this entry are mine and mine alone. Some content is rugged, raw, and - sometimes - NSFW, but it's all authentic and included with purpose.

To read the "12 Songs of Christmas Intro," please CLICK HERE
To read Song #12 - "God Bless Us Everyone," please CLICK HERE To read Song #11 - "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," please CLICK HERE To read Song #10 - "All I Want for Christmas is You," please CLICK HERE To read Song #9 - "Santa Baby," please CLICK HERE To read Song #8 - "Baby, It's Cold Outside," please CLICK HERE To read Song #7 - "Celebrate Me Home," please CLICK HERE

Why these songs are on the List..

I listed this compilation as my favorite Christmas album the other day and we finally made it back to it.

And I know it's a bit of a cheat to include more than one song on one entry but I'm actually doing you a favor. If I was being completely honest, the five songs below would have been included individually and separately as stand-alone entries on my “12 Songs of Christmas” list. But doing that would have knocked four other favorites out and I KNOW no one wanted five more posts about The Killers.

I wrote about this back in the Top 40, but part of the reason why The Killers are my favorite band is that they had the brilliance to release one new Christmas song every year for 10 years to compile their own, original holiday album.

Most artists or bands just crank out a generic compilation of Christmas covers - and that’s fine (and even great in some cases) but I appreciate the long play and originality of The Killers’ plan.

The eventual collection of a decade’s worth of releases was called “Don’t Waste Your Wishes” and I’ve included my five favorite here:

5. A Great Big Sled (2006)

The first one released and still the most classic Christmas-y sounding track of the group.

4. The Cowboy's Christmas Ball (2011)

An updated Old West Nevada Christmas poem. I STILL want to attend this event.

3. Joel the Lump of Coal (2014)

Can we please turn this into an actual animated Christmas special?? Seriously, what happened to original animated cartoons? Just gonna ride on the fumes of Frosty and Rudolph ad infinitum?

2. Happy Birthday, Guadalupe (2009)

"With those big brown eyes. Boy, what did you do this time?" Wowza. What a line. No lie, I listen to this song all year long.

1. Joseph, Better You Than Me (2008) 

"And the desert is a hell of a place to find heaven” is one of the best lines ever written in any song anywhere. Getting Elton John to sing it somehow made it more awesome. I always loved this song but now it means even more being a dad. Can’t imagine what Joseph went through during Mary’s pregnancy. We think of characters from the bible as these saintly perfect people, but they weren’t. They were just regular humans (God’s favorite people to use). Amazing perspective in this song. And the bells and singing at the end is just epic.