It’s the most wonderful time of the year. In Korea, Christmas is a day for friends and family as well as a time for consuming entertainment be it Television or music.

Here, we have chosen our favourite 25 songs released from the world of K-pop ranging from first generation bands to songs released as recently as 2024.

Out of a list of 50 classic Christmas songs, we could only pick 25, so for those of you wanting to explore more, check out our compiled playlist of K-pop Christmas songs here.

Finally, we will also be having our Christmas special broadcast on December 21 and to view our previous K-pop Christmas Broadcasts make sure to check out our Spotify and Mixcloud page.

X-mas – Xdinary Heroes

Compiling songs for this advent calendar, we opted to use just K-pop songs based on the distinct lack of Christmas songs from Korean musicians outside of the K-pop space.

Today, we will be flirting with that line as we feature Korean band Xdinary Heroes and their 2022 song “X-mas” from their mini-album ‘Overload’.
Known for their dark concepts and merging of K-pop and K-rock. The band quickly became known as one of the premiere K-bands in the industry, stepping up as JYP Entertainment’s primary band when fellow label mates DAY6 enlisted in 2021.

Originally, listening to “X-mas”, it was confusing to find the Christmas theme. Listening to the instrumentals and vocals, the song has an eerie feel of a Halloween song as opposed to the mostly cheery and upbeat Christmas songs previously featured on this advent calendar.

Part of a stacked album, the song stands out as one of the main songs, acting as the perfect ending track and the member’s abilities as musicians. The use of heavy electronic instrumentals provides a sense of urgency and hype to the song that none of the songs featured have managed to do so far, and definitely something we need to see more of in the future.

While not a traditional Christmas song, it is easy to envision “X-mas” feature in a movie like Krampus or Nightmare Before Christmas, and given the nature of Korean cinema and K-dramas, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this song feature in a future K-film or K-drama in the future.

What are your thoughts on “X-mas”? What is your favourite non-traditional K-pop Christmas song? Let us know on Social Media via X or Instagram.

Check our previous entries through the calendar below: