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​​​​​​​Serena Ryder: Christmas Kisses

The title track from her first holiday album is an original Christmas tune, featuring timely lyrics and another strong vocal performance. It is accompanied by a sweetly charming video with a charitable component.

​​​​​​​Serena Ryder: Christmas Kisses

By Kerry Doole

Serena Ryder - “Christmas Kisses” (Serenader Source/Universal Music Canada): This is the title track of Ryder's recently-released first holiday album, one already climbing the Holiday Radio Chart. Its success comes as no surprise, as her vivacious personality and big-hearted voice are perfect for songs of the season.


Superstar producer Bob Ezrin helmed the album, and he explains in a label press release that "Serena is so versatile and has such a command of her instrument that anything is possible with her. So, we picked what we thought would be the most elegant approach to Christmas classics - one that shone the brightest light on the songs themselves, and on her magnificent voice.” 

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The album features fresh versions of these favourites, but "Christmas Kisses" is an original tune, co-written by Ryder and Simon Wilcox. It is a total charmer, with lyrics that are a timely reminder that there should be more to Christmas than material gifts: "My bank account is closed, and I've got pockets full of holes, would it be enough if I gave you kisses for Christmas?"

In keeping with the spirit of the season, there is a charitable component to the song and the video. Ryder partnered with the Ontario SPCA to feature rescue dogs who are in need of adoption throughout the video (directed by Lisa Mann), and the SPCA has created a unique “Christmas Kisses” page where donations can be submitted to help care for rescue animals. Click here to donate now

Ryder began her East Coast Christmas Kisses Tour with two shows this week at Casino Nova Scotia in Halifax. She plays Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown tonight (Dec. 7) and Casino New Brunswick, Moncton, on Dec. 8.

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Mariah Carey kicks off the 2025 holiday season.
Courtesy Photo

Mariah Carey kicks off the 2025 holiday season.

Pop

In This Season of Giving, Mariah Carey Shares Throwback Clip From 1994 Manifesting a Potential Christmas Classic One Day: ‘So Grateful’

MC only had to wait 25 years for her all-time holiday classic "All I Want For Christmas Is You" to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Mariah Carey is the undisputed Queen of Christmas. The pop singer has lorded over the holiday charts for the past six years with her ubiquitous wintertime classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” It seems hard to believe it now if you’ve been anywhere near a store since Halloween, but the yuletide favorite that was released in 1994 did not chart until 2000 and did not hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 until 2019, fully 25 years after it first hit our ears.

Now, as the holidays really ramp up, the best-selling Christmas song of all time in the U.S. seems like a no-brainer to top the charts every year. But on Tuesday (Dec. 9), MC gave thanks for how it all started in a throwback video she re-posted from a fan feed of an interview she did in 1994 in which she was asked if she hopes one of the songs from her first holiday album, that year’s Merry Christmas, might some day be as ubiquitous as such standards as “White Christmas” or “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.
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