Welcome to our 10th annual Christmas Roundtable! 2025 has been quite the chaotic year. We are ready to put 2025 behind us and look onward to 2026! BareBones Ent sat down with a bunch of bands and musicians to talk about Christmas and hopefully spread some cheer. Thank you to all of the bands below and here’s looking forward to 2026 and more amazing music!
BBE: What is your favorite thing about the holiday season?
AJ: I love the family time and general Christmas festivities
Jackson: During the day, it would be driving when nobody else is on the road. During the evening, curling up next to a roaring fire with a cup of hot cocoa with the Charlie Brown Christmas album playing in the background
Tyler: As much as I hate the cold and snow there is something peaceful about a fresh snowfall.
Dane: Being around family and just enjoying everyone’s presence. Presents don’t really matter to me, material things can always be replaced. You can’t always replace family.
BBE: What is the best holiday memory you have?
AJ: I remember back in 1988 receiving a brand new gameboy color. That was really cool.
Jackson: See above.
Tyler: Getting a Nintendo 64 as a child was a huge deal for me. I played the crap out of NFL Blitz.
Dane: When I was in 1st grade we lived in an apartment in the second floor of a house / apartment type of situation. We didn’t have a chimney nor fireplace. I woke up and my parents took me outside to show me glittery footprints leading up and down the staircase we had to show that Santa had come to our house along with snowy footprints leading to our Christmas tree. It really made me think he was real and always found a way to give every kid their presents and make it work. As an adult looking back it was such a cool idea.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas movie?
AJ: This one’s tough. It’s probably between A Christmas Story and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Jackson: Jim Carrey’s The Grinch
Tyler: Olive, the Other Reindeer. It randomly came on the TV when my brother and I were younger. It’s been stuck in our heads ever since.
Dane: Christmas Vacation. That was my dad’s favorite movie and we always watched it at least one during the holiday season.
BBE: If you could be any holiday character who would it be and why?
AJ: Buddy the Elf clearly.
Jackson: See above. (Because he’s extremely good at building Technology in a short amount of time. The number of things I could do if I had the Grinch’s ability… a guy can dream.)
Tyler: I’d take the elf role in any movie. Working with my hands and being jolly? Sign me up.
Dane: I never really resonated with a specific character but I’ve always liked Buddy The Elf because of his cheerfulness and love for Christmas.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas song?
AJ: My favorite Christmas song is Christmas Eve/Saravejo by the Trans Siberian Orchestra
Jackson: I have four: “The 12 Pains of Christmas”, “Police Stop My Car”, “Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire”, and “The Buttcracker Suite”. But if you’re looking for a serious answer, I’d say Andy Williams “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”.
Tyler: Steel Panther’s “The Stocking Song”
Dane: Father Christmas by The Kinks. I vividly remember that song always being played and just sitting down enjoying coco and jamming out with my dad to that song. It’s still a tradition to this day
Illusions of Grandeur (Facebook/Insta)
BBE: What is your favorite thing about the holiday season?
IOG: When people reflect on their year and being grateful to each other, it’s the warm feelings of friends and family coming together.
BBE: What is the best holiday memory you have?
IOG: Playing a holiday benefit for Philabundance, an organization that helps feed the homeless in the Philadelphia area, as we started out as a band in Philly, it felt great to assist and give back to that community.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas movie?
IOG: Humm… that’s a tough one! Probably one of our favorite Christmas movies is Four Christmases; and of course, It’s a Wonderful Life. We watch both every year during the holiday season. Also, ELF!
BBE: If you could be any holiday character, who would it be and why?
IOG: Cousin Eddie Johnson in Christmas Vacation!
No one has given Clark more headaches than Cousin Eddie Johnson (Randy Quaid), who, despite his title, is not related by blood to Clark or Ellen. He is, however, married to Ellen’s actual cousin, Catherine (Miriam Flynn). Who cannot love that character!
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas song?
IOG: Well, it would be a whole album, A Charlie Brown Christmas by the American jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi (later credited to the Vince Guaraldi Trio).
Bleed Electric (Mug 5) (Facebook/Insta)
BBE: What is your favorite thing about the holiday season?
Mug5: The thinning of the noise. When the world exhales and you can almost hear yourself think again. It reminds you that movement is not the same as meaning.
BBE: What is the best holiday memory you have?
Mug5: Being a kid and realizing an hour could feel endless or disappear entirely, depending on what you were doing and how you felt.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas movie?
Mug5: Die Hard. It is about endurance, loyalty, and choosing to show up when everything is falling apart.
BBE: If you could be any holiday character, who would it be and why?
Mug5: Frank Cross from Scrooged, before the lesson lands. Sharp, defensive, self-aware enough to know the system is broken, but still stuck operating inside it.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas song?
Mug5: “Father Christmas” by The Kinks. I only found this song a couple of years ago on a random Spotify playlist. The whole song is punk in spirit. It is probably the most punk Christmas song ever written.
Scream At The Sky (Facebook/Insta)
BBE: What is your favorite thing about the holiday season?
SATS: The gift of giving back to our community and people around us that need a little extra help.
BBE: What is the best holiday memory you have?
SATS: For us personally it’s the happiness we get from sending out our band personal Christmas cards and the reactions we get from the fans the joy it brings them.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas movie?
SATS: National Lampoons Christmas.. can never go wrong with an 80 or early 90s Christmas movie! Movies were just built different then!
BBE: If you could be any holiday character who would it be and why?
SATS: Frosty duhhh dudes always smiling and blazing his pipe just enjoying life.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas song?
SATS: Jingle bell rock because who doesn’t feel that vibe that song brings
BBE: What is your favorite thing about the holiday season?
IWAN: That it is a celebration of Jesus’ birth into this world. That idea tends to get lost in this season.
BBE: What is the best holiday memory you have?
IWAN: Gotta be honest, I can’t think of any, outside of some dysfunctional family get togethers with some hilarious moments. I got nothing warm and fuzzy to share.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas movie?
IWAN: It’s A Wonderful Life because of the message that you matter even if you think you don’t. You just might need to wait and adjust your thoughts.
BBE: If you could be any holiday character who would it be and why?
IWAN: She-Ra of “He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special” because she’s a superhero who, alongside He-Man saved the day.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas song?
IWAN: I can’t say I have one in particular but there is a song going around Tik Tok called Christmas Puppy…….. I suppose any Christmas song Scott Stapp of Creed has covered because he can sing Mary Had A Little Lamb and I’d be headbanging to it.
Abby Nissenbaum (Facebook/Insta)
BBE: What is your favorite thing about the holiday season?
AN: Getting to spend time at home in Connecticut with my parents, sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I’m close with my family but unfortunately rarely get to see them in person, so I love sharing that time together during the holidays.
BBE: What is the best holiday memory you have?
AN: My dad’s side of the family is Jewish and my mom’s side is Catholic, so depending on the timing of the holidays, there have been many Christmas Eves where we’ve also lit the menorah. And of course we always have the requisite picture of the menorah in front of the Christmas tree. I love celebrating both cultures (and I get to experience double the amazing food: The Feast of the Seven Fishes, latkes, anginetti, and brisket are standouts).
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas movie?
AN: “Merry and Gay” from Tello Films.
BBE: If you could be any holiday character who would it be and why?
AN: Jo March from “Little Women” (which I very much consider a Christmas movie). She’s creative and emotionally-driven, but also smart, principled, and disciplined.
BBE: What is your favorite Christmas song?
AN: “Merry Christmas, Darling” by the Carpenters.
