Tonight is the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, so HAIM are stepping up to the plate to serenade its end with “Christmas Wrapping 2020”, a new song they released this afternoon. It’s a rework of The Waitresses’s 1981 holiday classic to be about Hanukkah, COVID-19, and all the chaos that ensued this year.
The Grammy-nominated sisters unveiled the track on social media alongside a message for their fans. “HAPPY HANUKKAH!!” they tweeted. “Presenting our FIRST EVER holiday song: Christmas Wrapping 2020 (All I Want for Christmas is a Vaccine) 🔯🎄We hope this song helps you get through the holiday season.”
As expected, “Christmas Wrapping 2020” is a clever spin on the holiday radio staple. Over a slinky bass line by Thundercat and production courtesy of Ariel Rechtshaid, HAIM get to work by singing about ditching Amazon, cooking latkes, Yentl haircuts, and a few shoutouts to fellow Jews (all three sisters are Jewish). “It’s Hanukkah during COVID-19/ What the hell does anything mean?/ I stay awake way too late/ Because Neo-Nazis made ‘pizzagate,’” they croon.
As a bonus, the track also comes with a goofy homemade video. HAIM transformed a normal backyard into a makeshift studio for the event, draping bedsheets over trees as stand-in backdrops and dressing each other in holiday-colored outfits. Throughout, digital animations and memes zoom across the screen.
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The year is winding down, but that hasn’t stopped HAIM from celebrating their latest album, Women in Music Pt. III. In the past few months alone, they dropped a new Guns N’ Roses-inspired song called “Feel the Thunder”, performed “3 AM” on Seth Meyers, and debuted a new Paul Thomas Anderson-directed video for “Man from the Magazine”. Plus, Este Haim sat down for an exclusive interview with Consequence of Sound about her signature Fender bass and what motivates her to prove people wrong.
