open discussion

Open Discussion (December 4, 2022)

Posted on by 45 Comments

Open DiscussionIt’s Sunday, which means it’s time to end the week with an open discussion post!

To keep things civil, there are a few rules:

  1. Be kind and respectful to one another. Any harassing language will be deleted.
  2. This is not a place to state what you don’t like about me and/or my blog. Move elsewhere, trolls.
  3. Video/gif/image embedding is totally fine. Just try to limit yourself to a couple per comment. Otherwise my moderation filter goes crazy.

Each week, I’ll open with a question to get the conversation going. Feel free to chat about anything, but if you’re not sure what to write you can use this question as a starting point.

This week’s question:

You knew this was coming: let’s build a seasonal playlist! What are some of your favorite K-pop holiday/wintery songs?

**On another note, this will be the final “Open Discussion” of 2022 to make room for the End-of-Year countdowns and other year-end features. There will be plenty to discuss on those posts!

45 thoughts on “Open Discussion (December 4, 2022)”

  1. You all probably know my favorite holiday songs by now!



    I also really like Girls’ Generation TTS’s holiday mini album. Lovelyz’ Twinkle has also become a seasonal staple over the years.

    And, I think Golden Child are waaay overdue for a fun holiday single.

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  2. i’m not big on christmas music, but Miracles in December brings me to tears to this day.
    i’m not sure if i ever talked about this on your blog, but i became kpop fan when i was 9 (i’m 18 now, btw) and i was obsessed with that song, i even showed it to my classmates. truly a christmas icon. The Star and Christmas Day from the same album are also all-time favorites.

    the only other christmas release i cared about was stray kids’ christmas evel, because it’s so not-christmas that i can’t help loving it.

    honestly, i don’t normally listen to christmas music, but i will check out everyone’s recommendations. who knows what christmas presents i was missing out on all those years.

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  3. Okay, here’s one no one else will mention, but which I have a soft spot for: BTS’s Butter (Holiday remix). Somehow this ubiquitous, very summer-sounding song got a convincing Christmas makeover, with a sax solo no less. Anyway, it’s all cheesy and fun and guaranteed to put a smile on my face whenever it comes on.

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  4. I usually find the Christmas kpop songs pretty cringy. Exo’s Miracles in December was pretty good.

    For the Winter season, I usually listen OST of Kdrama that were released in this period like the ones of She Would Never Know with
    – NELL – Lean On Me
    – Sandeul – I Feel You
    – Ben – Leave Me
    – Cheeze- Daydream

    Otherwise :
    – V – Christmas Tree (even it’s the title is Our Beloved Summer :p)
    Etc…

    I like more the quiet ones :p

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    • Speaking of soundtracks, Goblin definitely gives me that winter holiday vibe – Winter Is Coming, Stay with Me, Beautiful, Round and Round….

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  5. Out of my entire 24 hour playlist, I couldn’t find any songs that were associated with Christmas 💀. I’m looking forward for all of the company Christmas songs from Brand New music and C9 ent. I have 2 songs that Nick can use which somewhat fit the description of a holiday song, that being AB6IX’s Stay Young and ATEEZ’s Turbulence

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  6. Given the Wonder Girls’ penchant for retro Motown-themed singles, and so many Christmas classics from that era (like the unbeatable A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector), it’s one of life’s great, well, if not tragedies, than sadnesses or pities, that they didn’t to a Christmas release. (Egg on my face if they actually did…)

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  7. EXO’s winter EPs (Miracles in December, Song for You), Dear Santa (EP) by Girls’ Generation-TTS, and Wish List by f(x) come to mind. I’m praying SM does NCT DREAM’s upcoming winter EP justice…

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  8. Exo’s Miracles in December hands down! ❤❤ God I love this song! It just spells winter magic for me! Also one of my favorite Exo songs in general! That chorus never fails to give me goosebumps really!

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  10. There are better answers for this (everyone above me is talking about Miracles in December, and everyone above me is right!), but I’ve got a massive soft spot for Christmassy! by The Boyz. I listen to this guy year-round. It’s straightforward and pretty generic, but it feels super self-aware, somehow. Extra fun if you watch the equally goofy MV along with it! Just a song that makes me happy 🙂

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    • Just remembered another niche one. LUCY’s Gwangil has a song called Solo Christmas that he posted on YouTube before Superband was filmed (bonus: Boyhood was in it, too!), and there’s a professionally-filmed concert rendition of it by all of LUCY from last year. I’m pretty sure it’s just one verse, chorus, and post-chorus, but I love everything about it. Nice to hear Gwangil singing the whole way through, too! People forget he was ready to be the sole vocalist of whatever group he might come out of Superband with. No clue how to embed videos on mobile, if I even can, so I’m just gonna slap the link here and see what happens. Give it a listen!

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      • …wasn’t expecting that to work! Here’s the original recording of it, too. Felt like I was going crazy when I heard Donghyun’s voice, but then I checked the description — small world!

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  13. My K-pop holiday playlist starts and ends with Miracles in December. No other holiday song has ever been able to capture the same emotional energy.

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  15. My favorite winter songs would be EXO’s “The Star”, (happy to see it getting so much love here btw) Heize’s “First Sight”, Baek Yerin’s “November Song” and Red Velvet’s “Automatic” and “One of These Nights.”

    Pretty sure only like two of those are legit holiday songs or at least meant for the winter season, but there’s something about all of them that remind me of the cold. I normally listen to high-energy, annoyingly upbeat songs, but winter time is when I like to sit down and listen to some slower songs for some reason.

    Baek Yerin’s “November Song” in particular is so sweet and something about it feels so raw and genuine. The lyrics paint a very warm picture and the whole song sounds like a diary entry. There’s just such a strong charm to me in the way she describes this sweet little winter romance she’s experiencing.

    I also enjoy TTS’s Christmas album. It sounds like they had a lot of fun recording those songs and they are fun!

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  16. Christmas EveL. That’s about it……

    I haven’t listened to miracles in December before because it just didn’t like my kind of thing, but the incredible number of recommendations makes me want to…

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  17. Twice has really good wintery songs! Doughnut, Merry & Happy and The Best Thing I Ever Did are all lovely. Also a fan of The Carol by Loona, Sweet Winter by Weki Meki, Winter Poem by Hyewon, Winter Sleep by IU, My My by Purple Kiss, and Cold Winter by Yuju!

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  18. Funky Glitter Christmas – NMIXX
    A-Ha – Hyolyn
    My Heart Says – SoReal
    Heart Attack – Chuu
    Winter Story – Laboum

    None of the above are really my favorites from the respective artists nor my favorite songs overall (I’m really biased against Christmas pop sounds,) but I think they’re pretty solid in their own rights.

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  19. Recommendations from my short but loved K-mas playlist:

    NCT U
    -Coming Home (I know miracles in December is THE Holliday ballad, but this one is my favorite.)
    -Beautiful
    -IOU

    NCT Dream
    -Joy
    -Candle Light

    Shinee
    -Winter Wonderland
    -Colors of the season

    Onew
    -Way

    TVXQ
    -White

    P.S Happy Holliday’s Everyone!

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  21. f(x) – 12:25 Wishlist
    LOONA – The Carol

    And then it’s not a holiday song really, but I love Pastel Sweater by Gugudan. One of my faves from them and could easily be rewritten as a Christmas song.

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  23. This is borderline since it is a Japanese release by a K-Pop artist, but the only Christmas song to really stand the rest of time for me has been BoA’s Merikuri. I know she recorded a Korean version, but my attachment will always been to the original Japanese version for sentimental reasons.

    Original version with MV:

    15th Anniversary addition (no MV since Avex of course only released a short version online):

    Sorry if this bunches up into one blob of text. For some reason, WordPress continues to take out my paragraphs whenever I hit send.

    Happy holidays to all!

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  25. I’m on the hunt for more K-pop Christmas tunes (excited to listen to everyone’s recommendations!!), but for what I’ve already got I’ll happily jump on the “EXO’s first winter album” bandwagon and also throw in “Girl x Friend” and “Sing For You” from their second winter album. I’ve also got “White Christmas” and “Tell Me Baby” by Super Junior on mine, plus their collab with TVXQ! “Magical” and the Kyuhyun/Onew/Taeil trio “Ordinary Day.” And then we’ve got “Spring Snow” by Pentagon thrown into the mix. Hoping for some new music to add on the 15th when the SuJu release drops.

    For wintery in general, I tend to lean towards ballads, super atmospheric stuff, and slower music – anything I can hear playing during a hushed snowfall or cozy by a fireplace music. A couple examples in different flavors:

    -…ing – Super Junior-KRY
    -That’s Okay – D.O.
    -Dinner – Suho & Jane Jang
    -Parallel Lines – Yesung
    -We Just Don’t Care – One N’ Only

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  27. DK’s (Seventeen) “You’re My Christmas” has been on repeat for me lately! It’s pretty simple, but I can never get enough of DKs voice so it’s a win for me 🙂

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