Several years ago, Stray Kids took a humorous approach to Christmas with the off-kilter Christmas EveL. It’s rare that a K-pop group releases more than one holiday single, but the guys are back with a treat for their Japanese fans. Christmas Love is far jollier and more obviously targeted to this season. In fact, it may be the most exuberant thing they’ve released in years.
Apart from a brief hip-hop break during verse two, Christmas Love is unrelentingly cheerful. The sleigh bells are turned up to eleven. We’ve got chimes and jaunty percussion and the guys are genuinely belting out the sunny melodies. It’s a bit disarming, but not unwelcome. The song slavishly follows seasonal tropes and is actually at its best when it meets these expectations. The bounding pre-chorus is a lot of fun and the chorus has a rollicking pop energy built for sing-alongs. The outro has the framing and build of a great bridge, but at three minutes I suppose the track had already reached its maximum streaming length.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
This song and the music video is so cute. Stray Kids definitely know how to make a good Christmas song.
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oh, this was the highlight of the giant ep for me, not counting WHY which had been released earlier. it’s definitely going to be overshadowing the tiring TT in my playlists this winter, haha.
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Agree with your commment about the outro, like… where’s the final chorus? TikTok is killing even the most basic songs, man.
Other than that, it’s funny how the only thing really distinguishing this from any other holiday song is the requisite “STRAY KIDS!!!” at the beginning, which actually feels out of place to me lol
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i read your comment wrong and thought you were implying that the “STRAY KIDS !!1!1!1!” at the start is what singled this out as a christmas song
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“what’s your favourite christmas song” “miroh”
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Honestly sounds like something I would say
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Apart from the abrupt ending, the languid hip-hop beat in the second verse is a major turnoff. It’s a recurring issue in their music, evident in tracks like Haven and Blueprint in Go Live and mixtape Timeout and even in the heartbreaking love ballad that precedes this Christmas song in Giant. X-mas love feels like one of their stale stock songs, as if it were hastily chopped up to fit the current trend. Their ongoing problem is that their songs are either upbeat with a mediocre hook or aggressively abrasive but lacking any memorable melodic core. They seem to be addicted to combining the worst aspects of both approaches, creating songs that are neither outstanding nor emotionally resonant.
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