I am sure you won’t disagree when I say 2024 has been the year of Sabrina Carpenter. ‘Espresso’ hit the pop-music scene with a bigger impact than your first sip of coffee in the morning. It broke records by topping the UK Official Charts for seven weeks and was crowned the song of the summer by almost everyone. But ‘Espresso’ was more than just a song, it was a whole aesthetic. The first few beats play and I’m already picturing retro swimwear, blonde beach waves and cocktails by the sea (kudos to Dave Meyers for a genius music video). So, like everyone else, I was taken aback when I remembered: Sabrina Carpenter has Christmas songs too?

Earlier this month, Carpenter partnered with Netflix to release A Nonsense Christmas, a variety music special featuring her best festive hits. With musical guests ranging from Chappell Roan to Shania Twain, she incorporates all the classic features of a Christmas special while maintaining a comedic self-awareness that makes her version unique. But aside from its humorous entertainment value, what is really impressive about the 50-minute programme is how jam-packed it is with quality original music. Alongside well-known covers, Carpenter performs five of her own Christmas songs, a figure that does not even cover the entirety of her holiday repertoire.

“What truly brilliant Christmas song hasn’t been overplayed year after year until annoyance becomes nostalgia and nostalgia becomes love?”

If you’re a new or casual fan of Sabrina Carpenter, you might not know that Fruitcake, her Christmas EP, was released a whole year before the Netflix special. The record was well-received by fans upon release but it is only now Carpenter has reached true pop stardom that her seasonal tracks are getting the mainstream recognition they deserve. But what truly brilliant Christmas song hasn’t been overplayed year after year until annoyance becomes nostalgia and nostalgia becomes love? It’s been a while since a new artist has broken into the Christmas canon of overplayed gems - the most recent example I can think of is Sia’s 2017 hit, ‘Snowman’, and that was seven years ago now. So, although l’ll never get tired of listening to Mariah, I think it’s time for some fresh blood. My proposal? We bring Sabrina Carpenter in.

I know what you’re thinking: “This woman has been famous for five minutes, and you want to put her on the same level as Bublé and Wham? No chance.” But just hear me out. If we’d never opened our hearts to the festive track of a newer artist we would have missed out on one of the best Christmas songs of all time: ‘Mistletoe’ by Justin Bieber. I’m not saying we should accept just any generic Christmas song in the hope it will eventually grow on us. Successful pop-stars have a tendency to overestimate their ability to write seasonal lyrics at the cost of polluting our radios with clichéd tunes. Sabrina Carpenter, however, isn’t one of these. Every song that features on Fruitcake is expertly crafted with a unique premise. It is clear that Carpenter wrote each one because genuine inspiration found her, and not for the far too common reason of wanting to retire on annual playtime.

“Even she has grown tired of how relationship-centric the holiday can be”

‘Santa doesn’t know you like I do’ is my favourite on the record. If you want to know what the seasonal love song is about, the clue is in the name. Quite a contrast from the sentiment of Mariah’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’, Carpenter implores her lover to realise that all he should want for Christmas is, in fact, her. Another instance where Carpenter shows off her comedic lyricism is in ‘Buy Me Presents’ when she jokingly warns, “If you don’t wanna buy me presents, drink me like a warm glass of milk”. The track is littered with affirmations of self-worth, reminding women to keep their relationship standards high during the holidays while making humorous nods to how easy it is to delude oneself about men.

‘Is it New Year’s yet?’ is an interesting addition to a Christmas collection because it is actually anti-Christmas. Perhaps inspired by the ‘bah humbug’ sentiment of The Waitresses’ ‘Christmas Wrapping’, Carpenter complains about the perils of being single during the festive period. The exclamation “Fruitcake just makes me sick (ugh)” is an ironic reference to the EP’s title; Carpenter clearly loves Christmas, but even she has grown tired of how relationship-centric the holiday can be.

In every track of Fruitcake, Carpenter maintains a sophisticated balance between humour and magic. The EP is rooted in traditional Christmas imagery but Carpenter’s droll and witty lyricism make it relevant to modern listeners. It is not every year an artist releases a Christmas song that escapes triteness without skimping on the fun, and it is even less often that this is achieved across six whole tracks. Carpenter manages this, so let’s give her some credit and bring at least one song from Fruitcake into the modern Christmas canon.