Song of the Day 12/24: Darlene Love, “Christmastime for the Jews”

Speaking of Jewish songwriters composing so many great Christmas songs, there’s one Christmas song that’s not only written by a Jew, Robert Smigel, the comic genius behind SNL’s “TV Funhouse” and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — it was written specifically for the Jews. “You grow up Jewish and you can’t help it,” Smigel said. “It’s a big part of your life being the person who’s not celebrating Christmas.”

So in 2005 Smigel and a couple of his joke writers put together this tune, which doubles as an homage to Phil Spector’s 1963 Christmas album, and they even got Darlene Love to sing it. You can read the oral history of how it came together here.