Sufjan Stevens Announces Christmas Compilation Worst Christmas Ever!

By Daniel Okafor

Sufjan Stevens will release a 16-track Christmas compilation, Worst Christmas Ever!, on November 6 via Asthmatic Kitty. The announcement arrived days after Halloween, which tells you something about the man's calendar. The collection mixes Yuletide standards reworked in Stevens' style with originals drawn from his holiday catalog, plus one newly unearthed vault track, "On This Christmas (It Only Getters Better)" — or, as the tracklist has it, "On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better)."

How big is Stevens' Christmas catalog?

Considerably bigger than most people's. According to a statement, Stevens has written and recorded more than 100 Christmas songs since 2001. That's a two-decade side career running parallel to his proper albums, and roughly on the scale of a small hymnal.

Worst Christmas Ever! draws heavily from earlier holiday releases. Several tracks previously appeared on Songs for Christmas, Vols. 1-5 and the 2012 box set Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Vols. 6-10. The collaborators list is a small indie-rock summit: the National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry, Cat Martino, Gabriel Kahane, and Casey Foubert.

The standards get the Stevens treatment. "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" both arrive in "Christmas Infinity Voyage Version" cuts, while a second "Midnight Clear" appears as the "Christmas Unicorn Version." The full tracklist:

• 01 Silent Night
• 02 Put The Lights On The Tree
• 03 Holly Jolly Christmas
• 04 Christmas In The Room
• 05 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (Christmas Infinity Voyage Version)
• 06 Sister Winter
• 07 Joy To The World
• 08 On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better)
• 09 Angels We Have Heard On High (Christmas Infinity Voyage Version)
• 10 Only At Christmas Time
• 11 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (Christmas Unicorn Version)
• 12 That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!
• 13 Sleigh Ride
• 14 Justice Delivers Its Gift
• 15 Auld Lang Syne
• 16 Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages)

The compilation takes its title from track 12, "That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!" — a typically sunny sentiment for the season.

What has Stevens been doing since Javelin?

Stevens hasn't released a new album since 2023's Javelin, but he has stayed busy on the reissue and one-off front. In 2024, he shared a 20th anniversary reissue of Seven Swans. Last year, he marked a decade of Carrie & Lowell with its own reissue and released the song "Heaven Thunder" with Mina Tindle.

There was also a live return. In September, Stevens made a surprise appearance at Meg Lui's show in Kingston, New York — his first public musical performance in over eight years.

The reappearance carries weight. In 2023, Stevens revealed he had been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (a rare disorder in which the body's immune system attacks the nerves) and was relearning how to walk and use his hands. A Christmas compilation counts as modest news by his standards. From a catalogue of 100-plus seasonal songs, it may also be the easiest record he'll ever sequence.

Fans now have a date and a vault track to hold them until November 6. Whether "Christmas Infinity Voyage" becomes a genre designation remains the label's problem.