Father Christmas (song)
"Father Christmas" is a 1977 single by the English group The Kinks.
It tells of a department store Father Christmas who is beaten up by a gang of poor kids who tell him to give them money instead of toys, as toys are impractical; and asks that the toys be given "to the little rich boys." At one point, a child asks the narrator to give his/her father a job for Christmas—or, if he must deliver a toy, a machine gun.
The song has been covered a number of times by bands including the Gigolo Aunts, Dispatch, Green Day, Man Overboard, Bad Religion, Warrant, Lit, Bowling For Soup, Save Ferris, Smash Mouth, Cary Brothers, Action Action, Everything, Deer Tick, OK Go, The Unlikely Candidates, Cheap Trick, and Chris Jericho.
The track appeared in a TV spot for Unaccompanied Minors and in episodes of the TV series That '70s Show and Bob's Burgers.
The track was included on the Arista compilation Come Dancing with The Kinks and is also available as a bonus track on the CD reissue of the Kinks' 1978 album Misfits. Warrant's cover was featured on a hair metal Christmas tribute record called We Wish You a Hairy Christmas, where it was the opening track.
The b-side to the single was another Ray Davies composition, "Prince of the Punks". It was written in the bitter aftermath of Davies' troubled stint as the co-producer for Café Society's debut album, which was issued in 1975. Davies wrote as part of the lyrics, "Tried to be gay/But it didn’t pay/So he bought a motorbike instead", in direct reference to Tom Robinson, one of the band members of the short-lived Cafe Society.
