Sugarland – “Nuttin’ For Christmas”

Songwriters: Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett.

When covering Christmas songs, artists have something like three options: They can do something bland and boring but inoffensive; they can choose to put in the artistic work necessary and cut something that rivals the standard recording, or even becomes a new standard itself; or they can release a version that generically sounds like one of their own tunes.

Sugarland went the third way.

Jennifer Nettles is a distinct enough singer who, despite constantly sounding like she’s trying to be cute by wrinkling her noise, accomplishes what she’s aiming for here, and Sugarland’s faux-country acoustic hoedown pop sound works in context as well.

Of course the context here is Sugarland being Sugarland and leading a frivolous sing-a-long. So, hooray?

“Nuttin’ for Christmas” is definitely a cutesy song, no doubt about that, and to be honest I was disappointed that Nettles didn’t have more fun with this. Playful is kind of her thing, and here is a perfect song on which to be all the goofy she can be.

But instead, the duo altered the song’s melody, and Nettles ends up giving an entirely forgettable performance. It is a straightforward, serious attempt at a song with lyrics like, “I spilled some ink on mama’s rug/I made Ronnie eat a bug/Bought some gum with a penny slug/Somebody snitched on me.”

Ironically, the one time I’d be completely happy to hear Sugarland be fun-loving in an over the top and ridiculous way, they lock it up and try to play “Nuttin’ for Christmas” like an up-tempo, old time bluegrass hymn. Lame.