Hawksley Workman’s Odd Christmas Songs Are a Homage to Huntsville Roots and Holiday Messiness

Hawksley Workman, Huntsville king of bizarre holiday pop, channels the quirky spirit of Huntsville into brilliant, beloved songs that celebrate the glamorous, sticky imperfection of Christmas

Hawksley Workman, the Juno Award-winning artist and reigning monarch of Canadian cabaret-pop, approaches Christmas with an eye for the beautifully strange and the wonderfully messy. For him, the holiday season is not about snow-globe perfection; it's about the inherent awkwardness of enforced joy, the strange, sticky dysfunction of family gatherings, and the sheer, absurd volume of glitter. He doesn't write songs about chestnuts roasting—he writes about the chestnuts that burned and left a smoky smell in the house for three days.

This philosophy is best demonstrated by his beloved holiday record, Almost a Full Moon, which has birthed cult classics the wonderfully bizarre "Claire Fontaine's Knee," a jaunty, theatrical pop piece built around a strange family tradition. These songs don't just celebrate Christmas; they offer three-act plays disguised as holiday ditties, capturing the genuine, often ridiculous human experience.

This commitment to the authentic, intimate experience recently brought him back to his roots in Huntsville, Ontario. Last weekend, the celebrated performer deliberately chose to play two nights at the humble Trinity United Church—a far more intimate setting than the major theatres and auditoriums he regularly headlines across Canada and Europe. For Workman, who grew up in Huntsville, the decision was deeply personal: Trinity United is the very church where he sung as a youth, forming the bedrock of his musical identity.

For a veteran artist whose catalogue spans 17 solo albums and thousands of shows worldwide, the choice to prioritize a small, local sanctuary over a larger, higher-capacity venue speaks volumes. It's an acknowledgment that the heart of his music—that blend of glamorous theatricality and small-town earnestness—was forged in places exactly like that. The shows were a kind of musical homecoming, a tangible connection to the origins of his sound.

It's from this place of deep, nostalgic connection that his odd Christmas songs spring. He is constantly hunting for that piece of discarded tinsel, that single, impossibly sticky candy cane wrapper glued to the carpet—the mundane, slightly imperfect details of the holidays. His new song, perhaps a fast, manic reflection on a last-minute trip to a discount hardware store on Christmas Eve, will inevitably have a theatrical flair, a dash of self-deprecating humor, and a melody that is just slightly too fast for the sentiment—the signature Hawksley Workman sound.

He understands that the true spirit of the holidays is found in its charming, ridiculous imperfections. And he knows, just like the community that showed up at Trinity United Church to hear him sing, that his fans wouldn't want it any other way.

Sources:

• Hawksley Workman Official Tour Announcements and Artist Biographies
• Reports from the Trinity United Church, Huntsville concerts
• Archival interviews on the origins of Almost a Full Moon