Songs to Get Through the Winter Holidays
The DailyYou’re reading The New Yorker’s daily newsletter, a guide to our top stories, featuring exclusive insights from our writers and editors. Sign up to receive it in your in-box.In today’s newsletter, a playlist for the season. Plus:Jonathan Blitzer on the coming immigration crackdownRichard Brody’s best movies of 2024Essential works of Native American historyPhotograph by Kirk West / GettyAmanda PetrusichStaff writerThe winter holidays can be joyous, exuberant, warming. But if the season’s relentless jubilance has left you a little raw and crabby, if you are overdue for a good sob-and-wallow, if you are jonesing for a long walk in the spindly cold, if you are feeling newly devastated and oppressed by what Emily Dickinson once called the “certain Slant of light” that hits on winter afternoons, allow me to offer a short playlist of songs that forego the mandatory cheer in favor of a darker, moodier vibe. In my opinion, December is a terrific time to turn up the collar of your wool coat and cultivate an air of gloomy complexity. Enjoy!“If We Make It Through December,” Merle Haggard“Winter Lady,” Leonard Cohen“Winter Is Blue,” Vashti Bunyan“Blood Bank,” Bon Iver“Fuck, I Hate the Cold,” Cowboy Junkies“December Day,” Willie Nelson“Out in the Cold Again,” Sam Cooke“Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” Nina Simone“Flowers in December,” Mazzy Star“I’m Not My Season,” Fleet FoxesPlus: Read Amanda Petrusich on the Best Albums of 2024 »Editor’s PickFor a President who considers Trump a fascist and has warned about the horrors of mass deportation, the atmosphere of Biden’s White House has struck several people I spoke with as curiously sedate.Photograph by Go Nakamura / ReutersThe Immigrants Most Vulnerable to Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans Entered the Country LegallyBiden could still pursue additional protections for many of them—so far, he appears unwilling to do so.Emily and her family faced grave danger in their native Venezuela. Her husband, a policeman who had become a target of the government, had fled the country for the United States, forcing Emily and her two children to go into hiding. For them, a Biden Administration immigration policy built around a legal principle known as “humanitarian parole” was a transformative chance at a safer new life. The program—which allows certain migrants who have a U.S.-based supporter and who have passed government vetting to live and work legally in the country for up to two years—brought the family back together. As Emily tells Jonathan Blitzer, “Humanitarian parole was complete salvation. Salvation from politics. Salvation from repression. Salvation from a family situation that was terrifying.” They have been afforded legal status for now, but Emily and others like her may face the most immediate danger under the unsettled deportation policies of the incoming Administration, Blitzer reports. What might happen next, and why hasn’t the current Administration done anything to intervene while it still can? Read the story »More Top StoriesThe Best Movies of 2024Houston’s Thriving West African Food SceneThe Twenty-first Century’s Best Works of Native American HistoryDaily CartoonCartoon by Mads Horwath and Natalya LobanovaCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copiedShopShopMore Fun & GamesPlay today’s smallish puzzle. A clue: Earth’s is tilted at an angle of approximately twenty-three degrees. Four letters.Shouts & Murmurs: Ad for the Human BodyP.S. Richard Penniman, known by his stage name Little Richard, was born on this day in 1932. Writing about what the trailblazing, incomparable rock-and-roll singer was denied, and what he deserved and demanded for himself, Hanif Abdurraqib notes, “To remind people of all you’re capable of, and all you’ve done, may not stop you from being erased, but it might at least hang some shame around the necks of those doing the erasing.”
In today’s newsletter, a playlist for the season. Plus:
- Jonathan Blitzer on the coming immigration crackdown
- Richard Brody’s best movies of 2024
- Essential works of Native American history
Amanda Petrusich
Staff writer
The winter holidays can be joyous, exuberant, warming. But if the season’s relentless jubilance has left you a little raw and crabby, if you are overdue for a good sob-and-wallow, if you are jonesing for a long walk in the spindly cold, if you are feeling newly devastated and oppressed by what Emily Dickinson once called the “certain Slant of light” that hits on winter afternoons, allow me to offer a short playlist of songs that forego the mandatory cheer in favor of a darker, moodier vibe. In my opinion, December is a terrific time to turn up the collar of your wool coat and cultivate an air of gloomy complexity. Enjoy!
- “If We Make It Through December,” Merle Haggard
- “Winter Lady,” Leonard Cohen
- “Winter Is Blue,” Vashti Bunyan
- “Blood Bank,” Bon Iver
- “Fuck, I Hate the Cold,” Cowboy Junkies
- “December Day,” Willie Nelson
- “Out in the Cold Again,” Sam Cooke
- “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” Nina Simone
- “Flowers in December,” Mazzy Star
- “I’m Not My Season,” Fleet Foxes
Plus: Read Amanda Petrusich on the Best Albums of 2024 »
Editor’s Pick
The Immigrants Most Vulnerable to Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans Entered the Country Legally
Biden could still pursue additional protections for many of them—so far, he appears unwilling to do so.
Emily and her family faced grave danger in their native Venezuela. Her husband, a policeman who had become a target of the government, had fled the country for the United States, forcing Emily and her two children to go into hiding. For them, a Biden Administration immigration policy built around a legal principle known as “humanitarian parole” was a transformative chance at a safer new life. The program—which allows certain migrants who have a U.S.-based supporter and who have passed government vetting to live and work legally in the country for up to two years—brought the family back together. As Emily tells Jonathan Blitzer, “Humanitarian parole was complete salvation. Salvation from politics. Salvation from repression. Salvation from a family situation that was terrifying.” They have been afforded legal status for now, but Emily and others like her may face the most immediate danger under the unsettled deportation policies of the incoming Administration, Blitzer reports. What might happen next, and why hasn’t the current Administration done anything to intervene while it still can? Read the story »
- The Best Movies of 2024
- Houston’s Thriving West African Food Scene
- The Twenty-first Century’s Best Works of Native American History
Daily Cartoon
- Play today’s smallish puzzle. A clue: Earth’s is tilted at an angle of approximately twenty-three degrees. Four letters.
- Shouts & Murmurs: Ad for the Human Body
P.S. Richard Penniman, known by his stage name Little Richard, was born on this day in 1932. Writing about what the trailblazing, incomparable rock-and-roll singer was denied, and what he deserved and demanded for himself, Hanif Abdurraqib notes, “To remind people of all you’re capable of, and all you’ve done, may not stop you from being erased, but it might at least hang some shame around the necks of those doing the erasing.”
