Watch: The Darkness Is “Santa” For Sexy Holiday Single

If you’ve seen the movie Love Actually, then you’ve heard of the UK tradition of the “christmas single.” It’s a bit of a contest, this race among pop heavyweights to net the highest-charting holiday-themed song. For its part, each song sounds notes of nostalgia, good cheer, and wishes fulfilled — ie. the feelings vital to your survival each holiday season. So intertwined is music to the holiday experience — and so great is our fatigue with the classics — that any listener can value the creation of new standards to soundtrack the most wonderful time of the year.

There may be nobody better suited to this tradition than master songwriter Justin Hawkins and his band The Darkness, whose second-ever holiday single arrived this weekend via “I Am Santa.” Adorned with a gleeful performance video in the style of a ’70s primetime holiday special  — leotards, woozy dancing, super-soft focus — “Santa” fits snugly among big-smile singalongs like Billy Squier’s “Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You” (1981) and Danger Danger’s “Naughty Naughty Christmas” (2002). In other words, a feel-good classic fit for Santa’s own stereo.

Get “I Am Santa” here and on the new deluxe edition of The Darkness’ Last Of Our Kind here. Three more new bonus tracks here.