„Obviously and overtly sad, despite being largely jaunty and uptempo in arrangement. Lyrical hooks include being in the drunk tank, expecting imminent death, hoping for imminent death, blaming another for the shattering and neglect of your dreams. Any balancing optimism is presented as being almost certainly delusional, if not downright hallucinatory. Entire song is steeped in nostalgia and regret for what might have been, but now never will be. It’s many people’s favourite ever Christmas record.“ (Tracey Thorn)
„Once upon a time a band set out to make a Christmas song. Not about snow or sleigh rides or mistletoe or miracles, but lost youth and ruined dreams. A song in which Christmas is as much the problem as it is the solution. A kind of anti-Christmas song that ended up being, for a generation, the Christmas song. That song, Fairytale of New York by the Pogues, has just been reissued to mark its 25th anniversary; it has already re-entered the Top 20 every December since 2005, and shows no sign of losing its appeal. It is loved because it feels more emotionally „real“ than the homesick sentimentality of White Christmas or the bullish bonhomie of Merry Xmas Everybody, but it contains elements of both and the story it tells is an unreal fantasy of 1940s New York dreamed up in 1980s London.“ (Dorian Lynskey tells the whole story of the song in The Guardian)