The best Christmas songs and other popular holiday favorites are usually quite easy to play on guitar. Although you rarely hear a guitar-driven Christmas tune, most will sound great played on either an acoustic or electric guitar using only a few basic chords.
So, let’s take a closer look, starting with a very traditional simple Christmas Song…
1. Jingle Bells
This is one of the simplest Christmas Guitar songs with only five root chords needed to play the most basic version - A, Am, C, D, and G. And for the slightly more complicated version you exchange the A for an A7 and add a D7.
However, the timing of the chord changes can be a bit confusing at first, with lots of the chords in the verses changing halfway through each bar. So start by just playing simple downstrokes until you know where the changes occur and then add some upstrokes to make the rhythm pattern more interesting.
As with most Christmas songs, you will need to sing along to really give it the seasonal feel.
Here is the Jingle Bells chord chart.
The melody is also easy to play on the guitar using only the highest three strings with most of the notes being either open, first fret, or third fret on the first and second strings. For more information, check out the full Jingle Bells melody tab.
2. Joy to the World
Next, we have another song with only three chords - G, D, and C - needed for the basic version.
But, if your chord knowledge is a little more advanced, you can also include Cadd9 and a D7. Cadd9 is much simpler to play than it sounds. Start by playing a root G chord using all four fingers, i.e. your little finger on the third fret of the high e string and your third finger on the third fret of the B string, as shown below:
Now move your first and second fingers from the 6th and 5th strings down to the 5th and 4th strings, leaving the third and fourth fingers in the same position, as shown below:
For the rhythm, I would play a simple D - D - Du - D, but you can play any other 4/4 rhythm you like, as long as it works with the song. Here is the Joy to the World chord chart.
The melody is also relatively simple to play, but being further up the neck, it is slightly more difficult than the Jingle Bells melody. Check it out in the full Joy to the World melody tab.
3. Silent Night
Moving on to another very easy Christmas carol to play on guitar, we have Silent Night. This can be played in any key, but the easiest on guitar would be the Key of G, using the chords G, D, C, Em, and D7.
G
Silent night, holy night!
D G
All is calm, all is bright.
C G
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.
C G
Holy infant so tender and mild,
D G Em7
Sleep in heavenly peace,
G D7 G
Sleep in heavenly peace.
As with Joy to the World, play a simple ¾ rhythm, such as D - Du - D throughout.
The melody is also easy and most of it can be played using only the high e string, as shown in the full Silent Night melody tab.
4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Sticking with root chords but including quite a few of them, we have the classic Santa Claus is Coming to Town. This contains a total of eight different chords, but they are all easy root chords - G, C, Em, Am7, D7, G7, A7, and D, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for most guitarists.
The rhythm is a bouncy - D - Du - Du- Du - which goes perfectly with the happy seasonal feel of the song. Remember to sing along and you should have a very merry musical Christmas.
Here is the Santa Claus is Comin to Town chord chart.
Moving from traditional to more modern songs, we have my all-time favorite Christmas song…
5. Merry Xmas (War is Over) by John Lennon
Playing this in the same way as the original recording is quite difficult because it uses lots of sus2 and sus4 chords along with the standard root chords. But a simplified version is a lot easier and only needs five chords.
It is played using a simple ¾ rhythm - D - Du- D - repeated four times for each chord. The verse chord sequence is:
A - B* - E - A - D - Em - A - D
* If you’re a beginner you probably haven’t learned your B chord yet, so use a B7, or a B5 (explained in the next song), or even a D. It won’t sound perfect but will be OK for now.
For the chorus, play:
G - A - Em / G - D / E
If you're a little more advanced than a beginner, this is a great song to learn your sus2 and sus4 chords, so check out the Happy Xmas (War is Over) Guitar Tab for full details on all the chords.
Next, let’s move on to a Christmas Rock Classic…
6. Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade
Being a rock song, this doesn’t use root chords, instead opting for the foundation of rock music, the power chord.
Power chords are relatively easy to play, even for complete beginners because they only use two or three fingers. And better still, to change chords you don’t need to change the position of your fingers, you just move the whole shape up or down the neck, and/or up or down a string.
Power chords are called 5ths because they contain the root of the chord and the 5th degree of the scale, therefore an A power chord is referred to as an A5, a D power chord, a D5, etc. You can also include the octave making a three-note power chord - the root (after which the chord is named), the 5th, and the octave (the root note an octave higher), as shown in the diagrams below:
The other great thing about power chords for beginners is that they are usually played using very simple rhythms with predominantly downstrokes. So, start off with a simple Down, Down, Down, Down, then as you get better play it twice as fast to get Down, Down, Down, Down, Down, Down, Down, Down in every bar.
Merry Christmas Everybody uses G5, E5, B5, D5, C5, and A5 for the verses, there is also a Dsus4 barre chord, which you could either play as a D5 power chord or use a root Dsus4 chord. This is the same as a standard D root chord, but you also put your little finger on the third fret of the high e string, as shown below:
For the chorus, play G5, B5, Bb5, and D5. For the bridge, play a root Dm, followed by a Bb (or Bb5) twice, and then a C5 and D5 to finish.
Once you get the hang of playing the power chord shape, all you need to do is move it to the positions detailed in the full Merry Christmas Everybody Tab.
7. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday by Wizard
I’ll end with the hardest of these seven easy Christmas guitar songs if you play it using full chords, however, if you play it with power chords as I just covered for the Slade song, it is a lot easier.
The intro is easy enough using either root chords or power chords…
D - A - G - D - G - D - A7
For the verse, you’ll need to add an Em, and an A, both of which are easy enough to play, as well as a Bm, which might be a chord you either don't know or can’t play very well yet. If so, play a B5 power chord instead.
The chorus starts with a B chord, which could well be another chord you can’t play well yet. If so, no problem, play a B5 instead. And do the same for the F#minor chord near the end of the chorus, simply exchange it for an F#5.
Here is the I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday chord sheet for you to follow along.
Wrapping it Up
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning these very simple Christmas Guitar songs. I only included seven because you are probably busy getting ready for Christmas, but there are lots more out there that are also quite easy to play.
Practice, practice, practice, and have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
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