Six Christmas songs Elizabeth Chan wishes she'd written

Almost two years ago, Elizabeth Chan set herself a goal of writing a Christmas standard. Since then, she has written 326 seasonal songs, and one of them — Fa La La — is on Paste BN's adult contemporary airplay chart. Chan picks a half-dozen songs that inspire her for Paste BN.

Merry Christmas Darling by Richard Carpenter and Frank Pooler (made famous by The Carpenters). "Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved The Carpenters, because they write these happy songs but have these super-melancholy lyrics."

Little Saint Nick by Brian Wilson and Mike Love (made famous by the Beach Boys). "Little Saint Nick is a clever song, because it sounds like one of their regular Beach Boys songs wearing a Christmas costume for the holidays."

What Christmas Means to Me by Allen Story, Anna Gordy Gaye and George Gordy (made famous by Stevie Wonder). "That's the one I listen to all year round. It's a brilliant song. Stevie Wonder's instrumentation and production on that song is so timeless and intrinsic to what I love about Christmas music. It has all the bells and whistles that, as a producer, I would use to achieve that classic Christmas sound."

This Christmas by Donny Hathaway. "It's a very romantic song without being overly mushy. But it's also a lot of fun."

The Christmas Song by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells. "The quintessential New York Christmas song. I live all my Christmases in New York City, and I can't step onto a sidewalk without smelling chestnuts and thinking about that song."

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. "It was always a song I loved, but when I was starting to write Christmas music, it (had) a different meaning to me, because the lyric starts, 'So this is Christmas/ And what have you done?' Every day, I would repeat that to myself and listen to the song."