Sad and Wistful Holiday Songs: Ukulele Live Session

I had so much fun playing live on New Year’s Eve 2024 to close out my first weekly ukulele performance project. It wasn’t just the last step to finish the project, but it felt like a celebration of culmination.

The day of December 31 kind of feels like a “waiting room” day in a lot of ways, ya know? So saying, “I’ll be here live playing these songs at this time” gave me a purpose for the afternoon beyond getting dinner prep started for our little group of friends.

And I missed having that moment, that victory lap, this time around.

So I decided to do a short live set this December 31 — not to recap the Ukulele Alphabet but to play for fun.

I chose four sad-slash-wistful songs that focus on the end of the year and the jumble of loneliness, empty vibes, nostalgic whatever you want to call it around the holidays. (Well, I call it the “melancholidays” but I’m sure I’m not the first to coin the term.)

It felt so good to do on the spur of the moment that I think I’d like to continue the vibe in 2026: impromptu ukulele sets!

Maybe I’ll pick some songs on a particular theme or maybe they’ll just be a group of songs I’m obsessed with playing at that particular moment.

Let’s go with spontaneity and see what happens!