eurovisions of sugar plums

Have Yourself a Very ABBA Christmas

This week’s Saturday Night Live imagined what a long-lost Christmas album from ABBA would sound like. “You love how their hits like ‘Dancing Queen’ make you feel young, sweet, and 17. And now, being released for the first time, it’s their 1978 Christmas album, ABBA Christmas,” the presenter (James Austin Johnson) said before throwing to archival footage of the supergroup performing holiday twists on their classics. Bowen Yang, host Kate McKinnon, and special returning guests Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph take on the roles of the Swedish hitmakers, first performing “Santa Queen” to the tune of, you guessed it, “Dancing Queen.” “Coming down the chimney, straight to the dance floor, you’re 13 plus 4,” they sing, Swedish accents and all. “That’s right, the characters are mostly on the dance floor and they’re all 17,” Johnson explained. For “Frostitita,” the group takes on ABBA’s signature face-to-face performing style, with Wiig and Rudolph smushing their heads closer and closer together with each cutaway. “ABBA Christmas, perfect for everyone from mothers to their gay sons.”

Have Yourself a Very ABBA Christmas