Ozzy Osbourne and Noel Gallagher Bond Over Their Disdain for Christmas

Christmas has long been marketed as a season of joy, warmth, and celebration—but for some rock icons, it has inspired nothing but irritation. Among the most outspoken holiday skeptics are Ozzy Osbourne and Noel Gallagher, two musicians whose disdain for Christmas has become almost as famous as their songs.

Fans familiar with The Osbourne Family Christmas Special from 2003 will already know where Ozzy Osbourne stands. In recent years, clips from the special have resurfaced in a compilation highlighting every moment in which the Black Sabbath frontman’s frustration with the holiday is on full display—whether he’s tangled in Christmas lights or attempting to dismantle festive decorations.

“Sharon, I just had a terrible dream. I dreamt it was Christmas,” Osbourne says to his wife at the start of the montage. When she confirms that it is, in fact, Christmas Day, his response is immediate: “Oh, f—.”

At no point does Osbourne appear to soften his stance. If anything, his resentment only deepened with time.

Ozzy Osbourne vs. Christmas

Osbourne’s hostility toward the holiday has been remarkably consistent throughout his later life. In a 2018 interview, while preparing for another run of Ozzfest, he was blunt about his feelings.

“I’ve been saying to Sharon forever, ‘F— Christmas, I hate it,’” he said. “It’s for shopaholics and kids and so I’ve always wanted to work through Christmas.”

Even toward the end of his life, Osbourne showed no signs of reconciliation with the season. In late 2024—during the final Christmas he would live to see—the singer doubled down on his long-held views.

“I f—ing hate Christmas. It gets right up my a–hole,” he told The Sun (via American Songwriter). Reflecting on earlier years, he added, “When I used to do booze and get f—ed up, I bought a barrel with 28 gallons of booze for me. I drunk it before it was Christmas f—ing Eve.”

Rather than festive nostalgia, Osbourne’s memories of the holiday seem rooted in excess and obligation—two things he spent much of his career pushing back against.

Noel Gallagher’s ‘Stain on Society’

If Osbourne’s comments are abrasive, Noel Gallagher’s are outright scathing. Despite bearing a name that literally means “Christmas,” the Oasis songwriter has referred to the holiday as “a f—ing stain on society.”

“I f—ing hate it with a passion,” Gallagher said in 2017. “The jingles—let me pause there by saying when John Lewis put my tune in an ad last Christmas, I loved that.”

Gallagher was referring to a 2015 John Lewis & Partners advertisement featuring a cover of Oasis’ “Half the World Away,” performed by Swedish singer Aurora. The cover later climbed to No. 11 on the U.K. charts.

“At that particular point I thought, ‘Christmas, you know what? I’m going to give Christmas a second chance here,’” Gallagher continued. “You know what I mean? I gave it a second chance. It was f—ing sh-t. Too much food, too much ‘we are the world,’ jumpers, the TV presenters, the sh-t adverts, the f—ing weather. Christmas is sh-t. It’s so boring it’s unbelievable. … We are not the f—ing world, we are not the children. Christmas is for divs.”

The songwriter later admitted he was uneasy about his music becoming permanently associated with a holiday he openly despises.

“It will forever be synonymous with Christmas from now on and, as is well known, it’s not my favorite time of year,” he told BBC Radio 2 (via The Independent). “Having said that, at least it comes with a check, which, believe me, is highly worthwhile. Don’t go buying me John Lewis vouchers for Christmas, trying to be a smart arse, inside a card that says ‘Noel.’”

When asked in 2017 whether he planned to give his brother Liam a Christmas gift, Gallagher delivered one last seasonal jab: “What I give him every year: the benefit of my genius, which he seems to be cashing in on. So, you know, merry f—ing Christmas.”

Yet beneath the sarcasm and profanity lies something familiar to many musicians of their generation. For artists who spent decades touring through December, navigating commercial pressures and public expectations, Christmas often became less a celebration than an obligation. In that light, Osbourne’s and Gallagher’s grievances read less like contrarian posturing and more like honest resistance to a holiday that never quite fit the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle.