Bye Bye Bing and Brenda! Bonjour Janek and Piramis! Here’s our guide to the foreign festive anthems that get the whole continent schmoozing under the mistletoe. Warning: this article contains accordions

Step inside a shopping centre in Catalonia or walk around a Christmas market in the Ruhr valley right now and you’ll find it impossible to escape Brenda Lee rockin’ around the Christmas tree, or Wham! saving themselves from tears. Yet countries in continental Europe also have their own ubiquitous Christmas classics, many deserving of a wider audience. So here’s a festive hitlist, from earnest to tongue-in-cheek, from sophisticated to schmaltzy, from trad to prog rock.