The Monkees recently released their first Christmas album and after a few listens, "**House of Broken Gingerbread**" quickly became my favourite song from it. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rkOl6Kf9_g0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> It was co-written by Adam Schlesinger and Michael Chabon. Schlesinger is formerly from the band Fountains of Wayne, in which he co-wrote the song "Stacy's Mom". He also wrote the Oscar-nominated song "That Thing You Do" for the Tom Hanks movie of the same name. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o40za1wAlI&pbjreload=10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsi-eF6-uOY Chabon is a novelist and short story writer whose work includes *Wonder Boys*, a 1995 novel that was later adapted into a movie starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Katie Holmes and Robert Downey Jr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX8rgv4Hr9A "House of Broken Gingerbread" is not a typical Christmas song. It has a somber message that probably will exclude it from from radio stations' rotation of endless, cheery, yuletide tunes. According to Wikipedia, Chabon's parents divorced when he was 11 and he split his time living with each. It's evident that he drew upon this as inspiration for the gloomy song.