Charli XCX Joins Paul Rudd for Pre-Recorded ‘SNL’ Musical Sketch ‘The Christmas Socks’

Charli XCX‘s SNL performance was called off Saturday night (Dec. 18) due to a limited crew amid the surge of COVID-19 cases linked to the omicron variant in New York City, but she did make a cameo in a pre-recorded musical sketch for the show.

“The Christmas Socks,” possibly a parody of the 2000 song “The Christmas Shoes,” was led by SNL host Paul Rudd and featured Charli as a very special guest: a singing bird named T.J. Rocks.

“Christmas is a time of charity and giving, and that was the inspiration for this next music video, which I shot yesterday morning with Kyle Mooney, Aidy Bryant, Kenan Thompson, Alex Moffat and what should have been tonight’s musical guest, Charli XCX,” Rudd said in his introduction of the musical segment. “It’s a heartfelt Christmas song about a magical moment between a boy and a strange man at a department store. Enjoy!”

Charli shared the unfortunate news that she would not be performing on Saturday night’s episode shortly after SNL announced the show would tape without a live audience that night.

“due to the limited crew at tonight’s taping of snl my musical performances will no longer be able to go ahead. i am devastated and heartbroken,” she said on social media, promising she’ll “be back.”

In a later tweet, Charli added, “heya just to clear up any confusion i didn’t decide to cancel or pull out of the show tonight! We were informed at around 3pm ish that my segment of the show wouldn’t be able to go ahead for everyone’s safety and so there was nothing we could do.”

Watch the pre-taped sketch that she was able to take part in below.