My first songs don't count...I was dumb enough to think I could pull them off and did in not so horrible a way. That was a long, long time ago.

You don't have to do Jingle Bells but you may learn something by doing it. Usually Chris has a method to his madness so I'd go with it.

You can find another rock song to work on along side it. Nothin' wrong with that. AC/DC usually provides an easy enough path.

I was teaching my wife and we started with 'I Love Rock n Roll' (Joan Jett) because it is really straight forward.

There are ways you can make it work.