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Christmas music

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"Holiday Song" redirects here. For the song by the Pixies, see Come on Pilgrim.

Christmas music is a genre which is normally performed during the time period leading up to, and sometimes shortly past, Christmas. Christmas songs frequently are the focus of holiday themes directly taken from Christmas, but occasionally they have no content addressing the holiday, and instead focus on the winter season as a whole. These songs recognisably fall into several different groupings, depending on both the time and melody of the songs.

Songs which are traditional, even some without a specific religious context, are often called Christmas carols. Some songs of more recent vintage, often introduced in films, are specifically about Christmas, but are typically not overtly religious and therefore do not qualify as Christmas carols. The archetypal example is 1942’s “White Christmas”, although many other holiday songs have become perennial favourites, such as Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.

A significant subset of the secular songs are regarded as “Christmas” songs due to the time of year that they are most often sung, despite never mentioning anything about Christmas. These songs include traditional favourites such as “Winter Wonderland” and “Sleigh Ride” (whose standard lyrics mention not a holiday party but a birthday party). These songs fall into the generic “winter holiday” classification, as they carry no religious connotation at all. However, it could be argued that it would be impossible to popularise a winter-themed song, especially in the United States, without its being regarded as a “Christmas” song. In fact, winter-themed songs are generally not played on the radio in the U.S. during the larger part of the winter after the Christmas season has ended.

In addition to Christmas and winter-themed songs, songs for other holidays celebrated during this time period may be heard during the Christmas season. Such holidays include Hanukkah, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and Kwanzaa.

Another subset of the popular holiday songs, apart from the more sincere ones, are the many parodies or twists on existing songs, which are usually classified as "Novelty songs". They range from the cuteness of "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)", by Alvin and the Chipmunks, to the Cold War gallows humor of "Christmas at Ground Zero" and the morbid humor of "The Night Santa Went Crazy", both by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Some songs have little relationship to Christmas, but are hyped up over the period. Each year, record companies compete for the Christmas number one single spot, usually, but not always, with a Christmas-related song. This is parodied in the film Love Actually, whereby an artist records a cover version of a song and adds a Christmas twist to it, all the time admitting that it is "rubbish".

In the United Kingdom, Cliff Richard is famed for his many attempts, with some success, to get the Christmas number one single.

List of Christmas songs

The following are well-known Christmas songs that have been performed and recorded by countless artists:

Parodies

  • Parody king "Weird Al" Yankovic has also recorded a holiday song. Titled "The Night Santa Went Crazy", it's a goof on Greg Lake's "I Believe In Father Christmas".

Not intended as a Christmas song

Some songs are frequently associated with Christmas because of the time they were released, or for other less obvious reasons, rather than explicit references to the holiday. They are sometimes given a Christmas feel by adding sleigh bells or by recording a Christmas video.

  • "Belleau Wood" – Garth Brooks (Set In A WWII battlefield on Christmas Eve, when a ceasefire is called until midnight, and the soldiers on both sides begin a chorus of "Silent Night"
  • "Dear Mr. Jesus" – PowerSource from their Shelter From The Storm album. It is sung by a 9 year old girl named Sharon Batts. Richard Klender wrote it in 1985. The song is about child abuse awareness and it has nothing to do with Christmas. Connie Bradley, Director, ASCAP, on April 11, 1988 said that this song was one of the, "most requested songs in the history of radio," (it is still highly requested every holiday season).
  • "From a Distance," the Grammy winner for Best Song (1990) was also a number one hit for Bette Midler. She later recorded a Christmas version, which includes slight lyric changes and sections from several popular carols.
  • "If We Make it Through December," Merle Haggard (1973). The song is a lament of a father who loses his job at the factory just as the holidays are approaching. Depressed over his predicament during what normally should be a "happy time of year," he observes that his little girl "don't understand why Daddy can't afford no Christmas cheer." The song reached No. 1 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart on December 22 1973 ... just in time for Christmas. (It should be noted, however, that the song did first appear on Haggard's Christmas-themed album entitled "A Christmas Present.")
  • "Jingle Bells," often called the 'most-popular' "Christmas" song, and cetainly one of the most omnipresent every year, has no lyrics referring to Christmas at all. As holidays go, its first known performance was for a church Thanksgiving program in 1857, and was originally sung more around that holiday by Americans heading by sleigh to nearby family gatherings.
  • "Last Christmas" – Wham! (1984) (reached no. 2 in the UK Christmas charts, beaten by Band Aid- Feed the World) George Michael originally wrote the song "Last Easter", the record company asked him to change it to Christmas as it would catch a larger audience
  • "My Favorite Things (song)" from the Rodgers and Hammerstein The Sound of Music. US radio stations that played Christmas music played various versions of this show tune, relating "favorite things" to Christmas gifts.
  • "Sound of the Underground" – Girls Aloud (2002) (reached no. 1 in the UK Christmas charts, therefore commonly associated with Christmas)
  • "Stay Another Day" – East 17 (1994) (added sleigh bells)
  • "Thank God For Kids" – The Oak Ridge Boys (1982) This song does mention Santa Claus at the beginning of the song, but according to Eddy Raven, its writer, it is not intended to be a Christmas song. However, the Oak Ridge Boys did release it on their first Christmas album in 1982.
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