The Cajun Cheesehead Critic Takes on Christmas Songs
Greetings, everyone. Jack Caldwell here.
Wait! This isn’t a post about Jane Austen adaptations!
You’re right. The next one got moved to December 27. Watch for it. Now, on with the show.
Honestly, is there a better season in the United States than the holiday season? Starting with Thanksgiving, we go into Chanukah, then Christmas, finally ending with New Years Day. It’s the season of giving and receiving. We’re talking family and friends, food and spirits, football (real football, not that silly soccer), faith, and fireworks. And some of the most beloved songs ever written.
Christmas songs.
Incredibly beautiful hymns like “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” “Silent Night,” Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” “O Holy Night,” and “Joy to the World.”
Pop standards like “White Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” “Little Drummer Boy,” “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” “The Wassailing Song,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Santa Baby,” and “Silver Bells.”
And wonderful new compositions, such as “Mary, Did You Know?,” “Breath of Heaven,” “Louisiana Christmas Day,” and “Please Come Home for Christmas.”
Believe me, the preceding was NOT a complete list. Not by a long shot. I know you have noticed some of your favorites missing. Many, because of lack of space (I don’t want this thing to run twenty pages), but others for a very particular reason.
They have nothing to do with Christmas.
Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look:
“JINGLE BELLS” – Really? Written in 1857 by James Lord Pierpont, it was originally intended for the Thanksgiving season. Yes, Thanksgiving! It’s a Thanksgiving song! The lyrics are about a couple riding around in a sleigh over snow-covered hills. Bobby Helms’ “JINGLE BELL ROCK”, an homage to “Jingle Bells”, also fails to mention the holiday season. “Jingle Bell Rock” was not the only song inspired by this tune, as you will see.
“WINTER WONDERLAND” – Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith wrote this winter song in 1934. A couple is walking in the snow, joking about getting married before a snowman. Smith was influenced by a snow-covered Honesdale, Pennsylvania park while recovering from tuberculosis. Now, that’s Christmas—not.
“BABY, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE” – Or “The Rape Song,” as my daughter-in-law calls it, was composed in 1944 by Frank Loesser. He and his wife would sing it at parties as a polite way of letting the guests know it was time to leave.
“FROSTY THE SNOWMAN” – Oh, surely, I jest! No, I don’t (and don’t call me Sherley). This 1950 song was written by Walter “Jack” Rollins and Steve Nelson. The original lyrics make no mention of Christmas, although the 1969 Rankin/Bass TV special changed the lyric “I’ll be back again someday” to “I’ll be back on Christmas Day.” But that’s not what is sung on the radio. Thus, I stand by my contention.
“A MARSHMALLOW WORLD” – I’ll be honest — I don’t get this song. It has nothing to do with Christmas or the holiday season. It’s a salute to a snowy day. Dean Martin made this 1949 ditty by Carl Sigman and Peter DeRose famous. I love Dean Martin, but I can’t stand the thing.
“LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW!” – Okay, folks, can we finally agree that snow does NOT equal Christmas? A great deal of the planet never has snow for Christmas. And this song, written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne in July 1945, is more about a snow-day than the birth of Christ. At least the Southern Hemisphere gets it right, playing it during winter down there (June, July, and August). In New Zealand, it’s sometimes played it at Matariki.
“LINUS AND LUCY” – Composed by the great jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi in 1964 for the album Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown, it was introduced to the wider world by the TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. It has since become the theme song for Charlie Brown specials and movies.
“AULD LANG SYNE” – For some reason, there are those who consider “Auld Lang Syne” a Christmas song. Please! This is a 1788 poem written by the great Robert Burns. It is a traditional New Years Eve song. Come on, folks, it’s not like there are a ton of New Year’s songs. Does everything regarding the holidays have to be about Christmas? Leave “Auld Lang Syne” alone!
“SLEIGH RIDE” – When I was a saxophonist in my high school band, back in the Stone Age, we used to play this song at the end of our Christmas Concert. It was my favorite. “Sleigh Ride” was originally composed by Leroy Anderson in 1946 as an instrumental. Mitchell Parish added the lyrics in 1950. Like “Jingle Bells”, the lyrics fail to mention the holidays — “Sleigh Ride” talks about the birthday party at Farmer Gray’s. *sigh*
Now hold on. Just because a “winter song” isn’t about Christmas doesn’t make it a bad song (except maybe that Rape Song and anything about marshmallows) or that it shouldn’t be played during the Christmas Season. I am NOT saying that. I just point out that the above are not specifically about Christmas. Personally I enjoy most of them, and love “Jingle Bells” and “Sleigh Ride.”
I know many of you think I’m being picky here, being mean to your favorite Christmas tunes. Well, I’m not. If the above “winter songs” are not about Christmas, would it be a crime to play them all winter long?
Think about it.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Until next time, this has been the Cajun Cheesehead Chronicles.
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Let me expand this to cover another song that is played for a holiday, which is exactly the wrong day to play it. It needs to be played the other 364 days of the year. The song is “My Funny Valentine “. In the Broadway musical in which it was debuted, the song is sung to a man named Valentine. If you listen to the lyrics, they state “each day is Valentine’s day.”
Let’s play winter songs from November through the Spring thaw and “My Funny Valentine” every day but February 14!
Author
Y’know, now that you mention it, you’re right. Out with “My Funny Valentine”! LOL!
Merry Christmas!
Frankly, I hate that “Christmas” songs begin to play continually on the radio station I normally listen to sometime before Thanksgiving. I don’t “love” them that much. Mary, Did You Know?” is the only one I will pull up and listen to at any time during the year. It brings tears to my eyes as I imagine the child and mother.
Jack, your research into the history of each song was very interesting. Thanks for your work doing that. I used to sing with the choir at church and many of us would moan when the choir director had us singing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” every Sunday during the Advent season. Surely (LOL) there must be another song we could sing about anticipating Christ’s birth. Any suggestions, Jack?
My mother had memorized “T’was The Night Before Christmas” by C. Moore and (although it is not a song) that is one traditional offering I can listen to over and over again as I remember my mother at this time of the year. Happy Christmas to those who celebrate such. On Dasher, on Dancer…
Author
Besides “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”, you have:
“Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”
“Ave Maria”
“My Soul In Stillness Waits”
“O Come Divine Messiah”
“The Coming Of Our God”
“Creator Of The Stars Of Night”
“People, Look East, the Time Is Near”
“Savior of the Nations Come”
I, too, was in a church choir, and we worked hard to use different songs each week. “People Look East” was a good anthem, and “My Soul In Stillness Waits” was great for Communion or afterwards.
Merry Christmas to you!
Thanks for the list…I am going to pass it on to the choir director’s wife. Maybe she can influence him..
Delightful list choice and I love the research behind those songs. I will have a different attitude when I hear them. Thanks.
Author
I know! Still, I like “Jingle Bells” and “Sleigh Ride.” Oh, well.
Merry Christmas!
My high school band also did Sleigh Ride every year. It was the highlight of the concert, and I still love it to this day!
Sting’s album “If on a Winter’s Night” is a great one to listen to in December and January. It has music for Advent, Christmas and winter in general.
I think Greensleeves is the most baffling “non-Christmas” song. I know they stole the melody for What Child is This, but some lists of Christmas songs still have Greensleeves as a separate entry.
I love the winter songs. Oh and Shirley all the reindeer had to be female because the males do not have antlers this time of year, only the females do .
Thanks, Jack – a great deal of interesting information. I was surprised that Jingle Bells was a Thanksgiving song – at least, there are even less places that habitually have so much snow at Thanksgiving than at Christmas. We in Hungary surely don’t. Also, Thanksgiving as a holday is an American cultural tradition, so it increases the song’s popularity a lot if people associate it with the Christmas season instead. Anyway, besides the fact that it was historically written for that intent, there is nothing in the lyrics that makes it exclusively suited for Thanksgiving either. I love it as a winter song and one of the earliest I learned in English as a child.
Couldn’t agree with you more abut “Baby it’s cold outside” – it has always given me the creeps. I had no idea some people associate it with Christmas (or did you include it because of the mention of the cold?)
I swear i remember learning Jingle Bells in advance of Thanksgiving in kindergarten, many, many, ye–, i mean many decades ago. I recall trying to imagine the trip to my grandma’s house covered in snow. As We lived in Florida and I’d never seen actual snow, i couldnt quite manage it.
Weirdly, although I have lived in places with snow potential since 1978, the only white christmas I have had was back home in Florida. A freak storm dropped snow as far south as Frostproof, FL, and my mom, Grandma by then, still lived in Jacksonville.
Not entirely right about Auld Lang Syne – though usually sung at the turning of the year it is the song of parting after parties, dances, dinners (especially Burns Suppers) and aside from the Burns Suppers which are in late January can be sung appropriately at any time of year. What is NOT appropriate is to cross your arms over your body and take the hands of your neighbours from the outset – you only do that when you get to the last verse with the clear instruction “Now here’s a hand, my trusty fier (friend)/ And gie’s (give me) a hand of thine”. But you are correct, definitely not a Christmas song. If you want to hear a Scottish Christmas song Google “Santa’s A Scotsman”.
Uhhh….you WERE kidding when you said play those songs all winter long, right Jack? I mean, shop anywhere the day after Halloween and you start hearing the crap ‘Muszak’ Christmas music. I feel validated that I’m not the only one who hates ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside.’ You didn’t expound on it but I hate ‘Santa Baby’ even more, especially the Earth Kitt version and it makes me want to barf when it’s inflicted on me.
We listen to a classical station 24/7, now streaming it since we moved to another state last year. They start introducing Christmas music somewhere around Dec. 1st but don’t gear up until the last week before. No Jingle Bells, or even Sleigh Ride (which I like for many reasons, including sentimental.) All the spiritual vs commercial Christmas carols and done in many different versions from The King’s Singers to professional choirs all over and small lesser known groups across the globe.
We also play our own library of Christmas CDs collected for several decades…..like many other people have done. We have scads of Windham Hill, etc. However, there is one commercial Christmas music I still love and that’s the Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown music track. Pure nostalgia. But beautifully written and arranged music anyway. Whatever you listen to, Merry Blessed Christmas all!