# Bad Christmas Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 20, 2007, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678 "2007-12-20T05:13:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/1 "2007-12-20T05:13:50Z")
I was at the Japanese restaurant tonight, and the Old People Music station they normally have was playing “classic” Christmas music, all the traditional favourites, done in the crooner styles popular in the thirties and forties. And I heard what may be the Worst Christmas Song Ever: Honky the Christmas Goose. Yep. It must have been a children’s song, but _I_ don’t remember hearing it before. Imagine my surprise to find, after a google search, that it was written and sung by former Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player [Johnny Bower](http://mapleleafslegends.blogspot.com/2007/02/johnny-bower.html)… and that it made it to #29 on the Canadian pop charts in 1965. Anyone else got a bad Christmas song? ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/2 "2007-12-20T05:18:19Z")
All of them, for me(and anyone else working in retail, I’m sure). Lately it’s “Santa, Baby” that’s driving me up a wall. It’s just a sleazy song. Oh, and “Run, run, Rudolph”? I thought Rudolph _flew_. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/3 "2007-12-20T07:24:16Z")
Yeah, all christmas songs are, per defenition bad. When heard more than once the same christmas - horrible. At the top (bottom?) of the list must be, for me, “Last Christmas”, I believe it’s called. You know- “Last christmas I gav you my heart, but the very next day, you gav it away. This year to sav me from tears[…]” And he really pronounces it like that- gav instead of gave, and sav instead of save. Maybe it’s some weird dialect with which I’m not familiar, but I hate it non the less. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/4 "2007-12-20T08:53:13Z")
[QUOTE=Etumretniw] “Last christmas I gav you my heart, but the very next day, you gav it away. This year to sav me from tears[…]” And he really pronounces it like that- gav instead of gave, and sav instead of save. Maybe it’s some weird dialect with which I’m not familiar, but I hate it non the less. [/QUOTE] There’s something weird about the way he says “gave” and “save” in that song? Huh. Doesn’t sound out of the ordinary to me. George Michael is English of Greek heritage, maybe that’s why he sings with an accent that you can hear. I have a collection of Christmas songs that includes [The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot](http://www.lyricallegend.co.uk/songs.php?artist=nat+king+cole&title=the+little+boy+that+santa+claus+forgot), which is both dreadfully un-PC and depressing. _in the street he envies all those lucky boys, then wanders home to last year’s broken toys. i’m so sorry for that laddie, he hasn’t got a daddy, the little boy that santa claus forgot._ ---
**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/5 "2007-12-20T10:47:17Z")
The local “Peabo Bryson & John Tesh” station plays Christmas music all December, and at least once a day you’ll hear… 1.) the aforementioned “Last Christmas” 2.) “Same Old Lang Syne,” which really has nothing to do with Christmas, 3.) that God-forsaken Christmas Shoes song. I swear, the first time I heard it I had to pull the car over at the end of the first verse, I was laughing so hard. But the worst has to be “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Just about every line of this song has some sort of logical inconsistency in it. First of all, of course the Africans that give a crap know it’s Christmas. A lot of them aren’t even Christians and thus probably don’t care. And there will in fact be snow in Africa, in the same places that it always snows in Africa whether people are starving to death or not, unlike here in sunny and prosperous Florida where we haven’t had a good Christmas snow in something like ten thousand years. Yes, I know I’m being silly, but the song started it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/6 "2007-12-20T12:26:56Z")
I’ve always HATED **Santa Baby** , no matter who sings it. Some others that need to go away: **Jingle Bells** performed by Barking Dogs, and its imitators using other noises. **Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer** All the songs in Rankin-Bass animated Christmas Specials (except for those in the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) The literally flatulent renderings of Christmas songs on the **Jib Jab** site And, while it isn’t specificcally Christmas, I really hate all versions of **Baby, it’s Cold Outside**. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/7 "2007-12-20T13:42:27Z")
Moved from IMHO to CS. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/8 "2007-12-20T14:05:50Z")
_Feliz Navidad_, _Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree_, and _Jingle Bell Rock_. Any radio station that plays these needs to be firebombed and whoever put together the playlist roasted over the flames. [Eddie Murphy voice] Merry Christmas, dammit. [/EMv] Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/9 "2007-12-20T14:16:41Z")
The office is currently listening to SomaFm’s [Xmas in Frisco](http://somafm.com/xmasinfrisko/played) feed which is err, _eclectic_. Anyway, about half an hour ago they played RuPaul’s “RuPaul the Red-nosed Drag Queen”. That was pretty bad. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/10 "2007-12-20T14:21:11Z")
[QUOTE=Shodan] _Feliz Navidad_, _Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree_, and _Jingle Bell Rock_. Any radio station that plays these needs to be firebombed and whoever put together the playlist roasted over the flames. [Eddie Murphy voice] Merry Christmas, dammit. [/EMv] Regards, Shodan [/QUOTE] I’ve not had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of the first one of those, but as for the other two, I’ll stump up a gallon of gas even at UK prices (ten bucks a pop). Gah. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/11 "2007-12-20T14:29:23Z")
Count your (Christmas) blessings. I will **not** provide a link. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/12 "2007-12-20T14:34:10Z")
I heard["I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtqIM_bPTws) at the grocery store yesterday. If this song didn’t mention Christmas, I don’t think anyone would ever listen to it even once. What is it about Christmas music that causes otherwise reasonable people to lose any sense of good taste? ---
**Author:** ![Pithy\_Moniker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8dc957/32.png) [@Pithy\_Moniker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pithy_Moniker)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/13 "2007-12-20T14:35:28Z")
I’ve always hated Feliz Navidad. It’s the same 4 lines OVER AND OVER AND OVER. It’s like Rage Against the Machine wrote a Spanish Christmas carol. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/14 "2007-12-20T14:37:32Z")
Bob Rivers’ “I came upon a road-kill deer” is pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/15 "2007-12-20T14:43:07Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] Anyway, about half an hour ago they played RuPaul’s “RuPaul the Red-nosed Drag Queen”. That was pretty bad. [/QUOTE] You shut your mouth. That song, that whole album, is golden. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/16 "2007-12-20T14:47:41Z")
WTRY in Albany, NY. They’re usually an oldies station, but go all Christmas starting Thanksgiving. The past two years, they botched it. Last year, they played only slow and mournful Christmas songs. “Silent Night” was uptempo for them. This year, they learned the wrong lesson. Everything is uptempo – but they only play about a dozen different songs. Three versions of “Rocking around the Christmas Tree” every hour. Two versions of “Santa Baby.” Two of “It’s Beginning to Look at Lot Like Christmas,” and, for a slower pace, “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays.” The finish it up with the Crosby/Bowie “Little Drummer Boy.” Then repeat. And repeat. Some of the songs are good, but hearing them every time you turn on the radio takes off the edge and makes you long for Tom Lehrer. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/17 "2007-12-20T14:51:43Z")
[QUOTE=Pithy Moniker] I’ve always hated Feliz Navidad. It’s the same 4 lines OVER AND OVER AND OVER. It’s like Rage Against the Machine wrote a Spanish Christmas carol. [/QUOTE] Thank you for articulating exactly why I can’t stand this tune. At least now I’ll be able to smile when I hear it. I also hate that “Christmas Shoes” song. It’s morbid, it’s glurgey, and it makes me want to beat my radio with a pair of pointy high heels. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/18 "2007-12-20T14:55:55Z")
The worst Christmas song in the world is “Hey Santa” by Wilson Phillips. A very close second: “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time” by Paul McCartney. I guarantee it will now be in your head the rest of the day. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/19 "2007-12-20T15:07:27Z")
I’m hearing **Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer** more times than I’d like to have this year, and for some reason have realized… those other reindeer are a bunch of sycophantic jackasses! They only like Rudolph 'cause he’s suddenly the big man’s right-hand reindeer, otherwise they’d still be giving him grief about his nose. So I don’t like _that_ song this year. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678/20 "2007-12-20T15:13:31Z")
I actually like Feliz Navidad, it’s a nice peppy tune. When I was in my church folk group we’d end the Christmas Service with one verse of it as a way of sending everyone on their way. However, one verse of it a day is quite enough, go more than one verse or play it 20 times a day and yes it becomes quite horrible, unfortunately that’s what all the radio stations do with it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-christmas-songs/430678.md?page=2)