Christmas Carols that really aren't

Cafe Society
1

There are a lot of Christmas songs in the rotation. Some are fun, some are inspiring some are just bad (Christmas shoes). But theere are a number which really arent about Christmas at all.
**
cochrane** over here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20659165#post20659165

Mentions “My Favorite Things” which is not only not Christmas, but not even exclusivly winter.
*
Winter Wonderland* is winter, but not Christmas.
*Jingle Bells *same.
Let it Snow- same

  • Baby it’s Cold Outside* (Best version is Deano’s) same.

Frosty? Same.

Odd isnt it? Can we think of more?

2

Actually written for Thanksgiving.

3

There’s the classic answer: Greg Lake’s “I Believe In Father Christmas”.

Not a Christmas song even though it references the holiday. :rolleyes:

4

Do You Hear what I Hear?

5

Umm, what? That one’s about the birth of Jesus.

6

I’m gonna say Lucy and Linus, the Peanuts theme.

7

(Johnny Carson) " I did not know that."

8

Atomic war, more like.

9

Okay. Please link to your version.

10

Wiki

The Atlantic

11

Well, yes it is is Christmas song but also a plea for Peace.

12

But it clearly references the Christmas story to make its point.

13

Sleigh Ride. Originally an instrumental, but the lyrics added later make no mention of Christmas.

14

Pachelbel’s Canon in D (or as my son said before an elementary school holiday concert, “Taco Bell Cannon”) is commonly used as Christmas music (probably thanks to George Winston and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra).

15

The Hallelujah Chorus is an Easter song.

16

If “Do You Hear what I Hear” were about the Christmas story, then what the King said to the people everywhere would have been “Let us kill all the boys under two years old just to be sure”. I mean, it’d have been nice if the King had brought him silver and gold and prayed for peace, but that’s not the way the Bible tells it.

What about songs about the accoutrements of Christmas (“Silver Bells”, “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas”, all of the Santa songs)-- Are we counting those?

17

I think Jingle Bell Rock also belongs on this list.

I find it odd that so many popular “Christmas” songs not only have nothing to do with Christmas, but they celebrate sleigh rides and sleigh bells, which I suspect are not part of the actual experience of the vast majority of us listeners.

I think those count as Christmas songs, albeit secular ones. But Home for the Holidays never actually specifies which holidays, does it? Obviously the War On Christmas at work there.

Purists might distinguish between Christmas carols and those for Advent, or Epiphany, but I don’t.

18

Yeah, the only place I see anyone making a fuss about Advent vs. Christmas vs. Epiphany is in the church hymnal, where they’re in three different sections. I can’t really bring myself to be upset at someone singing “We Three Kings” in early December, or “O Come Emmanuel” in January. Well, OK, I’m a little bit upset at the magi being misrepresented as kings, but that’s just a personal pet peeve.

19

Does Christmas with the Devil count?

20

Well, the man who came from Tennessee was heading for Pennsylvania for some homemade pumpkin pie, so that narrows it down to Christmas or Thanksgiving.