Coulda sworn (evidently incorrectly) that Santa was mentioned, and when I googled the lyrics I came across this second verse:
A day or two ago
I thought I’d take a ride
And soon, Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank
And then we got upsot
I never knew that verse existed.
And then, digging a little further, another site showed me yet a third chorus:
Sleighing back on course
Nursing open wounds
Drinking till we puke
Watch out for the cops
Power cable falls
Cuts my friend’s head off
And then I spilled the Jack Daniels
All down my Cleveland Browns jersey.
It is not a literal retelling of the Christmas story. Not everything in the world is meant to be taken literally. It uses the Christmas images, which means it’s a Christmas song.
I have heard instrumental versions of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Delivering” played alongside (other) Christmas carols. That’s fine because it’s about Jesus and all, though not specifically about Christmas as far as I can tell.
But sometimes it’s paired with an instrumental taken from another Bach cantata, “Sheep May Safely Graze.” Now I know Jesus is often compared to a shepherd, but that song actually has nothing to do with JC. The lyrics are from a poem about good secular government and features characters from Roman mythology.
I generally separate the Christmas “carols” (songs about the Christmas story in some way) from Christmas/Winter songs (songs that reference the holiday, or the season, but don’t center on the story of the birth of Christ). But since I sing in an Episcopal church choir, I have a LOT of “carols” that no one else would sing on my iTunes. I generally eschew the typical FM radio station playing 24 hours a day of “Christmas music”, which tends to avoid anything really sacred, with one or two exceptions (“Mary Did You Know” and other, similar songs tend to get modern treatments).
I think the iconic Christmas song that isn’t really about the religious holiday has to be “White Christmas”. It really should be titled “White Christmastime”.
Just looked at the lyrics of Do You Hear What I Hear?" It may be a plea for peace, but it is seems to be doing so by saying “It’s Christmastime, which is a time for peace. So pray for peace everyone!” Looking it up on Wikipedia, it was explicitly commissioned to be a Christmas song. In fact, it may be one of the few carols written in modern times.
(I likewise distinguish Christmas carols, which are sacred in nature and hymn-like, from Christmas songs, which are usually more secularly focused and written more in the style of the day.)
In some versions it does…“there’s a Christmas party at the home of Farmer Gray”. In others, it’s “there’s a birthday party at the home of Farmer Gray.” I’m not sure which is the original lyric.
As for what they do at the good farmer’s abode…I for one have been to many Christmas (and birthday) gatherings. Never once have I passed around coffee and pumpkin pie.
I like “Candlelight Carol” a lot (though Neil Diamond somewhat damaged it for me), but my favorite Rutter carol is “Angels’ Carol” (awesome one to sing in a choir as well as hear).
I am on a computer that can’t access Youtube right now, so I hope this is a decent version:
The Messiah is a three-part oratio. “Hallelujah” is in part two, which is about the Passion and Resurrection along with the spread of early Christianity. To call it about Easter isn’t quite right, but it’s definitely not about Christmas.
