# Christmas songs - so many questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [December 23, 2025, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994 "2025-12-23T22:03:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/101 "2025-12-27T03:14:11Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Yeah, it makes no sense. The lyric should have been ‘gave it back’ but of course that doesn’t rhyme. How about “tore it apart”? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/102 "2025-12-27T03:20:02Z")
Nice! Fits the rhyme and the meter perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/103 "2025-12-27T04:25:36Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > **Winter Wonderland** - Later on, we’ll conspire… about what? Are you planning a crime? Of course, it’s just a lazy rhyme for fire. I sing it as “Later on we’ll perspire as we sit in the fire…” ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/104 "2025-12-27T04:50:35Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > - A bit sexy for Christmas. Some find it disturbing Cold Outside is rapey. Santa Baby is sexy. There is no question left unanswered It is as blatant as a song about sex as a song can be (any song, not just a Christmas song, even more so than like “I want to f\_\_k you like an animal”) ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/105 "2025-12-27T08:59:14Z")
> [@solost](#): > > _We three kings of Orient are;_ > > …are what?!? Well, traveling but why over a fountain? Maybe they should have taken their eyes off the star for a minute and traversed around it. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/106 "2025-12-27T09:42:46Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > It was so magical that no historic records exist for a light hovering over a specific point on the earth. What are you talking about? It’s right here at the beginning of [this documentary](https://youtu.be/xY2PTD-FrtU). . ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/107 "2025-12-27T12:26:07Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > In the northern hemisphere, only Polaris appears in one position where you could use it as a direction to travel towards. Stars, planets, and comets would all appear to rise and set as the earth rotates There are many celestial objects which never set because they’re close to the celestial pole (specifically, their declination, i.e. their angular distance from the celestial equator, is more than 90° minus the observer’s latitude). Such objects are called circumpolar. Of course they still appear to move around on the sky as the Earth rotates, but if you pick one with a reasonably large declination, the angular range within which they move won’t be that wide, especially if you only consider night hours, since you wouldn’t worry about them during daylight anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/108 "2025-12-27T15:36:21Z")
> [@anny\_m](#): > > “Last Christmas I gave you my heart” > > OK, maybe a way of saying _I Love You_. > > “But the very next day, you gave it away” > > Huh? If Jane gives John her heart, how does he give it away? “Here, Fred, have Jane’s heart”? Last Christmas, she slept with him, and then the next day, he slept with someone else. I thought that was pretty obvious. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/109 "2025-12-27T16:08:52Z")
True enough, but the magi supposedly came from the east, and following a circumpolar star would take them primarily northward. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/110 "2025-12-27T16:55:41Z")
This debate is probably a bit of a hijack for this thread, but I’m still pointing out that the story of the magi is one of those biblical narratives that are radically different from the way everybody remembers them after two thousand years of Christian tradition. The biblical text in Matthew 2 does not say that the magi (the number of which is never mentioned) followed the star all the way from the east. Rather, they saw a star rise, interpreted it as a sign that the king had been born, and took this as motivation to go to Jerusalem to look for the king. Herod’s advisors (Herod the Great, not his son Herod Antipas, who would, according to the Bible, go on to sentence Jesus to death thirty-odd years later) concluded from a passage in Micah that the king must have been born in Bethlehem. So the magi set off to Bethlehem, just a few miles from Jerusalem, and only then did they follow the star as a guide. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/111 "2025-12-27T18:51:26Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Cold Outside is rapey No, it is not. We have had this discussion here. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/112 "2025-12-27T18:54:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > No, it is not. We have had this discussion here. And there is not a consensus on that, much less unanimity. Some people feel it’s cringey and rapey, and some feel it’s just fine. Just because you don’t feel it’s a cringey, rapey song, doesn’t make you right. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/113 "2025-12-27T18:56:06Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Just because you don’t feel it’s a cringey, rapey song, doesn’t make you right. If that poster had stated it as an opinion- sure. But as a bare fact, it is incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/114 "2025-12-27T19:00:28Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > If that poster had stated it as an opinion- sure. But as a bare fact, it is incorrect. This is a silly, lighthearted thread about Christmas songs with weird lyrics. It’s _ **all** _ opinion. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/115 "2025-12-27T19:02:06Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > This is a silly, lighthearted thread about Christmas songs with weird lyrics “rape” is neither silly or lighthearted. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/116 "2025-12-27T19:04:25Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > “rape” is neither silly or lighthearted. No, it’s not, and I should not have phrased it in that way. The point still stands that this thread isn’t really about statements of irrefutable fact. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/117 "2025-12-27T19:06:02Z")
To add on that, naming the magi Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar also happened long after the gospels had been written, though I don’t exactly know the origin of those names. And though there might be some bones in the three kings shrine in the Cologne Cathedral (that Kaiser Barbarossa stole from Milano in the 13th century), I’m sure they’re not from magi following a star. ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/118 "2025-12-27T19:55:57Z")
> [@solost](#): > > That’s funny, I had the exact same thought the other day when the song played on the car radio on the way to my in-laws for Christmas Eve dinner. Yeah, it makes no sense. The lyric should have been ‘gave it back’ but of course that doesn’t rhyme. So many song lyrics have been rendered nonsensical by the need to shoehorn in a rhyme. I thought maybe it should be “threw it away,” which makes a little more sense than “gave it away”. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/119 "2025-12-27T20:00:18Z")
Over the river and through the woods…" What river, and what woods? Well, the house is right on the bank of the Mystic River north of Boston. I live about a quarter-mile away. I heard somewhere that it’s a bit dishonest, since the woman who wrote the poem (before it was set to music) lived on the same side of the river. It’s claimed that _Jingle Bells_ was inspired by sleigh races held about a half-mile away, but that seems to be somewhat disputed. ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/120 "2025-12-27T20:02:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Last Christmas, she slept with him, and then the next day, he slept with someone else. I thought that was pretty obvious. So Jane gave John her heart = slept with him. The next day he slept with Mary. What does that have to do with Jane’s heart, which is presumably is the “it” he gave away? I suspect I’m being too literal here, but I really don’t get it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994.md?page=7)