# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/141 "2025-12-28T06:15:40Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > When we were kids, my mom bought me the 45 of “Hardrock, Coco and Joe,” and the 45 of “Little Susie Snowflake” for my sister. This made me smile. What a great mom! ---
**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 28, 2025, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/142 "2025-12-28T08:07:57Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I’m Jewish. I don’t listen to Christmas music. I get the sentiment but I don’t get the mechanics. How can you _not_ listen to – or at least hear – Christmas music? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/143 "2025-12-28T12:39:00Z")
I don’t own any recordings of it, I listen to the news or to audiobooks in my car, when I visit people close to Christmas, they are usually sensitive enough not to play Christmas music, and I don’t interpret anymore, so I haven’t been inside a church in years. Ironically, because I used to interpret for several churches, I used to hear quite a lot of Christmas music, but only the religious ones. I could probably sing a few verses of “O come, Emmanuel” or “Hark, the Herald Angels.” And I learned that EVERYONE sings “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Episcopalians, Baptists, Pentecostals, Mormons. Everyone. But the secular ones, I don’t know unless I had to sing one in my elementary school’s “Holiday” pageant, which was a Christmas pageant plus the song “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel.” I hate the song “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel.” Before it became a “Holiday” pageant, the Jewish kids got to go to the library during rehearsals. ---
**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 28, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/144 "2025-12-28T16:59:36Z")
What about stores and restaurants, though? Around here, at least, one can’t step foot into any business establishment between Thanksgiving and Christmas without hearing bad “Christmas” music. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/145 "2025-12-28T17:18:06Z")
Well, I’ve managed to never hear Last Christmas. Maybe it’s a bit of luck, but I always get to the knob and mute or change the channel when it comes on. Never have to hear more than a few seconds. Same with the two “babys”: Santa and it’s cold outside. Gah what horrible songs. If they fell off the face of the earth it would be a true christmas miracle. You all can have my share of hearing them. Now Santa Claus got stuck in my Chimney can go away, with its weird sexual innuendo. What is it with so many songs about Santa “coming” down someone’s “chimney”? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/146 "2025-12-28T19:38:30Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I’m Jewish. I don’t listen to Christmas music. Around half of “Christmas music” is actually winter music. Jingle Bells, let it Snow, Winter Wonderland, and of course the outlier “A Few of my Favorite Things”. ---
**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 28, 2025, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/147 "2025-12-28T19:54:13Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > > > I’m Jewish. I don’t listen to Christmas music. > > Around half of “Christmas music” is actually winter music. And a fair amount of it was written by Jews. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/148 "2025-12-29T00:03:23Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Around half of “Christmas music” is actually winter music. Jingle Bells, let it Snow, Winter Wonderland, and of course the outlier “A Few of my Favorite Things”. I made the same point somewhere upthread, although half is a bit of an exaggeration. Add _Frosty the Snowman_ to that list. Also there’s a couple songs that mention Christmas in the title, but aren’t actually Christmas songs. We’ve already discussed _Last Christmas_ in this thread, and there’s Elton John’s _Cold as Christmas_. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/149 "2025-12-29T01:32:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Around here, at least, one can’t step foot into any business establishment between Thanksgiving and Christmas without hearing bad “Christmas” music. I avoid business establishments during the relentless season of mirth. I maybe go to the kosher deli, or the Korean restaurant run by the family that barely speaks English, except for the two teenaged kids, who speak it perfectly. They play what I assume is Korean music back in the kithzz ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/150 "2025-12-29T03:44:29Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I made the same point somewhere upthread, although half is a bit of an exaggeration. Okay, ya got me, still quite a few. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/151 "2025-12-29T04:15:14Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I learned that EVERYONE sings “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Episcopalians, Baptists, Pentecostals, Mormons. Everyone. Catholics too. In fact it’s originally a French Catholic song: [Angels We Have Heard on High - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_We_Have_Heard_on_High) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/152 "2025-12-29T07:06:28Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Well, I’ve managed to never hear Last Christmas. Me neither. ---
**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 29, 2025, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/153 "2025-12-29T08:51:33Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Also there’s a couple songs that mention Christmas in the title, but aren’t actually Christmas songs. An example for (kind of) the opposite phenomenon is The Pogues’ _Fairytale of New York_, which is entirely unknown where I live (Germany) but one of the most popular Christmas pop songs in the UK and Ireland. The lyrics are about a down-and-out couple reminiscing about their younger years when they were full of hope and excitement for the future. Christmas is mentioned a couple of times in the lyrics, but the overall theme is not festive at all, and you certainly wouldn’t expect a British Christmas song from that title. ---
**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 29, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/154 "2025-12-29T15:02:12Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > An example for (kind of) the opposite phenomenon is The Pogues’ _Fairytale of New York_, which is entirely unknown where I live (Germany) but one of the most popular Christmas pop songs in the UK and Ireland. Nah, I wouldn’t say that “Fairytale Of New York” is totally unknown in Germany. Granted, it’s not as popular as in the UK, but I’ve known it since the Pogues album it was on, “If I Should Fall From Grace With God” came out in 1988, my sister had the LP. And it’s one of the regularly played modern Christmas songs, my favorite radio station WDR4, an oldie station (“The best of the 80s and the greatest classics”) has been playing it often in December for the last ten years or longer. WDR4 is one of the most popular radio stations in NRW. ETA: maybe you haven’t heard it often because Bavarian stations banned it for foul language 😉. Bayerischer Rundfunk traditionally loves to ban things… ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/155 "2025-12-29T17:13:45Z")
A science fiction group I belonged to used to get together for dinner and a gift exchange every Christmas Eve. One of the traditions for the evening was watching “Frosty the Snowman”, Hardrock, Coco and Joe”, and “Susie Snowflake”. As I remember, in the early days they were on a VCR tape that someone had recorded, and later there was a DVD that had been released. Although I may be wrong on the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/156 "2025-12-30T01:51:21Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > **The Twelve Days of Christmas** - What does one do with all that accumulated crap? And where does one put all that stuff? 12 partridges, 22 doves, 30 hens, 42 geese and 42 swans add up to a lot of bird shit to clean up. Hey, there’s good eating on them birds. If more and more relatives come over, she’s going to need to roast some of those up. Christmas feasts need protein. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/157 "2025-12-30T15:19:02Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@Spiderman](#): > > > > 🎶 _Walking in our winter underwear_ 🎶 > > correction: _women’s_ underwear. > [@SCAdian](#): > > “Later on we’ll perspire as we sit in the fire…” Perspiring as you sit ~~in~~ **by** the fire in long johns makes total sense with both warm clothes & warm temps & why I’ve always sung it that way. Though I could see perspiring in fear that someone might see me sitting there whale-tailin’ a lacy thong 😳 > [@Chronos](#): > > Misunderstandings like this are why, if she liked it, she should have put a ring on it. No, if _he_ liked it he should have put a ring on it. What _she_ said was, “[No huggee, no kissee until I get a wedding ring](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WonOudGMSdc&t=22s)” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/158 "2025-12-30T21:31:45Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And a fair amount of it was written by Jews. Doesn’t make it a mitzvah to listen. ---
**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 30, 2025, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/159 "2025-12-30T23:25:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Around here, at least, one can’t step foot into any business establishment between Thanksgiving and Christmas without hearing bad “Christmas” music. The best thing about no longer working at Sears is not having to listen to Bing Crosby singing “Mele Kalikimaka” two or three times a day, five days a week, through most of December. (Although I _do_ like “[Numbah One Day of Xmas](https://youtu.be/M0n9SnuvX28?t=47)”.) One year one of the managers ended up turning the music off because they were still playing Xmas music in mid-January. > [@DesertDog](#): > > How can you _not_ listen to – or at least hear – Christmas music? There were three radio stations I used to listen to in the car – classical, country, and '60s/'70s rock. If one of them trarted an Xmas song, I’d switch stations. When it finally got to the point that all three were playing Xmas music at the same time, I turned the radio off until after New Year’s Day. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Well, I’ve managed to never hear Last Christmas. Ditto. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever heard _of_ it. ---
**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 30, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994/160 "2025-12-30T23:32:00Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > > Well, I’ve managed to never hear Last Christmas. > > Ditto. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever heard _of_ it. Some people are so lucky… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-songs-so-many-questions/1025994.md?page=9)