# Why are so many Christmas songs in a minor key? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2018, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-christmas-songs-in-a-minor-key/825442 "2018-12-02T11:47:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-christmas-songs-in-a-minor-key/825442/21 "2018-12-07T19:17:03Z")
> [@CelticKnot](#): > > For anyone who has to drive to work in winter weather, “Let It Snow” “Jingle Bells” and “Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland” should be in a minor key. [Here you go.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX7M_C27SgE) (Well, at least “Jingle Bells.” You can find a couple minor key versions of “Let It Snow” online, as well, but they’re more up-beat bluesy minor key interpretations.) ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-christmas-songs-in-a-minor-key/825442/22 "2018-12-07T19:24:37Z")
The most downbeat Christmas carol in existence is _Bethlehem Down_ by Peter Warlock, in D minor. Mary is happy with the magi’s gifts and imagines that her son will be a king someday, with a gold crown and beautiful robes. But actually, _When He is King they will clothe Him in grave-sheets, Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown, He that lies now in the white arms of Mary Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down._ …and a Merry Christmas to you too! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/bmZnMbTnaxc/hqdefault.jpg "Carols from King's 2016 | #13 "Bethlehem Down" Peter Warlock - Choir of King's College, Cambridge") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmZnMbTnaxc) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-christmas-songs-in-a-minor-key/825442/23 "2018-12-07T20:46:36Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > The most downbeat Christmas carol in existence is _Bethlehem Down_ by Peter Warlock, in D minor. > > Mary is happy with the magi’s gifts and imagines that her son will be a king someday, with a gold crown and beautiful robes. But actually, > > _When He is King they will clothe Him in grave-sheets, > Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown, > He that lies now in the white arms of Mary > Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down._ > > …and a Merry Christmas to you too! > > [https://youtu.be/bmZnMbTnaxc?t=8s](https://youtu.be/bmZnMbTnaxc?t=8s) Nice, but no worse than the myrrh verse of “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” (BTW, when I was a kid, I used to wonder what “orient are” was.) ---
**Author:** ![Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reindeer_flotilla/32/3024_2.png) [@Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reindeer_Flotilla)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-christmas-songs-in-a-minor-key/825442/24 "2018-12-07T20:52:10Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > (BTW, when I was a kid, I used to wonder what “orient are” was.) “When I was a kid, I thought the angel’s name was Hark and the horse’s name was Bob.” ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-christmas-songs-in-a-minor-key/825442/25 "2018-12-08T05:43:17Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > The most downbeat Christmas carol in existence is _Bethlehem Down_ by Peter Warlock, in D minor. > > Mary is happy with the magi’s gifts and imagines that her son will be a king someday, with a gold crown and beautiful robes. But actually, > > _When He is King they will clothe Him in grave-sheets, > Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown, > He that lies now in the white arms of Mary > Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down._ > > …and a Merry Christmas to you too! > > [https://youtu.be/bmZnMbTnaxc?t=8s](https://youtu.be/bmZnMbTnaxc?t=8s) Pfft! At least he gets to be properly crowned and doted on by the magi and so on. Practically s a laugh-riot compared to middle two verses of _The Infant King_: \*Sing lullaby! Lullaby baby, now reclining, Sing lullaby! Hush, do not wake the Infant King. Angels are watching, stars are shining Over the place where he is lying. Sing lullaby! Sing lullaby! Lullaby baby, now a-sleeping, Sing lullaby! Hush, do not wake the Infant King. Soon will come sorrow with the morning, Soon will come bitter grief and weeping: Sing lullaby! Sing lullaby! Lullaby baby, now a-dozing, Sing lullaby! Hush, do not wake the Infant King. Soon comes the cross, the nails, the piercing, Then in the grave at last reposing: Sing lullaby! Sing lullaby! Lullaby! is the babe awaking? Sing lullaby! Hush, do not stir the infant King. Dreaming of Easter, gladsome morning, Conquering death, its bondage breaking: Sing lullaby! \* Merry Christmas!!! (It is a lovely song, Basque traditional tune, lyrics by Sabine Baring Gould. [Here’s a nice recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g_pWyusLGA), although none I found uses the slower tempo I prefer; I mean, it’s a frickin’ lullaby, people: slow the heck down!) > [@CelticKnot](#): > > For anyone who has to drive to work in winter weather, “Let It Snow” “Jingle Bells” and “Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland” should be in a minor key. Heh. In fairness, those aren’t really Christmas carols. Just secular winter songs that get stuffed into the Christmas box, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-christmas-songs-in-a-minor-key/825442/26 "2018-12-10T01:59:40Z")
Not an answer to the OP, but I like [Wendel Fergusons’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ouzVdDMJCM) complaint that Christmas songs have too many chords… ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-christmas-songs-in-a-minor-key/825442/27 "2018-12-10T11:59:33Z")
I used to play Bartók’s _[Romanian Christmas Carols](https://imslp.org/wiki/Romanian_Christmas_Carols,_Sz.57_(Bart%C3%B3k,_B%C3%A9la))_ on the piano a lot. Of them, fifteen are minor key (mainly Dorian) and five are major. Bartók arranged them starting with minor keys, placing the major ones mostly near the end. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-christmas-songs-in-a-minor-key/825442.md?page=1)