About Those 'Christmas Songs'

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Editor's Note: At this time of year we hear a lot of seasonal music, mot of which we associate with Christmas,. Yet, as Jeff Somers points out in an artilce on LifeHacker, not all of it started as Christmas music. Here's a summay of the eight sngs that Somers listed, with a link at the bottom of the pafe to the full article, which contains links to videos of each song.

Every year the holiday season seems to get longer. By the time Christmas actually arrives, you’ve heard more than your fair share of Christmas music—it’s practically inescapable. And every holiday playlist looks nearly the same as the next; if you search for “Christmas music” on any platform you’ll get similar results—including a bunch of songs that have become closely associated with the holiday but aren’t actually Christmas songs except by association.

Sometimes these non-Christmas Christmas songs make sense, because their lyrical imagery is all wintry and it’s easy to see the holidays implied within them. But if you pause for a moment to really think about those lyrics, it’s usually pretty obvious what is and isn’t an actual, bona-fide Christmas song. Here are eleven that snuck into the holiday season under false pretenses.

“Winter Wonderland”

A constant on holiday playlists, “Winter Wonderland” started life as a poem composed by Richard Bernhard Smith as he recovered from a bout of tuberculosis in 1934. Isolated in a sanitarium due to his very contagious disease, Smith passed the time entering contests writing commercial jingles for companies. Waking up to a fresh snowfall one day, he wrote the words that would become this holiday classic. Music was composed for it that same year, and it became an instant hit—but there’s zero mention of Christmas in there, and the song was never really intended as a holiday song at all.

“Jingle Bells”

Composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, “Jingle Bells” was originally called “One Horse Open Sleigh.” It is technically a holiday song—it was originally intended to be a Thanksgiving-themed tune. The full song is actually kind of mischievous, telling a tale of young men racing their sleighs, trying to pick up girls, and getting into a violent crash. It’s essentially a call to sow those wild oats while you can, so it’s kind of remarkable that it’s become a Christmas classic.

“Jingle Bell Rock”

Written by a pair of middle-aged executives and recorded by an up-and-coming country music star named Bobby Helms, “Jingle Bell Rock” doesn’t just lack any sort of literal Christmas spirit—it purposefully lacks it. According to the Los Angeles Times, Helms came from a pretty religious background, and knew his mother wouldn’t approve of mixing religion with rock n’ roll (this was 1957, when rock music was still considered a dangerous trend corrupting the youth of America). So he made certain the lyrics were completely religion-free.

“Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne in 1945, “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” (yes, the official title has the phrase repeated three times) was inspired by the very opposite of Christmastime: a heat wave. Sweltering in the California heat in the age before air conditioning was commonly available, the songwriters conjured up an image of a cold, snowy morning to cool their overheated nerves, and a holiday classic that never once mentions Christmas was born.

Here are the final four. See the full article (link below) to see the description and link to a video of the song).

“Frosty The Snowman”

“Linus And Lucy” By The Vince Guaraldi Trio

“Sleigh Ride”

“My Favorite Things”

Go to the full article on LifeHacker for more details and links to videos of each sng.