A Chr*stmas Song Study
Triggered by the new “Holiday tree”!
I was trying to figure out a way to illustrate how silly it is to stop people from saying Merry Chr*stmas with the reasoning that it “is forcing Christianity on people”. I decided to look at something that, for me, embodies the spirit of Chr*stmas from a worldly (or to be more accurate “regular American”) point of view. It’s what many people out there like to call Chr*stmas music!
(You don’t need to read this list… just trust me, they’re all there)
A Christmas Long Ago
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth
Amen
Baby’s First Christmas
Bells of St. Mary
Blue Christmas
Chrissy The Christmas Mouse
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Christmas Ain’t Christmas
Christmas Auld Lang Syne
Christmas Dragnet
Christmas Serenade
Do they Know it’s Christmas
Do you Hear what I hear
Dominick, The Italian Christmas Donkey
Donde Esta Santa Claus
Feliz Navidad
Frosty the Snowman
Gee Whiz it’s Christmas
Give Love on Christmas Day
Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer
Happy Christmas (War is Over)
Happy Holidays
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Here Comes Santa Claus
Holly Jolly Christmas
Home for the Holidays
I believe in Father Christmas
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
If It Doesn’t Snow on Christmas
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
It’s Christmas Everywhere
It’s Christmas Once again
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bells
Kissin By the Mistletoe
Last Christmas
Let it snow…
Little Drummer Boy
Little St. Nick
Marshmallow World
May You Always
Merry Christmas All
Merry Christmas Baby
Merry Christmas Darling
Merry, Merry Christmas Baby
Mistletoe and holly
Monster’s Holiday
Nuttin for Christmas
Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
Peace on Earth
Please Come home for Christmas
Pretty Paper
Rockin Around The Christmas Tree
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Run Rudolph Run
Santa Baby
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Santa Claus is Watching You
Silent Night
Silver Bells
Sleigh Ride
Snoopy’s Christmas
Step Into Christmas
The Chipmunk Song
The Christmas Song
The Christmas Waltz
The Man with All the Toys
The Most Wonderful time of the Year
The Twelve Days of Christmas
This Christmas
This Time of Year
Twas the night before Christmas
We Need a little Christmas
We Wish you the Merriest
What Christmas Means to Me
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Wonderful Christmastime
You’re All I want For Christmas
You’re my Christmas Present
WCBS-FM A CBS Radio station decided that these were the “100 Greatest Chr*stmas Songs of All Time”. On this list 19 songs were duplicates due to multiple artists doing the same songs. Those were eliminated, leaving 81 total songs to work with. I’m using this as my slice of the embodiment of Worldly Chr*stmas Spirit, because something that’s voted “the greatest of all time” should moderately reflect the general opinion of the populace.
Of the 81 songs, 43 (53%) of the songs had the word Chr*stmas IN THE TITLE!
Of the remaining 38 Songs 18 more of them mention the word Chr*stmas somewhere in the lyrics. Leaving 20 songs without using of the word Chr*stmas somewhere in the work.
This means that, of the 81 best Chr*stmas songs of all time, 61 (75%) of them will say Chr*stmas. Big surprise right?
Now lets use this same list for some different conclusions…
As we’ve already said, 61 out of the 81 songs have the word Chr*stmas somewhere within. Also out of those 81 songs, 9 are actually songs related to Christianity. Now When I say related to Christianity, I mean any small connection (e.g. the words…“Lord”, “Peace on Earth”, “Church” references to the birth of Christ, a stable, three Kings etc.), with the exception of the word Chr*stmas. That’s 11%! On average 11% of “Chr*stmas songs” are actually even somewhat about Christianity.
Alright let’s put the two discoveries together…
Out of those 9 songs, only 4 of them also mention the word Christmas. Let’s mull that over. Less than half of the actual “Christian Chr*stmas songs” say the word Chr*stmas, where 75% of “All Chr*stmas songs” do. Meaning that 4 out of the 81 top Chr*stmas songs of all time, or ~5%, even remotely link the word “Chr*stmas” and the Christian faith.
I guess what I’m saying is… the word Chr*stmas may have originally come about because of Jesus Christ, but our society certainly doesn’t believe that any more, so I really don’t understand why people are getting offended by the word Chr*stmas. It’s kind of like being offended when somebody pronounces it po-tah-to, or getting upset that some people say pop while others say soda, while others call every carbonated drink Coke! The word Chr*stmas has lost what it originally meant anyway, so it’s kind of too late for this “Anti-Merry Chr*stmas” epidemic. So… in conclusion…. stopping people from Saying Merry Chr*stmas is just silly.
The link to the list. http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/music0_christmas.html