Christmas music

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The Bulgarian Detska Kitka Choir at the International Festival of Advent and Christmas Music in Prague (2006).

Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season, which tends to begin in the months leading up the actual holiday and end in the weeks shortly thereafter.

[edit] Content

Christmas music as a term describes a set of music generally played during the related holiday season, including a large amount of music whose thematic and topical focus is not actually the holiday itself. Often the songs have no content addressing the holiday, but instead focus on wintry or other themes. Many have been adopted to the genre for other reasons, such as the reverential nature of the composition. Ultimately, Christmas music is that which has become associated with the holiday because it:

• refers directly to the nativity of Jesus Christ;
• refers directly to the folklore surrounding Christmas such as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Santa Claus's reindeer, Santa's elves, the North Pole, etc.;
• refers directly to the traditions surrounding Christmas such as Twelve Days of Christmas, Christmas tree, wassailing, yule log, stockings, lights, etc.;
• has been heard regularly around holiday season, particularly songs with a wintry theme; or
• tends to elicit memories from, and put people into the mood of, the Christmas season.

Many songs not originally intended for Christmas have been "adopted" to the genre, often due to:

• devotional or reverential essence;
• wintry theme;
• the time in which they were released.

[edit] History

Music was an early feature of the Christmas season and its celebrations. The earliest chants, litanies, and hymns were Latin works intended for use during the church liturgy, rather than popular songs. The 13th century saw the rise of the carol written in the vernacular under the influence of Francis of Assisi.

The word carol comes from the Greek word choraulein, meaning a circle dance performed to flute music. In the Middle Ages, the English combined circle dances with singing and called them carols. Later, the word carol came to mean a song in which a religious topic is treated in a style that is familiar or festive. From Italy, it passed to France and Germany, and later to England. Music in itself soon became one of the greatest tributes to Christmas, and Christmas music includes some of the noblest compositions of the great musicians.

A Christmas minstrel playing pipe and tabor.

During the British Commonwealth government under Cromwell, the British Parliament prohibited the practice of singing Christmas carols as pagan and sinful. Like other customs associated with popular catholic Christianity, it earned the disapproval of Protestant Puritans. Famously, Cromwell's interregnum prohibited all celebrations of the Christmas holiday. This attempt to ban the public celebration of Christmas can also be seen in the early history of Father Christmas.

The Westminster Assembly of Divines established Sunday as the only holy day in the calendar in 1644. The new liturgy produced for the English church recognised this in 1645 and so legally abolished Christmas. Its celebration was declared an offence by Parliament in 1647.^[1] There is some debate as to the effectiveness of this ban and whether or not it was enforced in the country.^[2]

Puritans generally disapproved of the celebration of Christmas — a trend which has continually resurfaced in Europe and the USA through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.^[3] When in May 1660 Charles II restored the Stuarts to the throne, the people of England once again practised the public singing of Christmas carols as part of the revival of Christmas customs, sanctioned by the king's own celebrations.^[4]

The tradition of singing Christmas carols in return for alms or charity began in England in the seventeenth century after the Restoration. Town musicians or 'waits' were licensed to collect money in the streets in the weeks preceding Christmas, the custom spread throughout the population by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries up to the present day. Also from the seventeenth century, there was the custom predominantly involving women, taking a 'wassail bowl' round their neighbours to solicit gifts, accompanied by carols.^[5] Despite this long history, almost all surviving Christmas carols date only from the nineteenth century onwards, with the exception of some traditional folk songs like 'God Rest You Merry Gentlemen', 'As I Sat on a Sunny Bank' and 'The Holly and the Ivy'.^[6]

The music of Christmas has always been a combination of sacred and secular, a trend which is also visible in the music composed in the twentieth century, in particular in popular music. In the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, the annual competition to be the Christmas number one single led to the production of music which still provides the mainstay of festive playlists.

The status of Christmas as an important feast within the church year also means there is a long tradition of music specially composed for celebrating the season. The following is a brief and non-exhaustive list of notable compositions:

• Thomas Tallis: Mass Puer natus est nobis (1554)
• Heinrich Schütz: Weihnachtshistorie (1664)
• Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Pastorale sur la naissance de N.S. Jésus-Christ (c. 1670)
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Christmas Oratorio (1734)
• Various 18th century composers such as Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Torelli & others: Christmas Concertos (for performance on Christmas Eve)
• Hector Berlioz: L'enfance du Christ (1853–4)
• Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols (1942)

Handel's Messiah has become inextricably linked with the Christmas season, especially in England. This is in part due to the efforts of amateur choral societies during the nineteenth century. When it was originally composed, it was performed during Passiontide.

[edit] 'Christmas creep'

In the United States the playing of Christmas music had generally begun after the Thanksgiving holidays, at which point Christmas decorations in stores and on streets would also appear, but in recent decades the music and related decor have been appearing increasingly early. This tendency for the length of the Christmas season to grow is referred to as 'Christmas creep'. Given the importance of the seasonal gift-giving to the U.S. economy,^[7] one driven largely by consumer spending,^[8] and with the music industry making at least 40 percent of its annual revenue in the fourth quarter culminating at Christmas,^[9] demands for increased revenues motivates the shift. Christmas music best serenades these shopping months, injecting the Christmas spirit and putting shoppers into the proper mood for buying gifts.

Radio stations—responsible for so much of Christmas music broadcasting, popularization, and appreciation—are "going Christmas earlier and earlier", even the day after Halloween, because executives "think that listeners will stick with the first station to change to a seasonal theme." Many hundreds of radio stations "across the United States playing Christmas music around the clock." In Chicago, WLIT saw its share of all radio listeners grow from a 2.9/3.6 share earlier in the year to 9.3 during the Nov. 28 to Dec. 11, 2003 Arbitron rating period. A 2002 Arbitron ratings study confirmed holiday-music surges at stations around the country.^[10]

[edit] Traditional Christmas carols

	"A collection of traditional Christmas music" performed by James D. Blodget on a Roland U-20 synthesizer, December 23, 2004. "Joy to the World" Performed a cappella by Kim Butler on December 15, 2006. "I Saw Three Ships" Tune of traditional English Christmas carol transcribed by CambridgeBayWeather.
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Songs which are traditional, even some without a specific religious context, are often called Christmas carols. A more or less standard set of these traditional carols might include such titles as:

• "Away In a Manger"
• "Coventry Carol"
• "Deck the Halls" (Deck the Hall)
• "Ding Dong Merrily on High"
• "The First Nowell" (The First Noël)
• "Go Tell It on the Mountain"
• "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
• "Good King Wenceslas"
• "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!"
• "Here We Come A-Wassailing"
• "The Holly and the Ivy"
• "I Saw Three Ships"
• "I Wonder as I Wander"
• "In the Bleak Midwinter"
• "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear"
• "Joy to the World"
• "O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)"
• "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"
• "O Holy Night (Cantique de Noel)"
• "O Little Town of Bethlehem"
• "Once in Royal David's City"
• "Silent Night"
• "Sussex Carol (On Christmas Night)"
• "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
• "We Three Kings of Orient Are"
• "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"
• "What Child Is This"
• "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks"

Each of these has a rich history, some dating back many centuries.^[11]

[edit] Popular Christmas songs

More recently popular Christmas songs, often introduced through film or other entertainment medium, are specifically about Christmas, but are typically not overtly religious and therefore do not qualify as Christmas carols. The archetypal example is 1942’s “White Christmas”, although many other holiday songs have become perennial favorites in the United States, such as Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.

[edit] ASCAP's most-performed 'holiday' songs

According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the following are the Top 25 most-performed “Holiday” songs written by ASCAP members for the first five years of the 21st century. The list does not include songs out of copyright (like "Jingle Bells") or written by members of Broadcast Music, Incorporated, known as BMI.^[12]:

1. "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) — Mel Tormé, Robert Wells
2. "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" — Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie
3. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" — Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin
4. "Winter Wonderland" - Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith
5. "White Christmas" — Irving Berlin
6. "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" — Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne
7. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" — Johnny Marks
8. "Jingle Bell Rock" — Joseph Carleton Beal, James Ross Boothe
9. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" — Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, Buck Ram
10. "Little Drummer Boy" — Katherine K. Davis, Henry V. Onorati, Harry Simeone
11. "Sleigh Ride" — Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish
12. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" — Edward Pola, George Wyle
13. "Silver Bells" — Jay Livingston, Ray Evans
14. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" — Johnny Marks
15. "Feliz Navidad" — José Feliciano
16. "Blue Christmas" — Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson
17. "Frosty the Snowman" — Steve Nelson, Walter E. Rollins
18. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" — Johnny Marks
19. "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" — Tommie Connor
20. "Here Comes Santa Claus" (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) — Gene Autry, Oakley Haldeman
21. "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas" — Meredith Willson
22. "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays" — Bob Allen, Al Stillman
23. "Carol of the Bells" — Peter J. Wilhousky, Mykola Leontovich
24. "Santa Baby" — Joan Ellen Javits, Philip Springer, Tony Springer
25. "Wonderful Christmastime" — Paul McCartney

Of these, the oldest songs are "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and "Winter Wonderland" which were both published in 1934. The newest song is Mark Lowery's Mary, Did You Know from 1984. Songs introduced through motion pictures in the top 25 are: "White Christmas" from Holiday Inn (1942), "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and "Silver Bells" in The Lemon Drop Kid (1950).

Johnny Marks has three top Christmas songs, the most for any writer—"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and "A Holly Jolly Christmas". By far the most recorded Christmas song is "White Christmas" with well over 500 versions in dozens of languages.

[edit] Adopted Christmas music

Much of what we know as Christmas music today was adopted from music initially created for other purposes, and retroactively applied to or associated with the holiday.

A significant subset of the secular songs are regarded as “Christmas” songs due to the time of year that they are most often sung, despite never mentioning anything about Christmas. These songs include favorites such as “Winter Wonderland”, “Let it Snow”, "Baby, It's Cold Outside", “Sleigh Ride” (whose standard lyrics mention not a holiday party but a birthday party) and the now hugely popular Christmas standard "Jingle Bells", which was originally written to celebrate Thanksgiving.^[14]

Many of these songs fall into the generic “winter” classification, as they carry no Christmas connotation at all. To popularize a winter-themed song, especially in the United States, without its being regarded as a “Christmas” song, would be difficult. In fact, winter-themed songs are generally not played on the radio in the U.S. during the larger part of the winter after the Christmas season has ended, although they may receive limited radio airplay on some stations, particularly after a significant snow event.

The other subset of this type is the "Christmas number one single" and "Christmas number two single." Tending to be more short-lived in their association with the holiday, these songs may have nothing to do with Christmas or even winter, but are released around the time of the Christmas holiday and reach the top of the charts in the United Kingdom. As such, some songs will be "tweaked" to make them more related to Christmas. This is almost exclusively a British phenomenon; such songs in the United States are rare. Perhaps the most enduring of this type is Wham!'s "Last Christmas."

The phenomenon is not limited to popular music. Classical music, too, has been adopted to the Christmas canon. Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker comprises a set of secular orchestral pieces often performed at Christmastime. Perhaps the most famous "Christmas music" of all, Handel's "Messiah", was written for an Easter performance in 1742 in Ireland, and performed from 1750 until Handel's death for the Foundling Hospital for orphans around Eastertime.

[edit] Novelty songs

Another form of popular Christmas song are those musical parodies performed solely for comical effect, usually classified as "Novelty songs". The best known of these include:

• "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" written by Donald Yetter Gardner in 1944 and introduced by Spike Jones and his City Slickers in 1948.
• "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" sung by 13-year old Jimmy Boyd in 1952.
• "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" written by John Rox and performed by Gayla Peevey (10 years old at the time) in 1953.
• "Nuttin' For Christmas" by Art Mooney and Barry Gordon, who was seven years old when he sang the song in 1955.
• "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1958.
• Tom Lehrer wrote a parody of Christmas carols purporting to show the true spirit of Christmas - the commercial spirit - in "A Christmas Carol"^[15]
• "Monster's Holiday" recorded by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, written by Paul Harrison, released December 1962.
• "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" originally done for the 1966 cartoon special How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The lyrics were written by Dr. Seuss, the music was by Albert Hague, and the lyrics were performed by Thurl Ravenscroft. Many different versions have been recorded since.
• "Snoopy's Christmas" performed by The Royal Guardsmen in 1967; a follow-up to their earlier song "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" recorded in 1966.
• "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" by Elmo & Patsy which came out in 1979.
• Numerous "The Twelve Days of Christmas" parodies, including one by Bob and Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) which came out in 1982, and another by the a capella group Straight No Chaser which was first performed in 1997.

Even Cheech and Chong got into the act with "Santa Claus and His Old Lady" recorded in 1971.

In 2007, The Killers released Don't Shoot Me Santa; a song which benefited various AIDS charities.

A more recent example of a novelty Christmas song is "Damn it, I'm Vixen" performed by Brian Beathard, in 1997.

Christmas novelty songs can involve gallows humor and even morbid humor like that found in "Christmas at Ground Zero" and "The Night Santa Went Crazy", both by "Weird Al" Yankovic.^[16] Radio personality Bob Rivers has parlayed the format into several albums in the Twisted Christmas line.

The number of Christmas novelty songs is so immense that radio host Dr. Demento devotes an entire month of weekly two-hour episodes to the format each year, and the novelty songs receive frequent requests at radio stations across the country.

The Dan Band released several adult oriented Christmas songs on their 2007 album "Ho: A Dan Band Christmas" which included "Ho, Ho, Ho" (ho being slang for a prostitute), "I Wanna Rock You Hard This Christmas", "Please Don't Bomb Nobody This Holiday" and "Get Drunk & Make Out This Christmas".

[edit] Radio broadcasting

Radio broadcasting of Christmas music has been around for several decades.

Traditionally, radio stations (particularly those with an adult contemporary or easy listening format) began adding some Christmas-themed selections to their regular playlists around Thanksgiving, and aired Christmas music all day on December 24–25. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, however, many radio stations across the US sought a sort of musical "comfort food", and began airing a format of continuous Christmas music as early as December 1. The format was widely successful; because of Christmas creep, many radio stations subsequently began airing an all-Christmas format as early as Thanksgiving, and currently it is commonplace to begin the format the Friday before Thanksgiving. Several stations have even aired all-Christmas music as early as the beginning of November (a few, such as KOSY-FM in Salt Lake City, Utah, and WMYX-FM and WRIT-FM in Milwaukee have earned a reputation for this), although this is generally the exception rather than the norm, and stations that change formats much earlier than Thanksgiving usually receive backlash from listeners, because this is outside the traditional Christmas and holiday season. To accommodate the adult contemporary stations' flip to Christmas music, the syndicated John Tesh and Delilah nighttime shows also play this format around the same time as their respective affiliates.

Christmas music is also popular as an eccentric stunt format, used when a station is changing formats. For instance, a rock music station changing to a rhythmic oldies format will often air Christmas music in-between. This often occurs either at times when Christmas music seems out of place, such as in summer, or for prolonged periods of time that may start as early as October or extend as late as New Year's Day.

Satellite radio providers XM and Sirius typically devote numerous temporary channels to different genres of Christmas music during the holiday season. AOL Radio also devotes similar channels, and even features a year-round Christmas music channel. ABC Radio produces The Christmas Channel, a 24-hour network, during the holiday season. And Music Choice offers a "Sounds of the Season" channel to its digital cable and cable modem subscribers.

[edit] See also

Find more about Christmas on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary

Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews

Learning resources from Wikiversity

• List of Christmas hit singles
• Christmas carol
• List of Christmas carols
• Christmas songs introduced in theater, television, and film
• List of Christmas number one singles
• Best-selling Christmas/Holiday albums in the United States
• Christmas number-one singles in the UK
• List of Christmas number one singles (UK)
• Christmas number-two singles in the UK

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Stories Behind The Best-Loved Songs Of Christmas by Ace Collins, 160 pages, ISBN 0762421126, 2004.
• The International Book of Christmas Carols by W. Ehret and G. K. Evans, Stephen Greene Press, Vermont, ISBN 0828903786, 1980.
• Victorian Songs and Music by Olivia Bailey, Caxton Publishing, ISBN 1840674687, 2002.
• Spirit of Christmas: A History of Our Best-Loved Carols by Virginia Reynolds and Lesley Ehlers, ISBN 0880884142, 2000.
• Christmas Music Companion Fact Book by Dale V. Nobbman, ISBN 1574240676, 2000.

[edit] External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Christmas Carols

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christmas carols

• Carol Histories and Track Lists
• ASCAP ANNOUNCES TOP 25 HOLIDAY SONGS
• Christmas Music Radio
• Bill Petro

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