What’s with Sad Christmas Music? Why are So Many Holiday Hits So Downbeat?

Those of you who have watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, or read the Book of Luke, know that the true meaning of Christmas is glad tiding of good cheer, for the Christ was born in Bethlehem. Why then is so much American Christmas stuff sad?

This is not a screed about “taking Christ out of Christmas.” It’s inevitable that a holiday will become divorced from its original meaning. Cinco de Mayo is basically a kitsch holiday in the US and both Verteran’s and Memorial Days are long sale weekends (if we’re being honest with ourselves). One might as well complain about gravity as complain about the commercialization of Christmas.

Scrooge McDuck in Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983), Walt Disney Productions

The only solution is for you, yes you, to honor Christmas in your heart and try to keep it all year.

Furthermore, a lot of what we call Christmas music is just winter songs. Good King Wenceslas is explicitly a St. Steven’s Day carol (great messages by the way “Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing”). Jingle Bells is just about visiting family in the snow. Last Christmas is a truly awful torch song that uses Christmas as a sales hook.

Williams-Sonoma, no matter how hard you try to make it so, My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music is not, cannot be, and will not be a Christmas song.

While we’re on the subject of things that are not Christmas, Die Hard remains not a Christmas movie.

Bruce Willis as John McClane in Die Hard (1988), 20th Century Fox

So what’s with: Blue Christmas, White Christmas, Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home), I’ll be Home for Christmas, and the like? Why did the energetic, young America of the mid-20^th century embrace such maudlin music?

Those are big questions, and they aren’t going to be answered on a news and entertainment website in fewer than 1,000 words. Obviously, there are sociological reasons, like Christmas directly precedes the New Year and with it the natural inclination to reflect on the passing of time.

Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and their friends during the stage show at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party – Photo Credit: M. Montanaro

I’ll Be Home for Christmas was written and released during the second world war and the rest during the post war turmoil of a nation growing and moving faster than the world had ever seen. Whether it’s missing home because you’re fighting halfway around the world or because you lived in Topeka but found work in Los Angeles or you are suffering the loss of love (or loved ones), these hits resonated with the American public and have become a part of the Christmas tradition.

But why?

During WW2 the music charts were filled to bursting with songs filled with nostalgia for time lost and the bitter regret of separation. In the late 50’s and early 60’s, songs about lost love were a dime a dozen. But my five year-old doesn’t know them.

The Atrium and Chandelier of the Disney Wish Decorated for Christmas – Photo Credit: M. Monatnaro

While the true meaning of Christmas is glad tidings and good cheer, its underpinning, the reason for those glad tidings and good cheer, is the soul’s deep and abiding pain for what it’s lost.

In the Christian faith tradition, Christmas is about the Creator’s profound love for his creation, so much so that he sacrifice’s a part of himself to cleanse the world. The reflection of that love is the creation’s unquenchable desire to be restored to the creator.

So when you really think about it, Charlie Brown, that’s what Christmas is all about, the pain of separation and the joy of unification, all in one moment.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, from all of us here at That Park Place!