It’s that time of year where we have to talk about the musical elephant in the room: Christmas music. A lot of people say that there’s only a specific amount of time that the music should be listened to and that it’s only acceptable during the holiday season. More specifically, it’s only appropriate starting the day after Thanksgiving and ending right after Christmas.
Well, I’m here to say that those people are wrong. Anyone can listen to Christmas music any time they want to.
The main reason is that some of the songs can be applied at any point in the year. Let’s look at the new Christmas classic, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Just because the word Christmas is in the title doesn’t mean the song can only be enjoyed during the holiday season. It’s possible you could be so in love that you just want to declare all you want for Christmas is that person at any given point in the year. Not just at Christmas.
Then there’s “Just For Now,” which was originally sung by Imogen Heap but has been covered more recently by Kelly Clarkson and Pentatonix. While the song was originally written to be in a holiday episode of “The OC,” the word Christmas, or anything holiday related, does not appear in the lyrics besides “it’s that time of year.” When interpreted loosely, that could be any time of year. It’s appropriate to listen to at any given point in the year.
If that’s not enough to convince you, then it’s time to bring up the 80s song “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses. Lyrically, it tells the story of a girl who meets a guy at the beginning of the year and due to multiple unfortunate events, doesn’t get to go out with him at all. Technically, since there’s a part in the song about Halloween, it’s appropriate to listen to it in October.
There’s also a part where she’s cooking “the world’s smallest turkey” and realizes she doesn’t have cranberries. Both turkey and cranberries are more commonly associated with Thanksgiving, meaning it may be completely appropriate – and necessary – to play the song in November since there are no songs for Thanksgiving.
Sure, people will probably give you dirty looks for playing Christmas music at random points in the year, but just ignore those looks. Maybe you just want to spread some Christmas cheer and holiday goodness at random points in the year.
I’m here to tell you to just do you, especially when it comes to listening to Christmas music whenever you want.
And you best believe that while writing this column, I had my Spotify playlist of Christmas songs playing in the background.
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