The Jambar
As the holiday season ramps up, so too does the constant barrage of Christmas music. Whether you’re in a shop hearing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” for the millionth time or driving along listening to the same songs on the radio, Christmas music has become part of musical history.
Christmas music, like the holiday itself, traces its roots back to ancient Christian stories, hymns and prayers set to music. Among the oldest known Christmas hymns are “Veni redemptor gentium” by St. Ambrose of Milan and “Of the Father’s Heart Begotten” by Roman poet Prudentius, both dating back to the fourth century C.E.
The first known secular Christmas song is “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” an earworm tracing back to an English children’s book from 1780. Ernest Anschutz’s “O Tannenbaum,” from 1824, is another early example of Christmas music moving from faith into secularity—as is James Lord Pierpont’s 1857 classic, “Jingle Bells.” The trend of secular Christmas music continued throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Crooner Bing Crosby is an iconic voice of the holiday season. His songs “White Christmas,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” still air frequently on Christmas radio stations over 80 years after they were recorded and released.
Country music — rooted in bluegrass and Christian gospel — forayed into Christmas music around 1947 with Gene Autry’s “Here Comes Santa Claus” and Doye O’Dell’s “Blue Christmas” in 1948.
The birth of rock music introduced Bobby Helms’s “Jingle Bell Rock” and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which in turn blended rock ‘n’ roll with Christmas themes. In 2023, Lee became the oldest performer to top the Billboard Hot 100 when “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” returned to No. 1.
In 1963, infamous producer Phil Spector released “A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector,” a compilation featuring vocalist Darlene Love and girl groups, The Ronettes and The Crystals. Music critics consider the album to be one of the greatest Christmas albums of all time.
English glam rockers Slade released “Merry Xmas Everybody” in 1973, reaching No. 1 on the U.K. charts, and keeping fellow glam band Wizzard’s own, “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” at No. 2 during the Christmas season.
Two of the four Beatles — John Lennon and Paul McCartney — had enduring success with their hits “Happy X-Mas (War Is Over)” and “Wonderful Christmastime,” respectively. In 1999, Beatle Ringo Starr released an entire Christmas album, “I Wanna Be Santa Claus.”
Boomtown Rats vocalist Bob Geldof gathered together some of the greatest talent of the ‘80s — Bono, Sting, members of Spandau Ballet and Kool and the Gang, among others — to release “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in 1984, as a charity single under the name Band Aid. Guest vocalist George Michael had his own hit, “Last Christmas,” with his duo Wham! the same year.
By the 1990s and early 2000s, Christmas music was as commercial as Christmas movies. It is virtually impossible to find a radio station that doesn’t play Mariah Carey during the holiday season. According to a 2021 article by Medium, there are over 49,000 unique Christmas tunes.
Whether it’s Christmas carols from years past, Bing Crosby or even Slade, there’s nothing like Christmas music to fill hearts and minds with holiday cheer.