De-Christing Christmas makes the songs bland
From Irving Berlin to Sia, the finest Jewish composers have produced several hits but they pale before Bing Crosby's "O, Holy Night." Christmas songs by Christians or about Christ are a lot better.
There are three kinds of Christmas songs: those about Jesus, the holiday, or anything else but Jesus Christ.
I grew up in a family that's largely maintained its non-denominational faith background, so I didn't celebrate Christmas as a child.
The logic for us is simple. Since Jesus didn't require his birthday be celebrated, we don’t. The only thing that comes close, which He specifically directed His disciples to do (per Matthew 26:26-28), is the Holy Communion, which we celebrate.
I don’t know what it's like to host a Christmas party, and I don't remember many Christmas songs.
But the few I know, I love, and trust me, they're provocative. They throw a punch.
I don't mean "Feliz Navidad," "Let it Snow," or "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." I mean songs that strike a chord or get you wondering what the writer meant.
That said, I have a bias for Sia's "Snowman".
It's comforting, and it's about friendship. But other than the beats, platonic vibe, and care she croons for her friend, the snowman, there's nothing else. I just love it!
What I don't like about Christmas songs is that many of them aren't even about Jesus. People love them, and that's okay. I also don't doubt that holidays have a substantial impact on the economy, and that changing musical tastes, among other things, have influenced our appreciation of Christmas. Still, we should love Christmas songs about Christ more since most Christians choose to celebrate it anyway.
Alice Zhao, a data scientist, analyzed Christmas songs and found that most were released in the 1940s and 1950s. It has become a tradition for artists to cover songs from this era.
Secondly, songs about the holiday, such as "Merry Christmas," have outlasted others about love and partying. The former are popular, but the latter, being love songs paraded at Christmas, seem to have faded as annual releases about partying, love, and sex take over.
The stronger theme Alice excludes is why.
Why do the most popular Christmas songs come from the 1950s-60s and seem about the holiday or anything else but Jesus Christ?
Eli Lake wasn't out to suggest answers, and he may have had a different dataset to work with, but the songs he covers in his article, "Why Jews Wrote Your Favorite Christmas Songs," share a holiday theme with Zhao’s list and contain some answers.
Why the most popular songs about Christmas are from the 1950s-60s, and are about anything but Jesus
Alice observed that Christmas songs about the holiday have remained popular because they have more references and evoke the season's vibes more effectively than many modern Christmas songs.
It's not about whether new Christmas songs are better than the classics.
The reason may come down to motivation and the general spirit of current society. The appeal of Christianity or Christmas has receded over the years. The West is more multicultural, church attendance has decreased, and general Bible literacy has increased, so people are more likely to know that Christmas isn't required.
This might explain why today's musical talents don't care much to produce new Christmas classics.
In his essay, Lake makes a robust case that data from that period of history support his argument. It might sound unbelievable to people from non-Western backgrounds. Christmas' most holiday-themed songs we know and love were written by Jewish musicians whose parents had escaped persecution to settle in America.
Given that Jews were historically adversely persecuted during Christmas and many German Christians endorsed antisemitism during the Second World War, Jewish talents had personal reasons to secularise Christmas songs.
They wrote about everything from the weather, romance, and Santa Claus parties to staying at home for the holidays, but not Jesus.
Though Lake tries to understate the Jewish resistance to celebrating Jesus Christ with Easter and Christmas, he makes an honest point about Philip Roth's excitement about Irving Berlin's success in "de-Christing" his Christmas hits.
Roth, an American Jewish novelist, said, "Easter he turns into a fashion show and Christmas into a holiday about snow. Gone is the gore and the murder of Christ—down with the crucifix and up with the bonnet! He turns their religion into schlock. But nicely! Nicely! So nicely the goyim don't even know what hit 'em. They love it. Everybody loves it."
If you excuse the cultural shift of Christmas songs from the allure of its divine origin to the breadth of human experiences, at least admit it is unintentionally subversive. People know this personally.
For instance, I feel better listening to Jim Reeves while reading the Gospel of John than listening to Sia.
I recently watched the movie "Havoc" and was disappointed. It was comparable to most Hollywood police thrillers. It wasn't clear what was right or wrong; the bloody prowess of a bad cop sufficiently replaced justice.
But I loved the Christmas soundtrack it featured!
I loved how Bing Crosby's classic "O Holy Night" crescendoed against the scene’s tension, as Forest Whitaker's act was sabotaged. It was the first time I heard the song, but the lyrics struck me so hard that I felt an instant urge to learn it.
So I played it on repeat and tried some covers by Malakai Bayoh, whose voice is absolutely mesmerizing. I tried Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and Brett Young, but none came close to Crosby's original.
His voice is worth a billion dollars. If you listen to it while standing, you'll nearly drop to your knees when he says, "Fall on your knees."
You'll tear up if you hear this hymn on a silent night.
It has the aura of rejoicing mixed with the soberness of realization. It's the song of surrender for the soul a million times over. It's a Christmas song about Christ, and it’s perfect!
Interestingly, I wasn't the only one who felt Christmas songs had lost their spiritual favor.
Read through the comments under Crosby's remastered "O Holy Night" on YouTube, or check out this Reddit thread and see for yourself. Christmas songs by Christians or about Christ are a lot better.