A look at a selection of Christmas song lyrics over the past 70 years.
‘Keep Christmas like it was like it always will be.’
This short essay is an introduction to the various lyrics of Christmas songs from the past 70 years or so. There are so many that I could only choose a selection, which contains suggestions from other folk too. To keep this a reasonable length I have more-or-less let the lyrics speak for themselves — as it should be I guess.
Christmas: the annual event that seems to bring folk together in so many parts of the world; Christmas that means so many different things to different folk. John Lennon sings here in the song ‘Happy Xmas (War is Over) of the introspection Christmas can bring with his wishes ringing hollow and flat:
‘So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young.’
Christmas — ‘another year over’ and a time to reflect; the time following the solstice, the shortest day. A celebration and specifically a religious celebration of the birth of Jesus; a time to look forward with hope. Christmas — a time when Christianity, Paganism, Spirituality, Consumerism, Family-time and Hedonism are all rolled into one. People pulled back to the ‘family home’ (if they’re lucky to have one — and here I am reminded of Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home for Christmas’: ‘I’m driving home for Christmas/Oh, I can’t wait to see those faces’); folk thinking of themselves but others, less-fortunate, too. Tradition flowing through Christmas in so many ways — highlighting the good and the bad of our culture. There is so much beauty at this time but the worst of life is also exaggerated. From The Pogues, ‘Fairy Tale of New York’ we have the excesses of alcohol mixed with nostalgic sentimentality:
‘It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won’t see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you.’
It is a special time for both children and spiritual reflection but also a time when folk DO get drunk and eat too much. And they DO get sentimental. How could they not? Christmas is interwoven into our lives and the Christmas songs that blare out of shopping mall speakers (seemingly interminably) reinforce variations of the Christmas message.
And folk also become frustrated and angry at this time of year — there is SO much promise and expectation, yet seemingly only the Christmas presents deliver. Greg Lake sang:
‘They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a silent night
And they told me a fairy story
‘Till I believed in the Israelite
And I believed in Father Christmas
And I looked to the sky with excited eyes
‘Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise.’
How many of us become disillusioned? Like children learning there is no Santa Claus, we feel lied to (and here I can’t help injecting the classic Marx Brothers’ quote — ‘There is no sanity clause’). That absolute pure magic of childhood robbed from our engaging and hungry minds. It’s easy then as we become adults to despise Christmas, despise religion, despise the traditions and despise those that seem to continue to ‘have fun’. Greg Lake also sang that we get: ‘The Christmas…we deserve.’ Casting Crowns sang:
‘And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.’
Once we have become disillusioned perhaps two things take over: one is the love of presents and tinsel and Christmas lights and the gorging of food and drink. The other might be an awakening to the sense of continuity and things spiritual — of the Past becoming manifest in the Present. That is of course unless we turn our back completely on Christmas. But I think so many of us are drawn to the passing of time that comes with the occasion — be that our own or, with the conflation of Christmas and the solstice, deep Pagan and pre-Christian roots, time disappearing into a very distantly felt past. Maddy Prior (Steeleye Span) sang:
‘All around my hat I will wear the green willow
And all around my hat for a twelve-month and a day
And if anyone should ask me the reason why I’m wearing it
It’s all for my true love who’s far, far away.’
‘Gaudete’ (a sacred Christmas carol from the sixteenth century) was Steeleye Span’s first hit in 1973 and was sung completely in Latin. The lyrics above come from ‘All Around my Hat’ a single that reached #5 in the UK charts and became synonymous with Christmas. Another very Pagan-feeling song was ‘Ring out, Solstice Bells’ from the band Jethro Tull with the lines:
‘Join together ‘neath the mistletoe,
By the holy oak whereon it grows
Seven druids dance in seven time
Sing the song the bells call, loudly chiming
Ring out these bells
Ring out, ring solstice bells
Ring solstice bells.’
Throughout this song is a reference to the number seven. And, indeed, whether it came before or as a result of the lyrics the verses are sung in 7/4 time (this is called an ‘odd’ time signature as it doesn’t have the even feel that most pop and rock songs have). I really love this song and there is a great BBC promo video you can watch on ‘YouTube’ that animates a medieval interpretation of the lyrics. There’s great drumming and flute playing too which very much appealed and still appeals to me.
The many, many Christmas songs that have been released often highlight sentimentality, humour and quirkiness. A classic sentimental song from Lynyrd Skynryd goes:
‘Mama used to send us early to bed on Christmas Eve
She became Santa’s helper and they took care of me
We would wake up early from our beds only to see
The love she had for all of us was left beneath the tree.’
Here the lyrics of Mark Lowry are both sentimental and poignant:
‘Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you’ve delivered, will soon deliver you.’
Perhaps that combination of sentimentality, religion and poignancy is the perfect Christmas recipe for seasonal taste. The famous ‘Band Aid’ song: ‘Do They Know it’s Christmas’ often sailed a bit too close to the seas of sentimentality when it purported to be a serious song (with benevolent intentions):
‘And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time
The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow
Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?’
There would be some snow of course — there are mountains in Africa; the ‘gift of life’ lyric feels patronising in retrospect; the third line only works in the particular (there was and is a lot growing and both rain and rivers DO flow) and of course as there are millions of Christians, they certainly WOULD know it was Christmas. But at the time these words pulled on our heart-strings and were in aid of the victims of the famine in Ethiopia. A lot of money was raised and I can only hope and imagine that folk’s lives were saved.
The bands Wizzard and Slade have always supplied the UK market (at least) with ostentatious and humorous songs of celebration. A Wizzard lyric sings:
‘When we’re skating in the park
If the storm cloud makes it dark
Then your rosy cheek’s going to light my merry way
Now the frosticles appear
And they’ve frozen up my beard
So we’ll lie by the fire
Till the sleet simply knocks ’em all away.’
Slade came out with the classic lines:
‘Are you waiting for the family to arrive?
Are you sure you got the room to spare inside?
Does your granny always tell ya
That the old songs are the best?
Then she’s up and rock and rollin’ with the rest.’
Some of the quirky or ‘novelty’ Christmas songs include the lines:
‘I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
I don’t want a doll, no dinky Tinkertoy
I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy.’
(I don’t know what a ‘Tinkertoy’ is but I imagine it is exactly as it sounds!)
Coming back to ‘Fairy Tale of New York’ we have these rather stark, comical and rude lines sung by Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl:
‘You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last.’
In a rather more surreal style I recall The Goons song title and lyric: ‘I’m walking backwards for Christmas.’ And a very pertinent lyric for our small family some years ago was Spike Jones and his City Slickers: ‘All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.’
Finally in this short, eclectic round-up of lyrics I’d like to finish with some magical and poetic words that truly sum up the mythical (and perhaps mystical) Christmas Spirit. Capturing the stark beauty of Christmas in a wonderful song called ‘Snowflake’ come Kate Bush’s lines:
‘I am ice and dust and light. I am sky and here. I can hear people. I think you are near me now. The world is so loud. Keep falling. I’ll find you. We’re over a forest. It’s midnight at Christmas. The world is so loud. Keep falling. I’ll find you.’
The arrangement of this song is itself bare and wistful (slightly chilling too) and I’m so glad that in writing this piece the song was suggested to me.
In the haunting song ‘A Spaceman Came Travelling’ from Chris de Burgh there is the idea that the spaceman is an angel that visits Mary in the manger with his spacecraft appearing like a star. It’s a moving and powerful take on the story:
‘A spaceman came travelling on his ship from afar
’Twas light years of time since his mission did start
And over a village, he halted his craft
And it hung in the sky like a star, just like a star.’
The song ends with the lines:
‘Oh the whole world is waiting, waiting to hear the song again
There are thousands standing on the edge of the world
And a star is moving somewhere, the time is nearly here
This song will begin once again to a baby’s cry.’
Again from ‘Mary Did You Know?’:
‘Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God.’
I was introduced to ‘MewithoutYou’ and their song ‘A Stick, a Carrot & String’ — which has the triumphant verse:
‘And the snake who’d held the world,
A stick, a carrot and a string
Was crushed beneath the foot of
Your not wanting
Anything.’
And from Casting Crowns again (I wish they had used ‘louder’ not ‘more loud’ but that aside):
‘Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does he sleep (peace on earth, peace on earth)
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.’
Peace on earth? Well at least at Christmas many people give their attention to such notions. They think of others when buying presents and are grateful for receiving such. The darkness of the year is lit with a kind of magic and the lights of Christmas trees shine out, reflecting in baubles and tinsel. And of course there are tragedies at Christmas just like any other year (but seemingly made all the greater). Life goes on whether Christmas or not. Life goes on for those who do not celebrate the birth of Christ or who only worship at the feet of Mammon.
To paraphrase a Wizzard lyric: Do we wish it could be Christmas every day? I trust not. That would kill it stone dead. But maybe if some of that ‘peace and goodwill’ stuck with us through the year life would be better. I finish with some lines from my song, ‘Keep Christmas’:
‘All one can do is to keep the Christmas spirit true
All one can ask is to treat everybody just like you.’
Lyrics used (in order):
Keep Christmas: Bragg
Happy Xmas (War is Over): Lennon/Ono
Driving Home for Christmas: Chris Rea
Fairy Tale of New York: The Pogues (ft. Kirsty MacColl)
I Believe in Father Christmas: Greg Lake
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day: Casting Crowns (This seems to have an influence from the poem, later made into a carol, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, also titled ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’, written in 1863.)
All Around my Hat: Steeleye Span
Ring Out, Solstice Bells: Jethro Tull
Mama’s Song: Lynyrd Skynryd
Mary Did You Know?: Mark Lowry/Buddy Greene:
Do They Know It’s Christmas?: Band Aid
I Wish it Could be Christmas Every day: Wizzard
Merry Xmas Everybody: Slade
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas: John Rox
I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas: The Goons
All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth: Donald Yetter Gardner (first single from Spike Jones and his City Slickers)
Snowflake: Kate Bush
A Spaceman Came Travelling: Chris de Burgh
A Stick, a Carrot & String: MewithoutYou
Tim is the author of: ‘Lyrics to Live by: Keys to Self-Help; Notes for a Better Life’ — a book which looks at the life lessons found in twelve song lyrics.
Follow ‘Lyrics to Live by’ on Facebook.
(Tim has also produced a number of CDs — check Spotify etc.)
