Popular Christmas Songs
More recently popular Christmas songs, often introduced through film or other entertainment media, tend to be specifically about Christmas or have a wintertime theme. They are typically not overtly religious. The most popular set of these titles—which are heard over airwaves, on the internet, and on P.A. systems in shopping centres and lifts (even on the street)--have been composed and performed from the 1930s onward (although three - "Jingle Bells", "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" and "Up on the House Top" - date from the mid-19th century.)
The largest portion of these songs in some way describes or reminds of the Christmas traditions, how Americans tend to celebrate the holiday, i.e., with caroling, mistletoe, exchanging of presents, a Christmas tree, feasting, jingle bells, etc. Celebratory or sentimental and nostalgic in tone, they hearken back to simpler days with memorable holiday practices. Many titles help to define the mythical aspects of modern Christmas celebration: Santa Claus bringing presents, coming down the chimney, being pulled by reindeer, etc. New mythical characters are added—and defined-- by these songs, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (first described in a book, but popularized by the related song) and Frosty the Snowman.
The remainder of the songs are seasonal: celebrating wintertime with all its snow, dressing up for the cold, sleighing, etc.
Read more about this topic: Christmas Music
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—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)