TheHappySpaceman’s Six Most Hated Christmas Songs – TheHappySpaceman Reviews

4 thoughts on “TheHappySpaceman’s Six Most Hated Christmas Songs – TheHappySpaceman Reviews”

1. Having a work history in Retail during the holidays, there was a great many songs that constantly got on my nerves whenever they played overheard on the PA system. The most repetitive song that just drove me absolute insane was Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. It still tends to get me angry whenever I hear it.

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   1. That Mariah Carey song bothers me, too. Especially since she seems to be playing up the Christmas creep each year by posting about it right after Halloween. People have the choice NOT to listen to it and play it on the radio. So why do we continue going through this every year?

      Thanks for watching! (Also, love the PFP. The Wall is a fantastic album.)

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2. As someone who’s done my own series of Christmas song blogs, I had to check this one out.

   I’m with you there on ‘Wonderful Christmastime’. Not one of Paul McCartney’s best. Your describing it as sounding ‘unfinished’ hits the nail on the head. It seems like it was a work in progress that was rushed to meet some Christmas deadline.
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   I’ve never really cared for ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, but I’ve never been able to figure out why. Maybe it was because even as a kid, it sounded to me like a manufactured attempt to exploit the popularity of ‘Jingle Bells’.
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   And yes, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a flawed song for the reasons you gave. The popular special fixes some of those flaws, but it’s not without a few of its own. But one thing about the song that bugs a lot of people is the intro: “You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?”
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   Well, of COURSE you’d recall him! He’s the most famous reindeer! That’s like saying “You know Millard Fillmore and Rutherford Hayes but do you remember Abraham Lincoln?”, or “You know Sir Bedevere and Sir Kay and Sir Tristan but do you remember Sir Lancelot?” It doesn’t make sense to ask that question phrased that way.
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   “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” seems to be a song people either love or hate. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground on that one. And it really doesn’t make a lot of sense when you think about it at all. It certainly also makes several people’s lists of Christmas songs that are disturbing when you think about them. But it’s basically a one-joke song.
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   I think “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” goes back to the days of wassailing, which is basically like if you cross Christmas caroling door-to-door with trick-or-treating, at best. Groups of carolers would go door to door expecting people to give them stuff, and wouldn’t leave until they got what they wanted. Or something like that. I’d been a while since I looked it up. But it pretty much explains the bizarre turn in the later verses (which some versions omit because they really do detract from the whole ‘Good tidings’ theme).
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   “Do They Know It’s Christmas” is a song I cited as an example of a badly done ‘socially conscious Christmas song’. There’s a lot of bad hyperbole in the song (“No rain or rivers flow”. Apparently Africa is in such a a bad drought the Nile dried up or something)., and of course “They’ll be no snow in Africa this Christmas”. Yes, there won’t be much snow in most of the Southern Hemisphere on Christmas, either, so what’s the point of bringing up snow in that context? And then there’s cringeworthy lyrics like ‘The only Christmas bells are the clanging chimes of doom”. So yeah, I’m not a fan of this song either.
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   “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” is another socially conscious Christmas song, but I don’t think it’s entirely bad. I heard it in 2001 in the aftermath of 9/11 and the lyrics “Let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear’ resonated with me then. As for the later verse you question, I think that’s intended as a ‘let’s stop war and stop racism’ verse, wishing for people of all races and skin colors to peacefully coexist. Anyway, I think the line ‘War is over if you want it’ is largely addressed to the people who actually decide when wars end: The politicians and world leaders who start those wars in the first place regardless of the wishes of the people.
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   What are my least favorite Christmas songs? Well, I’d say “Do They Know It’s Christmas’, ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’, ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, and ‘Last Christmas’ (the song that inspired WHAMageddon). I already described a few of them in my ‘Disturbing Christmas Songs’ blog (which you can find by clicking the ‘Christmas songs’ tag at the end of this post, or by looking up my blog posts on this site).
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   Never heard ‘Cold Blooded Christmas’ and the Killers’ Santa song before. Might have to look them up.

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   1. I’m definitely going to check out your blogs at some point! I’m interested in reading them.

      I’m thinking I may review the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movies for my next Christmas special. Each of them has flaws of its own, so I’m interested in comparing them to see which one is the best. (Probably the 1963 one, let’s be honest.)
      And yeah, you’re right that the intro doesn’t make much sense. If he’s the most famous reindeer, then why are we just now hearing about him?

      That explanation you gave for “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” makes a lot of sense. Although as you said, it doesn’t hold up much now.

      I was admittedly holding off a lot on “Last Christmas” due to the then-recent death of George Michael. Although maybe since I don’t hear it as much on local stations, it doesn’t bother me as much as those other ones I mentioned.

      Again, I’m looking forward to checking out your blogs! I also posted a sequel to this video where I talk about my favorite Christmas songs.

      Thanks for watching!

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