Adopted Christmas songs

Adopted Christmas songs are associated with Christmas, but have no explicit references to the holiday itself. Because of the time they were released, their wintry theme, or for other less obvious reasons, they have become an accepted and important part of Christmas music each year. They are sometimes given a Christmas feel by adding sleigh bells or by recording a Christmas video.

Examples of adopted Christmas songs include:

* "Jingle Bells", often called the 'most-popular' Christmas song, and certainly one of the most omnipresent every year, has no lyrics referring to Christmas at all. As holidays go, its first known performance was for a church Thanksgiving program in 1857, and was originally sung more around that holiday by Americans heading by sleigh to nearby family gatherings.

* "Winter Wonderland" - written in 1934 by Felix Bernard (composer) and Richard B. Smith (lyricist), due to its seasonal theme, "Winter Wonderland" is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere, although the holiday itself is never mentioned in the lyrics.

* "Baby, It's Cold Outside" - a pop standard composed by Frank Loesser, describing an intended winter-night seduction and usually performed as a male-female duet. Recorded by many artists including Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan, etc. This standard was widely heard all year around on Adult Standards radio stations until the 1990s when such stations began playing more baby boomer pop and softer rock songs in the format. This song began being heard regularly at Christmas time after Rod Stewart recorded it with Dolly Parton and also radio stations began playing Christmas music for the entire Advent season. After Rod Stewart recorded the song, half a dozen other adult contemporary artists recorded it for their Christmas albums.

* "" - first published in 1917, this Douglas Furber tune was popularly revived in the of the same name. Both the film and song have come to be commonly associated with the Christmas season, and the latter has been covered on many artists' Christmas albums.

* "Celebrate Me Home" by Kenny Loggins, from the 1977 album of the same title. In recent years this has been featured in the "all-Christmas" format of numerous US Adult Contemporary radio stations.

* "Dear Mr. Jesus" - PowerSource from their Shelter From The Storm album. It is sung by a 9 year old girl named Sharon Batts. Richard Klender wrote it in 1985. The song is about child abuse awareness and it has nothing to do with Christmas. Connie Bradley, Director, ASCAP, on April 11, 1988 said that this song was one of the, "most requested songs in the history of radio", (it is still highly requested every holiday season).

* "Feed the Birds" sung by Julie Andrews from Mary Poppins is often associated with the holiday making many references to "saints and apostles" and "St. Paul's Cathedral". The song is popular with Christmas carolers as well, but it is not related to the holiday.

* The "Hallelujah Chorus", from Handel's Messiah oratorio, is often performed at Christmas (as is, occasionally, the larger work), although it was originally conceived and performed as an Easter piece.

* "If We Make It Through December", recorded by Merle Haggard in 1973. The song is a lament of a father who loses his job at the factory just as the holidays are approaching. Depressed over his predicament during what normally should be a "happy time of year", he observes that his little girl "don't understand why Daddy can't afford no Christmas here." The song reached No. 1 on Billboard magazines Hot Country Singles chart on December 22 1973 ... just in time for Christmas. (It should be noted, however, that the song did first appear on Haggard's Christmas-themed album entitled "A Christmas Present.")

* "It's a Small World Holiday" from the it's a small world attraction at Disneyland in California Recorded By:Disneyland Children's Choir from the Orange County Elementary Schools. First introduced in 1997. Every year, the attraction is decorated between Thanksgiving and New Years. The attraction is dressed in 300,000 twinkling lights, a Santa Claws hat on the clock, and many more. The dolls sing "Jingle Bells" an "Deck the Halls" along with its famous theme song.

* "It Won't Be Long 'Til Christmas" from the Walt Disney musical film The Happiest Millionaire. The song is sung by two aging parents, lamenting their children growing up and leaving home. Although the Sherman Brothers' lyric references Christmas throughout the song, it is not in fact about the holiday at all.

* "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" - a 20th-century pop standard written by Irving Berlin that mentions winter themes such as snow, icicles, and December. Often performed as a duet, notably by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, which appeared on the album Ella and Louis Again in 1957. Like "Baby, It's Cold Outside", it was often heard year round on MOR stations until the late 1960s and Adult Standards stations throughout the 1980's. Dean Martin's version was widely played over the decades. Beginning in the early 2000s, Dean's version became widely played on Christmas music programming on Adult Contemporary radio stations.

*"Linus and Lucy" - Vince Guaraldi's jazz tune was used in many of the animated TV specials featuring Charles Schulz's Peanuts characters, but is particularly associated with A Charlie Brown Christmas and commonly played on the radio during the holiday season.

* "Mr. Sandman" sung by The Chordettes and written by Pat Ballard is often mistaken for a Christmas song, due to the bells heard throughout the song and its references to another character that comes during the night to bring mysterious things (dreams instead of gifts). Pat Ballard actually wrote a version called "Mr. Santa". Sung by Sandler & Young initially, it's seldom heard today.

*"My Favorite Things" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. U.S. radio stations that play Christmas music typically air various versions of this show tune, relating "favorite things" to Christmas gifts and also mentioning "silver white winters." It has recently become a 'signature' Christmas song for Tony Bennett. Tony's version had been widely played all year around on adult standards and easy listening radio stations for many years. The adult contemporary, top 40, and oldies stations only played the song at Christmas time but usually by The Supremes rather than Tony Bennett. Kenny Rogers' version also has been heard during the Christmas season on contemporary radio stations, as has Lorrie Morgan's version. Today, the song is usually only heard at Christmas time.

*"River" by Joni Mitchell begins with the sound of "Jingle Bells" and makes brief mention of the Christmas holiday. It is otherwise a fairly somber song. This song has become a Christmas standard, with many recent versions catching on (including Linda Ronstadt, Allison Crowe, Barry Manilow, Sarah Maclachlan, and Travis) .

*"Same Old Lang Syne" - Dan Fogelberg (1980-1981). The mention of Christmas Eve in this song is largely coincidental as the song as in fact about a chance meeting Fogelberg had with an old friend of his. The song focused slightly on New Years. Still, long after the Christmas season, this song was widely heard on contemporary music radio stations in 1981 and even beyond. Its still occasionally played year round, but stations have also picked up the song for more extensive airplay during Advent as part of their Christmas music rotation.

*"The Second Star to the Right"- from the 1953 Walt Disney animated feature Peter Pan. Radio stations that play Christmas music occasionally play this song, referring to the Star of Bethlehem (some denominations will sometimes replace 'Neverland' with 'Bethlehem').

* "Song for a Winter's Night" - written and originally recorded by Gordon Lightfoot, this seasonal tune was covered by Sarah McLachlan on the Rarities, B-Sides And Other Stuff album, and included on her 2006 holiday album Wintersong.

* "What a Wonderful World" - long associated with Louis Armstrong, this 1967 ballad has no holiday or seasonal content in its lyrics, but has been featured on a number of artists' Christmas albums in recent years.

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