Kendall Aronson, Campus Carrier social media director
It’s Christmas time and the perfect time to break out your Christmas playlist and enjoy some bops that are only acceptable to enjoy during this month-long period. There are a lot of really amazing Christmas songs, such as “Carol of the Bells,” “Wonderful Christmastime,” “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of Year” and so so many others. However, there are other Christmas songs that are not as iconic and timeless. Here are my opinions on some bad Christmas songs.
One Christmas song that has not aged well is “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” originally written by Frank Loesser in 1944. This song has received a lot of backlash in recent years, especially following the #MeToo movement because of implications of sexual harassment that can be taken from the song. It does indeed sound creepy. The song itself chronicles an evening in which two individuals have been having a date at the man’s home and he does not want her to leave, protesting that “Baby, it’s cold outside”, whereas the woman tries to insistently say she “really must go”. Some concerning lines include, the woman’s “Say, what’s in this drink?” and after more pressure “The answer is no,’’ whereas the man talks of his “lifelong sorrow” and “what’s the sense in hurtin’ my pride?”. He also sings one of the most uncomfortable lines in the song: “gosh your lips look delicious,” which he says not once but twice. He refuses to give her a coat, and, according to him, there are additionally no cabs. Honestly, I am all for this song being cancelled. I think it’s creepy, and even though it was made a long time ago, I do not like what it implies. While certain covers of the song are creepier than others, overall I would consider this one of the worst Christmas songs. An exception can be made for Michael Bublé and Idina Menzel’s cover of the song, which removes some of the more questionable lines. It also makes it very clear at the end of the song that he is asking her to only stay for a drink more, and not for the whole night or to do anything else that may be implied, remarking “Okay fine, just another drink then,” followed by Bublé saying “That took a lot of convincing!”
Another Christmas song that has made me uncomfortable since I was a child is the iconic “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” As a child, I always hated this song because it implied that a mother had kissed Santa Claus, drawing questions into an affair against both the child’s father and what Mrs. Claus would think. I recently saw a post, now that I no longer believe in Santa Claus, that remarked on how the song was actually about a father dressing up as Santa and the child then witnessing a kiss between his parents, thinking that it was actually Santa and being confused. I really never considered this possibility until recently, and honestly the song has already been ruined for me. As a child, I was deeply concerned by both the mother and Santa’s infidelity, because I believed in Santa Claus. If you enjoy this song, and you always knew it was about two parents kissing and a child’s confusion, that’s valid and I apologize for my childhood naivety.
I just generally don’t enjoy Santa sexualization, which leads into my next bad Christmas song, “Santa Baby.” Honestly, I don’t like thinking about some strange woman with a weird Santa fetish, and that is exactly what this song makes me think of. She also is just really feeding into the rabid capitalism of the season, asking for so many expensive material goods rather than the spirit of giving or having any sort of holiday cheer. “Santa Baby” embodies the worst things about the holiday season. Additionally, I’m going to call out Michael Bublé’s cowardice in changing the lyrics from Santa Baby to Santa Buddy in his rendition of this song. If you’re going to do it, do it, Mr. Bublé. We’ll still believe you’re straight.