'Christmas' Songs that don't mention Christmas

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 08:33 AM

Oops
Doesn't use the word, but clearly about Christmas:
We Three Kings

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 08:31 AM

Sure, to summarize so far…

Nothing to do with Christmas:
Ding Dong Merrily On High
Frosty the Snowman
Good King Wenceslaus
Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah
Jingle Bells
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Sleigh Ride
The Boar's Head Carol
Winter Wonderland

Doesn't use the word, but clearly about Christmas:
Angels from the Realms of Glory
Angels We Have Heard on High
Asleep in a Manger,
Away in the Manger
Bring the Torch Jeanette Isabella
Burgundian Carol
Carol of the Birds
Christ Child Lullaby
Corpus Christi Carol
Handel's Messiah
Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,
Horse With No Name
The First Noel
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Too close to call:
Cherry Tree Carol
Children Go Where I Send

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Scrump
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 04:28 AM

So which ones of the suggestions so far meet the criteria, Uncle Phil? Are we on the right track?

Meanwhile - "Ding Dong Merrily On High" doesn't mention Christmas (neither the word nor the event, explicitly) so does that count?

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 08:57 PM

Good King Wenceslaus went out,
On the Feast of Stephen...

Which is, if memory serves, the day after Christmas. Good one.

Dick, I'd quibble that some songs you list are clearly Christmas songs even if they don't actaully use the word, but I'm too dumbstruck that anyone is clever enough to search the DT for a word that isn't there.
- Phil

Subject: Lyr Add: WE THREE KINGS OF ORIENT ARE
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 08:29 PM

This one dances all around it.

Written for a Christmas pageant 1857. Author: Hopkins

We three kings of Orient are;
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.

Refrain

O star of wonder, star of light,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.

Refrain

Frankincense to offer have I;
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, voices raising,
Worshipping God on high.

Refrain

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

Refrain

Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.

Refrain

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 07:49 PM

There are 53 of them in DigiTrad, headed by such obscure ones as Asleep in a Manger, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, Angels From the Realms of Glory, Burgundian Carol, Good King Wenceslaus, Angels We Have Heard on High, Carol of the Birds, The Cherry Tree Carol, Children Go Where I Send Thee, Christ Child Lullaby, Corpus Christi Carol, Deck the Halls and so on and so on. As a matter of fact, Digitrad has only 58 Christmas songs that do contain the word Christmas.

This kind of search is much easier with the old DOS version of the DT:

you look for @Xmas {NOT} Christmas

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 07:46 PM

Back when I did such things, my friends and I would sing the first two lines of "Let it snow!" as:

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But inside you it's so delightful....

Of course, today I would never change the words to a favorite old song. Heavens no! That would be...be...like spitting on the floor or something. As Amos knows.

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 07:43 PM

The Boar's Head carol.

It's the earliest English carol to have appeared in print. There is nothing to link it with Christmas in the words, but it apparently results from an encounter between an Oxford scholar and a boar on Christmas morning in the fifteenth century.

Kitty

PS The scholar successfully defended himself against the boar's attack by taking it by the scruff of the neck and stuffing a volume of Aristotle down its throat.

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Amos
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 07:32 PM

"Winter Wonderland" does not mention Xmas either. Both Winter Wonderland and Let It Snow are about male-female sexual adventuring, much more interesting to some people.

A

Subject: Lyr Add: LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW
From: Peace
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 06:49 PM

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

It doesn't show signs of stopping
And I've bought some corn for popping
The lights are turned way down low
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

When we finally kiss goodnight
How I'll hate going out in the storm!
But if you'll really hold me tight
All the way home I'll be warm

The fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we're still goodbying
But as long as you love me so
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 06:45 PM

Locally, the All Christmas Music Channel is a public school station that plays nothing but Christmas music in December. If there's not something similar in your area just imagine what it would be like.
- Phil

BTW our All Christmas Music Channel frequently plays "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow".

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Scrump
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 06:07 PM

OK then, what about "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow". That doesn't mention Christmas. It doesn't seem to be about Christmas either, so that appears to satisfy two of your 3 criteria.

But does it get played on the "All Christmas Music channel"? I've no idea as I've never heard of it before (the channel, not the song).

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Peace
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 04:51 PM

LOLOL

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 04:49 PM

Gee, criteria. Let's see. It has to be a song they're likely to play on the All Christmas Music channel (disqualifying Horse With No Name and 126,347,564,689 other songs). It shouldn't be about Christmas, regardless of whether it actually uses the word Christmas(disqualifying Noel and Bring the Torch). Feel free to make up other criteria if you get the urge, this just for fun.

Michelle says Sleigh Ride fits the criteria.
- Phil

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Peace
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 03:45 PM

Snopes has this to say.

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Peace
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 03:41 PM

"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" mentions Christmas Eve once, but that's not Christmas, simply a recognition that the next day would be, so it qualifies. However, while searching for stuff about it I tripped over the following.

"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!
"The famous Christmas song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer started life as a poem created by an American advertising executive called Robert May. He was requested to produce a poem that could be given away to children by the Santa Claus employed by Department Stores at Christmas! Working as an Advertising Executive Robert May had a natural flair with words and was able to compose the Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer poem which was specifically designed to appeal to children. This marketing ploy was a massive success and approximately 2.5 million Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
poems were given away in the first year of its publication! In 1949 the singer Gene Autry recorded a musical version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer composed by Johnny Marks."

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Peace
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 03:33 PM

"Horse With No Name" didn't mention Christmas.

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Scrump
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 03:17 PM

The well-known carol "Away In A Manger" doesn't actually mention the word "Christmas". Does that satisfy your criteria, or are you looking for songs that are not about Christmas at all?

Subject: RE: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 12:50 PM

Frosty the Snowman.

Subject: Songs that don't mention Christmas
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 12:45 PM

Some songs played on the All Christmas Music channel don't mention Christmas, like Jingle Bells and Winter Wonderland. What other "Christmas" songs don't mention Christmas?
- Phil