#232 – Secular Christmas Songs

I love Christmas music and now that we’re through Thanksgiving I am listening to Christmas music nonstop. Whether that’s on my iPod or tuning into one of XM’s holiday stations, I am filling my life with Christmas music. I love all of the traditional Christmas carols; a lot of them have really deep theological meanings. There are also a lot of great secular Christmas songs that don’t have anything to do with the birth of our Lord and Savior. Here are some of my favorite secular Christmas songs.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

I really like “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” because it’s a nice Christmas song about some dude trying to seduce a girl. For some reason, when I was younger, I thought that people didn’t start having sex before marriage until the 80s. Obviously that isn’t true and this song is a perfect example of pre-marital sex pre-MTV. This song was written in 1944 and clearly shows people were violating the seventh commandment long before Reagan’s presidency. God’s design for sex within marriage is the best but I still smile when I hear Dean Martin drunkenly croon his version of this song.

Christmas Time is Here

Vince Guaraldi’s score for A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of my favorite Christmas albums ever. The song “Christmas Time is Here” stirs up so many nostalgic feelings of sitting at home with my family and watching the yearly broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I think about the whole gang dancing on the stage and Linus’ simple telling of the Christmas story. Every time I hear the song I’m transported to a simpler time when all I had to worry about was what kind of cookies to leave for Santa. I’m also reminded of Lucy and what a total jerk she was to Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown was just nerd trying to nervously get the little girl with the red hair to notice him and Lucy was just a jock throwing salt in his game.

Last Christmas

A Wham! Christmas song? Yes, please. Before George Michael came out, he and the other guy from Wham! came out with “Last Christmas”. The song was released in 1984 and it’s the perfect blend of 80s synth-pop, heartache and holidays. Really, who doesn’t get excited to listen to “Last Christmas” every year and think about that girl or guy who dumped them during Christmas? I know when I got dumped 6 days before Christmas one year, Wham! reminded me that, in order to be saved from tears, I needed to give my heart to someone special. And if we wanted to turn “Last Christmas” into a Christian Christmas song, that someone special would need to be Jesus.

There are so many great Christmas songs that, if they weren’t associated with Christmas, would be terrible songs. But Christmas is a time of giving so we give a little grace and listen to songs that may not be the best.

What is your favorite non-religious Christmas song?