Not-so-Christmas Carols

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I got to play football with my ward Thanksgiving morning. I played a little too hard, I guess.

Thankfully it's just a really bad sprain and my team won. Well worth it. But any grammar and spelling errors are attributed to my injury. Honestly, can't even bend it.

Now that Thanksgiving is over--and let's face it, the retailers have been trying to get us to think ahead since mid-October--it's time to talk about Christmas. 

One thing that a lot of people love at Christmastime are the carols/hymns/songs that are sung. And I am of course, no different. But one of the things that's really bugged me over the last few years are the songs that really have no Christmas-base whatsoever. And then, as I've looked at some things, I've realized a lot of our popular songs are not Christmas-related at all. 

Note, when I say Christmas-related I'm referring to songs that refer to/mention Christ's birth, Santa Claus, or Christmas day itself. Also, if it's in a Christmas movie, it gets a pass. So here's a list of culpable songs posing as Christmas Carols. (Not all-inclusive, of course.)

Jingle Bells:

What? Jingle Bells is like the quintessential Christmas Carol, T.J., how dare you! Have you read the lyrics? It's a funny story about a sleigh ride. It was originally written as a Thanksgiving song. (Yeah, I'm going off of Wikipedia, but I intend to research these further.) 

Winter Wonderland: 

Let's look at the first word in this title: Winter. When is winter? It's from late December through late March. The majority of winter's season takes place after Christmas. And the most wintry time frame seems to be from early-mid January through mid-February. You can thank Perry Como for this having been added to Christmas albums for the last 60+ years.

Let it Snow: 

What a nice romantic song. "I really want to stay with you, so I'll use the weather as an excuse." But....again, wouldn't that imply bad weather? My point was made earlier.

Sleigh Ride:

It's a nice song. I honestly love its up-beat tempo and it's fun tune. But..again...do bells and sleighs really mean Christmas? No, they mean "WATCH OUT! WE'RE DRIVING THROUGH SNOW!" I just don't get how snow equals Christmas when so many of us agree with  Bing Crosby and are just dreaming of a white Christmas.

My Favorite Things:

I do not recall this being a Christmas song while I grew up in So Cal. But when I got to Utah, apparently Julie Andrews' Sound of Music "hit" is used as a Christmas song....because....huh? My wife tried to explain that it's because there are brown paper packages tied up in string....um....that's a UPS package, not a Christmas present, right? Look at Julie's face. I'd meme this to "Why is this song on at Christmastime?