A Winter Wonderland? Zachary Bates-Fisher

Christmas is everywhere. For a large chunk of the year, you can’t spend five minutes in public without seeing a horrendously bedazzled fifteen-foot pine tree or hearing “Merry Christmas” from a well-meaning shop assistant. It can feel somewhat suffocating for non-Christians to simply exist in public spaces for most of November and December.

Whilst I am opposed to the hegemonic presence Christmas occupies in British culture, I do have a soft spot for the music. This probably stems from nostalgia, as my (theoretically) secular state school in a largely Christian area carried out an annual carol concert in a local church, as well as a “Christmas Showcase” which involved song, dance, and comedy– all somehow related to Jesus, Santa, or Frosty the Snowman. This music is so ingrained in my memories of childhood that I (a religious Jew) can still sing the harmony part of “O Come All Ye Faithful”.

Many of the songs which dominate our radio stations and shops are not carols and hymns, but seasonal 20th century jazz standards, middle-aged pop songs, and occasional showtunes to which sleigh bells have been added (think “My Favourite Things”). Many of these are incredibly catchy and, luckily for us, tend not to focus on Jesus and his birth, although “Mary’s Boy Child” does buck this trend.

In fact, there are many songs in the canon which don’t mention Christmas at all. This seems strange (imagine a Purim song which doesn’t mention Purim, Esther, or Hamantaschen!), but I suppose there’s only so many songs to be written about Jesus and Santa. Examples of “secular” Christmas songs include “Let It Snow”, “Baby It’s Cold Outside”, “Home for the Holidays”, “A Marshmallow World”, “Winter Wonderland”, and “Sleigh Ride” (if sleigh bells can be classified as secular). Apart from “Home for the Holidays”, all of these songs focus on winter and snow, which does make sense. I’m sure if we had as many Pesach songs as there are Christmas songs, many of them would focus on spring and blooming, not Moses and the Exodus. By this point, you may be wondering what this article is doing in a Jewish publication. The reason is that, crucially, all of these songs (and many more which do mention Christmas) were written by Jews. Some, like “Winter Wonderland”, were co-written with a Christian. Others, like “Let It Snow”, have an authorship as Jewish as the Talmud. It’s not particularly surprising that many 20th century Christmas songs were written by Jews given our historical prominence in the American entertainment industry, but it does shock many Christians when they first learn of it. But perhaps these songs aren’t Christmas songs at all. Can we reclaim them as secular winter bangers? Or even Chanukah songs? Whilst I don’t truly believe “Winter Wonderland” is a Chanukah song, the idea of a winter song doesn’t seem impossible. After all, why would “Let It Snow”, a song written by two Jews about cold weather, be linked to Christmas?

In New Zealand, it’s played for Matariki, the Māori New Year in June or July. In a way it feels like Christians have stolen our nice Jewish songs about the weather, and redefining them as secular could be considered some kind of divine justice. Ultimately, however, this has its limits. Whilst everything I have said is true, the idea of redefining Christmas songs misses the big picture; millions of unsuspecting gentiles listen to these songs every year, and to them, all of these songs are about Christmas. In the UK and USA, Christmas has expanded so far beyond

Jesus and the nativity, having basically become a festival of winter, lights, trees, food, shopping, gifts, and of course, music. Mistletoe, baubles, and “Winter Wonderland” don’t stop being Christmassy because Jesus isn’t there. And for all this talk of reclamation, I would be mortally embarrassed to play “Baby It’s Cold Outside” at a Jewish wedding in December or January. Even if it doesn’t mention Santa, everyone present will hear it and think of Christmas trees and candy canes. This is a story of assimilation. In a perfect world, Irving Berlin would’ve written “I’m Dreaming of a Bright Chanukah”, but that wouldn’t have gotten past the record labels and film studios. Jewish songwriters steered clear of highlighting their identity, and even songs which didn’t explicitly mention Christmas still fit into a theme: jazz standard with added sleigh bells about some feature of winter, probably on an album with Silent Night. The only true claimant to “non-Christmas banger” is “Home for the Holidays”. Written by Robert Allen and Al Stillman (both Jewish), the lyrics can be summarised by “Oh, how wonderful it is to be at home for a (religious) holiday”, although it doesn’t name any specific holidays. Despite being popularised as a Christmas song, I’m sure that Allen and Stillman were thinking fondly of seders, simchas, and shpiels when they wrote it.