The day after Thanksgiving, or sometimes even earlier, people walk around in stores and hear the familiar classic holiday tunes playing. Often Christmas music is played during Christmas traditions and fun. Listening to the same songs that we listen to every year during these fun activities can cause nostalgia and this feeling can be some of the reason that listening to Christmas music can cause such positive feelings.
“Whenever I listen to the Charlie Brown Christmas playlist it brings back memories from when my mom used to play it, and gets me into the spirit,” Alyssa Marti (‘26) said. ”Also listening to Michael Buble really gets me into the Christmas spirit, I love him.”
Christmas music can bring back memories from past Christmases and brings people into the Christmas Spirit, especially with the same singers playing year after year. All music can stimulate the brain to make you happier. When this music is specifically Christmas music it adds the memory factor, making it cause even more positive feelings. It can also be comforting that whatever is going on in your life you can come back to Christmas music each year. Even if we don’t remember the exact experience, a song can remind us of the positive feelings we had during Christmas time.
“You know when that Christmas song comes on in your room something about it just makes you want to dance,” Jack Sheidman (‘26) said. “When it comes on I break down dancing and if you ask anyone else, truthfully they will be doing the same thing. Christmas brings joy and music brings joy and when combined since they are both happy things you are very very happy.”
This music gave him a moment of escape when the stress of life went away and he was able to decompress and connect to the happiness of the music. This is a prime example of how Christmas music can be associated with such positive emotions.
Because listening to music is such a big part of the Christmas season, musicians capitalize on the guaranteed audience that comes with the genre using it as a strategy to stay relevant in the music industry. According to NPR, ”All I Want For Christmas Is You” is the first song to ever have four separate runs at No. 1 on the chart, beginning in 2019.” If the song is able to gain enough traction when it is released, it can achieve being in the mainstream popular Christmas songs that are played over and over. Making Christmas music can allow artists to regain popularity. Since there is less of a selection of Christmas music and it is listened to regularly in the Christmas season, when new songs are released, they can be listened to often. This can help the artists reach a larger audience than they would be normally. Even if people normally listen to rap or pop, they come from all different music genres to listen to Christmas music, giving those artists a boost of listeners. Artists often release Christmas music when their careers are waning to remind fans of their music and keep their careers going.