From the MUSIC SIDE

Have yourself a merry little

Jingle bells, jingle bells...is it in there? I bet it is! I reckon, for at least the next hour or so, you will be humming that delightful piece of holiday nostalgia to yourself, all the while, inadvertently passing it on to everyone within earshot like a contagion. But isn’t that the beauty of those well-worn tunes? It’s a shared experience, whether you want to be sharing it or not. No other holiday offers anything quite like Christmas when it comes to a musical soundtrack. Sure, there are the patriotic anthems we hear around Independence Day (and at the occasional coerced attendance to a sporting event), and even a few hippity-hoppity nursery rhymes for Easter. But nothing even comes close to the permeating presence of Christmas music.

With this year’s season comin’ hot, it got me thinking about the psychology of it all. Why do some people love holiday music and others loathe it?

As is customary in these modern times, I took to the internet to see what answers I could find. As you might have guessed, there were an overwhelming number of articles to support each stance.

Most of what I read from the “pro-holiday music” side all cited the same things: nostalgia, happy childhood memories, an annual excuse to be a little less serious and to take a little more time for family and friends. All the things we tend to love about the holidays is first ushered in by a few twinkly tunes from the radio (or streaming service, as the case may be).

Maybe, as a kid, you got to see that favorite grandparent once a year and you would bake cookies while listening to “White Christmas” on the record player. Boom. Now every time you hear Bing drop those first few notes, you are transported back to granny hugs and Santa-shaped baked goods.

Or, maybe times were a little tough back then, and purse strings were pretty tight for most of the year. But at Christmas time, you got to look through the toy catalogs and make lists of things your little heart desired. The first hint of the bounty to come was likely a jingle of bells from the car stereo while you sat bundled up in the backseat on your way to or from school.

Christmas music equals Christmas time, equals togetherness, family, cookies, and presents.

A friend of mine, Sara Ruffing, is well known, at least in our specific circle, as a lover of all things Christmas. And this includes its merry soundtrack.

When I asked her about this particular affinity, she said, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year. I would say I love Christmas music so much because of my childhood. I vividly remember my mom putting on Christmas records and baking Christmas treats, and I was the helper. She also sang in the church choir and they would practice well before Christmas. It is just a cozy time of year, snuggled in by the light of the tree with festive music in the background.”

And mind you, as I write this in mid-November, Sara is setting up one of the Christmas trees in her house with her little guy and working on passing those warm feelings down to the next generation.

But what happens if you didn’t have those things growing up? Then it would stand to reason that the cheery sounds of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed-Reindeer” would sound more like a harbinger of dread for the upcoming weeks of watching other kids go to family gatherings, eat cookies, and get new stuff. I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel a bit guilty for looking forward to Christmas every year.

And yes, it does indeed inspire me to help those less fortunate. But not everyone’s reason for hating Christmas music is quite that tragic. Sometimes it’s just the repetition of it all.

For the yin to Sara’s yang, I asked another friend, Lauryn Schindler, equally known in my social circle for disliking Christmas fluff and fuss, why she doesn’t go in for all the holiday hoopla.

“I think Christmas music has its place, and I understand the spirit and nostalgia. So, when you are decorating the tree, or making Christmas cookies, fine. And love what you love, but having to listen to the same few songs over and over again in every circumstance, every day, for months is insane. Especially at work. It starts to feel like torture, and I lose the ability to enjoy it in any situation.”

Lauryn brings up a good point. For those who work in certain industries, mostly customer service and retail sales, the sound of sleigh bells ringing and angels being heard on high can elicit negative emotions for an entirely different set of reasons. I can speak from personal experience on this topic.

I have worked in retail, in some way, shape, or form, since I was 17 years old. Every year, I get excited to hear the first few notes of Christmas music over the sound system. And every year, by the time New Year’s Eve rolls around, I want to throw something large and heavy at whatever machine is still pumping out those holiday classics.

Chances are, for more waking hours than not over the last 30-plus days, the same merry tunes have been the background sounds to working long hours, cleaning up impossibly messy fitting rooms, and dealing with stressed out, stretched to the max parents. And, if you live up here in the frozen north, all of this while constantly worrying if the snow outside has gotten so deep that getting home will be a calculated risk that you will be more than willing to take just to get out of here.

Truth be told, my current employment situation, while still somewhat retail, is nothing like the shopping mall experiences of my youth. But that doesn’t mean it’s changed any for those still working at American Eagle or Target.

As much as I loved, and still love, the holidays, I certainly still remember the way it felt to leave at the end of a Saturday shift, in the dark, having to scoop 6” of snow off my car, and drive home with sweaty, throbbing feet. And at the edge of it all, “All I Want for Christmas is You”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, “Holly Jolly Christmas”, and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” ... on repeat.

So to everyone, on both sides of the fence, I would like to say, “I get it!” I get why we look forward to the music. It means family, and treats, and presents, and decorations, and celebration. And, I get why we can’t wait to shut it down on Dec. 26. Enough is enough. It’s time to get back to “normal” life and start dreaming of the weather warming and the snow melting and seeing the first signs of spring.

Because that is what we Minnesotans do, even though there is a long, long, long stretch of winter still out ahead of us. 

... or don’t