What makes a holiday song a lasting hit?
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Holiday season means holiday music playing from your car radios, in shopping malls, in your headphones. And unless you're doing your best to avoid Christmas music around this time, you've probably heard one of these classics at least once already. And here were some of our own team members' favorite holiday songs.

Hi, I'm Elena Burnett. I'm a producer on All Things Considered. And my favorite Christmas song is O Tannenbaum, specifically the version by Vince Giraldi off of A Charlie Brown Christmas. It's the first song I play when I decide it's the holiday season. It never fails to perk me up. It just feels like Christmas. It just feels like I'm walking through that tree lot in the movie. ♪

My name is Jeanette Woods. I'm an editor at All Things Considered. And my favorite Christmas song is an oldie but a goodie. This Christmas. All the mistletoe I'm gonna get to know

It is quintessential old school soul and I love it. It just makes me think of family and getting together and it's one of my favorite songs and I can't help but sing.

Hey, my name is Mark Rivers. I'm a producer with All Things Considered and Consider This. One of the Christmas songs that I love to listen to, it's a little silly, is called Peace at Least by the 70s group Rotary Connection. And this song is about how Santa, just to get through the craziness of the holidays, has to smoke mistletoe.

And what I love about this song is that while the content is silly, the production of it is so rich. These like glorious strings and horns. Everyone should have a piece of this once a week.

Wrote a song for all those nice little Jewish kids who don't get to hear any Hanukkah songs. Here we go. Hi, my name is Catherine Fink, and I'm a producer for All Things Considered. My favorite holiday song is the Hanukkah song by Adam Sandler.

Growing up Jewish in an area where there were not a lot of Jews, I remember hearing that song for the first time and feeling like he was voicing something I had felt for a long time. I was so jealous of my friends who celebrated Christmas. Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights. Yeah, that song is canon.

Hi, my name is Mia Venkat. I'm a producer on All Things Considered. And my favorite holiday song is White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes. And I feel like some people will say it's not a holiday song. Um, I don't know.

but they talk about snow in it, so I feel like that counts. And I'm not quite sure what the song is about, but it just feels so nostalgic and cozy, and it just scratches my brain in the right way. One or two of those songs belong to what might be called the holiday song canon, the list of songs that almost everyone can agree is a classic. Consider this. This year marks 30 years since one song came to dominate the holiday music charts.

Coming up, we talk about what's made it such a lasting hit. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. This message comes from NPR sponsor, the Capital One Venture X Card. Earn unlimited 2X miles on everything you buy. Plus, get access to a $300 annual credit for bookings through Capital One Travel. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. Details at CapitalOne.com. This message comes from Carvana.

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It's Consider This from NPR. The holidays are here, which means this one song might feel virtually inescapable. I don't want a lot for Christmas. There is just one thing I need. That, of course, is Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You. It first came out, can you believe this, 30 years ago. Even though its ubiquity this time of year kind of makes it seem like it's been around forever. A present.

Whether you play it on a loop or whether it drives you crazy, there's no question Mariah Carey's song has become a permanent fixture of the Christmas song canon. That holiday song canon is big, but it is not easy to break into. You can take your pick of pop artists who have made their own Yuletide jingles since 1994, like John Legend. Baby, I hope Santa brings you to me.

Justin Bieber. I should be playing in the winter snow, but I'ma be under the mistletoe. Taylor Swift. Christmas must be something.

But not even the woman who shattered records with her Erez tour has given us a holiday song that has had the staying power worthy of the canon. Was Mariah Carey's song the last? Who else has made a song worthy of consideration? To discuss, we've got NPR Music's Stephen Thompson here in the studio. He's been dancing along to the music. Hey, Stephen. Hello, Juana. Stephen.

Stephen, I know a lot of ink has been spilled about All I Want for Christmas is You, but for the select few people out there who are not Carrie converts, or even for people who love to listen to the song every season without thinking about it, what is it about the song? Why do you think it works so well?

Well, I think it manages to combine a lot of what works in the best Christmas music, which is a sense of timelessness, a nostalgic through line back to things like girl groups. Like if you think about A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector with those great Ronette songs on it, it's tapping into some of that stuff. It's also just an impeccably produced song. The way the, ah,

comes in is hard to resist, though I know there are many people listening to this for whom familiarity has managed to build up an enormous wellspring of contempt. It is a song that is wildly, wildly overplayed. I mean, first of all, I will just note that the song is going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the day. So thanks for that. But question here, I'm curious, what do you think it is? What are the ingredients that one needs to create a genuinely good and lasting Christmas song?

For me, one of the first things that I look for is sincerity. I will often be drawn to...

holiday music that has real feeling to it. I'm often drawn to some note of melancholy, even though there's not a great deal of melancholy in All I Want for Christmas is You. A lot of the Christmas music that I'm drawn to has this sense that the holidays are not 100% cheerful. And when I think about the Christmas music or the holiday music that I hate, it's music that is essentially asking, why aren't you happy? Right.

And that is just the cruelest thing you could do to me, you know? And I would much rather you make me sad than tell me I should be happy. Are there any Christmas songs that are written after the release of Mariah Carey's hit that you think do deserve a place in the canon? I want to hear about your holiday playlist. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I'm constantly railing about this because there has been a ton of magnificent holiday music made in the last 30 years. We've somehow decided as a society that we're only going to listen to about eight Christmas songs. And one of them is Jingle Bell Rock. And one of them is by Andy Williams. It's the most wonderful time of the year. There is a

Christmas canon that sprawls out for thousands and thousands of songs. And some of them are magnificent and should be just as popular as All I Want for Christmas is You, which is a song I do like. Okay, like what though? Give me some examples. Okay, I'm going to give you an example. It's a song from 2003 by a duo called The Weepies.

And I know the weepies, you're going to be like, okay, sad Christmas. Here's sad boy talking about his sad Christmas music. I understand. I know what you're thinking, people. They have a song called All That I Want, which to me is one of the most irresistibly beautiful Christmas songs I have ever heard. It's a song that has a lot of kind of classic holiday song signifiers. But it's a song about finding comfort in life.

in the love in your life, in your family, in kind of some of the majesty and beauty of winter without it ringing false in any way. And I got to say, Deb Talon's voice is just like a balm on my soul. Absolutely. The ships come and it's Christmas time

Give us another example of a song that is on your holiday playlist. Well, another one in a little bit the same vein of just deep, deep warmth. There's a band called Low. Low was around for like 30 years, put out a ton of really stunning records. And in 1999, they put out an album called Christmas. And for me, when I think about songs that should be in the holiday canon, I think about the song Just Like Christmas by Low. Better small

There's something about the production of this song where it feels like it's being beamed in from like a faraway satellite or you're listening to it on an AM radio. And so much Christmas music has these feelings of nostalgia that can feel really forced. And for me, this song has completely unforced nostalgia. Yeah.

Stephen, beyond those two examples, are there any other songs that you could see getting more popular with age? I think of somebody like a Kelly Clarkson, you know, a pop singer with a really, really big and vibrant voice. And she's leaned into the holidays in ways that I think are kind of scratching the itch that Mariah Carey is scratching a little bit.

She's drawing on girl groups and classic pop and standards in ways that still feel contemporary. I think Sabrina Carpenter, you know, who's had this massive 2024, you look at the Christmas canon she's started to put together. She has a Christmas special on Netflix. She's got a real sense of humor. Oh,

I think she's somebody who really could kind of...

continue to grow into being one of the queens of Christmas. And you just never know when one of those songs is going to break through and suddenly it's on all of those Christmas playlists. But I really encourage people listening at home to track down your own favorite holiday music. Go on Spotify, go on YouTube, get down a rabbit hole of some beautiful Christmas music that evokes more than just this canned cheer. ♪

NPR Music's Stephen Thompson. Stephen, thanks as always. Thank you, Anna. This episode was produced by Mark Rivers and Michael Levitt. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Ashley Brown. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers and Merry Christmas.

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