Christmas Songs Mount Rushmore

I believe I can break this down to 4 songs in the "Mount Rushmore" category with a few near-misses and a lot of other worthy, quality tunes, that don't meet the final four requirement. And what is the requirement? I'll define the Christmas Song Mount Rushmore as the four songs that stand as pillars, from a USA Christmas, current era, representative of a cross-section and...oh a whole lot of blah blah blah. It's the 4 songs that best represent Christmas music. So, lets get right to it no order within the top 4, though if I were to put a number one in there it's likely:

Silent Night

The placeholder for all Christian Christmas songs, "Stille Nacht" in it's native German and composed as a hymn by Franz Xavier Gruber. Did you know it turns (or turned depending on when you read this) 200 years old in 2018? No? Now, why wasn't that a small footnote item in the news? It's a wonderful carol, is rarely done in a non-reverent fashion, and matches lyric to melody as well as any song; carol or not. It sits atop a slew of other Christian carols, first that come to mind, O Little Town of Bethlehem, O Holy Night, Away in a Manger, First Noel, and O Come Emmanuel. Silent Night gets to the heart of the Holiday.

So, let's bring this a little further along in the time line and move a little later in the 1800's and go with Jingle Bells. As the linked article attests, Mark Steyn gives a wonderful background story on the song, and its original creation during the "sleigh song" craze of the mid 1800's and as he points out, it does seem like a song that has always been around, it didn't need to be "written." It takes this slot on the Christmas Song Mount Rushmore as the winter theme slot, it's a snowy outdoor standard that matches its closest competition, Sleigh Ride. But the idea of wintery songs-of-the-season are throughout, Marshmallow World to Winter Wonderland to Let it Snow to Deck the Halls, there is a component of the Christmas song which is the chill in the air and not necessarily to get your baby in front of a fire (Christmas Song, Baby, It's Cold Outside) but just to appreciate the fun of winter. Jingle Bells adds to that an ear-worm simple piano riff (that pops up as it's own imprint, seamlessly and almost subconsciously like at the end of Springsteen's Santa Claus is Comin' to Town) and both a transition into any musical style and also the ability to inspire knock-offs (Jingle Bell Rock). It covers all the songs that are created to 'sound Christmasy' and remain totally secular. Speaking of secular, let's go to the Santa side of the Holiday, and the aforementioned song that creates it's own storyline, and that being Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. this takes the third spot as representative of every song that is at it's heart a kids' song, around all of the trimmings and trappings of the gift-giving Christmas. "Santa Claus" does this better than all both in its music being catchy, holiday sounding, and able to morph into a rock and pop tune (thanks Phil Spector) but the lyric has become screenwriter shorthand for most Santa shows. The naughty/nice list, sees you when you're sleeping, be good, these ideas were not new to Haven Gillespie in 1934 but have been incorporated into the Santa persona ever since. it stands in for the non-Christian but-more-than-the-winter-solstice songs, like Holly Jolly Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Up on the Housetop, or whether mommy is kissing Santa or wooden soldiers parading and so on, this is the pinnacle of the Santa side. What have I omitted? Purposely, I have left out Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Because Rudolph is everything Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is, it creates its own mythology, drawing from 'Twas the Night Before Christmas it creates a character that has become a standard component to Christmas songs. But...Mount Rushmore has only 4 spots and there aren't 2 for the Santa side, and Rudolph would be in a "top 8" but is ultimately a continuation not an innovation.

What component of the Christmas song have we not touched upon. For a guide it's what drives countless songs, perhaps two-thirds of all Christmas songs and a higher percentage of the newer songs being written. It ties together the awesome pipes of Darlene Love on Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) and Wham! with "Last Christmas" and the Christmas Waltz, The Christmas Song, even the (not a Christmas song) of Baby, It's Cold Outside. And that's Christmas as a time to tug on the heartstrings; love songs, loved-and-lost songs, being apart songs, being together songs, missing you, glad we're together, Christmas songs have a rich thread of being a conduit for the affairs of the heart and as the Santa and Christian songs are mostly established with few new ones breaking through to the mainstream, every year the brightest lights in the pop sky try their hand at a new way of saying I love/miss someone on Christmas Day. Makes you wonder if maybe they should be giving equal weight to the other 364. But the granddaddy of all of these the thing that brings George Michael, The Crystals, Arianna Grande, and Mariah Carey together was the melody which launched all those songs, White Christmas. So, that's the 4th spot on our Mount Rushmore. not that White Christmas was the first (going back to the innovator/continuation thing) but it was such a cultural landmark, and quickly launched a worthy imitator, I'll Be Home for Christmas, as wartime young men pining to be back home made for fertile songwriting. But the template for the Christmas song of longing, of love, of the bittersweet, all are encapsulated in White Christmas. It's been covered in ever which way, it has it's offspring like mentioned before, or even Blue Christmas, continuing on the theme, but to draw a straight line through the 60's (baby please come home) to the 80's (you forgot cranberries too?) to the 90's (I just want you for my own) and beyond point to the spirit of White Christmas.

So...that's the Christmas Mount Rushmore:

Silent Night

Jingle Bells

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

White Christmas

Oh, what are my favorites? Thanks for asking:

Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You (Billy Squire)

We Need a Little Christmas (Johnny Mathis)

A close call winner over Joy to the World, but both are perfect especially at Christmas Mass