A brief history: What was the first-ever Christmas song?
Christmas songs evolved out of Church hymns into street carols, and later set the stage for the Mariah Careys of the atheist world.
The first Christmas poets were Roman Christians, with the earliest recorded example being the Latin hymn ‘Jesus Refulsit Omnium’ in 336 AD, while the oldest Christmas carol to be sung today is believed to be the French ‘The Friendly Beasts’ from the 12th century. There was already some Christmas carolling going on in England by the 1400s, but it’s not until 1739 that we have a truly recognisable household name: ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.
Although a lot of Christmas-themed music was written in the fourth century, they were not observed in religious services until centuries later or were yet to acquire the shape of a song. For example, the poem ‘Silent Night’, written by priest Joseph Mohr in 1816, was never intended to be made into a song. Many others, like ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’ and ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, were originally poems, set to music by artists after publishing. Even ‘Jingle Bells’ was never meant to be a Christmas song, and was originally written for Thanksgiving back in 1885.
Although the old Christmas songs were bred in Church, religion and music weren’t always so respectable a pair. Many felt that such a solemn holiday as Christmas should not be sung over, with Oliver Cromwell enshrining this into law in the 17th century with his ban on Christmas carols across Britain.
Carolling has its roots in pagan times, with choirs singing to bring in the new season during the winter solstice. Our better-known Christmas carollers tradition started much later with the ‘Waits’ groups performing on Christmas Eve, which was known as ‘Waitnight’ in the 19th century.
Lower-income workers would join groups to sing in public places to earn an extra penny, until the tradition of singing door to door evolved, and carollers would sing tunes like the 16th-century, ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ on wealthy front porches in hopes of treats and figgy pudding.
By the early 20th century, ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ were rocking around the Christmas trees of any home that could afford a radio, but the Christmas song only entered the mainstream with the rock revolution. In the ’50s, the Elvis Christmas Album topped the charts, setting the stage for The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, and The Temptations to capitalise on winter cheer.
The Christmas music genre entered its prime in the ’70s, with every mainstream artist having a go at a Christmas single and mostly getting a hit, from David Bowie to Boney M, from songs for charity and ‘Happy Christmas (War is Over)’ to shopping centre favourites like ‘Wonderful Christmastime’.
And even before ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’, the John Lewis ad, or Justin Bieber ever entered our collective consciousness, the Christmas genre peaked. The year was 1984, and the quickly-aged charity single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ became an instant classic, with Wham! making holiday history with ‘Last Christmas’. The lasting comet left by Christmas greats made following in their footsteps quite hard for pop artists in the new millennium, for truly, can anyone really ever do any better than Wham!
