As winter break approaches, the holidays are in the air, and they would not be complete without festive music coming from every direction.
Seahawks generally appreciate holiday music for its happiness, like sixth grader Wills Countess, who says, “It just hypes me up and gets me ready, and I just enjoy the joyfulness.”
Similarly, when asked if holiday music helps him get in the mood for the season, freshman Henry Meyer says, “Yeah, of course, like when it’s turning to winter and you hear it on the radio or in a store … you just get in the mood for Christmas and the season … It just makes me feel happy, and it conveys [to] be grateful for what you have.”
Senior Xeva Oldridge has a specific love for certain artists and songs: “I love holiday music. It’s so nostalgic and amazing … I love all of the very retro [songs], like I love all the Frank Sinatra songs that are holiday [and] Bing Crosby. Love those, can’t name any specifically, because they’re all good. [Also] ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,’ whatever that one is, I love it so much; it’s just so nostalgic and so pretty,” she says.
Seventh grader Olivia Pavisian likes “‘Carol of the Bells,’ specifically the Pentatonix version. Theirs is good.”
Meyer “like[s] ‘Silent Night’ and the one that goes ‘chestnuts roasting over an open fire,’” but he adds that he “dislike[s] some of the ones that are more recent, made by pop artists.”
Certainly, Meyer is not alone in his qualms with overplayed songs. Pavisian says, “I feel like overplayed is probably just like any variation of Jingle Bells, like ‘Jingle Bells,’ ‘Jingle Bell Rock,’ all of that, like you hear it at every mall, every store; no matter where you go, you cannot escape the jingling of the bells. And then over sung, I feel like so many people will sing … ‘Santa Baby,’ or ‘All I Want for Christmas [Is You].’ That’s what you’re gonna hear at school, no matter what.”
Oldridge mentions this notorious song as well, saying, “‘All I Want for Christmas is You,’ [by] Mariah Carey [is] not terrible, but it gets on my nerves eventually.”
Seaburians also concur that timing matters for holiday music–but there is more controversy over the perfect date to start listening. Countess starts listening “after Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving.”
Faculty member Shane Richmond listens on the earlier side as well: “November 12; that’s the day I would start, and I think stores should start as well; it gives enough time after Halloween, a little bit of time before Thanksgiving,” he says.
Oldridge, however, starts the holiday music a bit later, saying, “The minute December hits–I’m not an early listener, because I like to save my joy for that month–I’m in it, I’m listening, and it’s also my birthday month too, so it’s just such a good-feeling time of year, and music helps so much with that, [but] once Christmas is over, I shut the holiday music down … I want to encapsulate it into one singular month.”
In terms of when to shut down the holiday songs, Meyer says, “Near the end of winter, they get fairly annoying. Yeah, some of them are still being played come January.”
Similarly, Pavisian thinks that holiday songs can be annoying, “especially when people will be playing them in July, like ‘Christmas isn’t over yet!’ … Christmas music is good, except when you start singing it or playing it way too much.”
Richmond says that the songs should “let you know that Christmas season is here. It’s a little annoying when stores start playing them in September or October, when it’s still 85 degrees outside; I think that’s deteriorating the songs’ effect of bringing you into the holiday season when they start so early.”
When it comes to the message of her favorite holiday music, Oldridge says, “I’d say [it’s] just joyful, but also very peaceful. It’s a calm contentment that comes with Christmastime because everything’s kind of mellowed out, but there’s lights everywhere, and everybody just seems to be very loving. It’s just kind of the overall vibe.”
Richmond says, “The best holiday music is about getting together with friends and family, having fun and playing in the snow.”
