Christmas Music - Adopted Christmas Music

Adopted Christmas Music

Much of what is known as Christmas music today was adopted from pieces initially created for other purposes. Retroactively these were applied to Christmas, or came to be associated with the holiday in some way. Many tunes adopted into the Christmas canon fall into the generic “winter” classification, as they carry no Christmas connotation at all. Others were written to celebrate other holidays and gradually came to cover the Christmas season. Favorites such as “Winter Wonderland,” "My Favorite Things," “Let it Snow,” and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" describe winter, but never mentions Christmas or any other holiday. A winter song naturally becomes regarded as a Christmas song, due to the Season.

The popular Christmas standard "Jingle Bells" was originally written to celebrate Thanksgiving. Standard “Sleigh Ride” lyrics mention not a Christmas party but a birthday party ("There's a birthday party/At the house of farmer Gray"). "Auld Lang Syne", with words by Scottish poet Robert Burns put to a traditional Scottish melody, is traditionally sung at the conclusion of New Year gatherings in Scotland and around the world, especially in English speaking countries, but is now often considered a Christmas song. Borrowing from the title, Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne" (released 1980) tells a Christmas Eve story and is now frequently played during the holiday season, integrated with traditional Christmas songs.

Perhaps the most famous Christmas music of all, Handel's "Messiah", was first performed "not during Advent or Christmas, but in Eastertide." Handel’s masterpiece premiered in Dublin on April 13, 1742, 19 days after Easter, with proceeds intended for a number of charities. According to the words, only the beginning deals with the birth of Jesus, while "the second and third parts focus on his death, resurrection, the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost, and the final resurrection of all believers." It was performed from 1750 until Handel's death for the Foundling Hospital for orphans around Eastertime.