Christmas Carols are meant to get us in the holiday spirit, but have you ever really listened to the words of these yuletide classics? Most of these songs are about accidents, sex or secret murder. Lyrics about poverty, death, suspected adultery, giant snow creations springing to life, it's horrifying. These songs are ones we hear piped throughout giant shopping centers, in lobbies, on the radio, the background music of our celebrations and holiday parties but what are they really saying? Here are the most horrifying Christmas song lyrics of all time.
13. Grandma Got Run Over by a Raindeer
Okay, sure, this is meant to be somewhat whimsical, but think of the visual: a kind, wonderful, loving old woman is walking home on Christmas Eve, and then gets run over by a reindeer. That's tragic!
And this is when the story gets horrible.
"Grandma got run over by a reindeer.
Walking home from our house Christmas eve.
You can say there's no such thing as Santa,
But as for me and grandpa we believe."
So Grandma died and reindeer killed her? But reindeer fly, so how did they run her over? This song brings up a whole bunch of logistical questions.
This song, by the way, after studying this last phrase, fits perfectly into Christmas because of the Christian value of if you don't believe in Jesus, you can go and rot in hell. Grandma didn't believe in Santa Claus, so if she dies, nobody cares.
I mean, check this out:
"When we found her Christmas morning,
At the scene of the attack,
She had hoof-prints on her forehead,
And incriminating Claus marks on her back."
So, it was a murder. This song is about a murder. This song is about the most kind, benevolent fictional character of all time that spends his entire life making and delivering toys to children taking time out of his schedule to murder an old woman (who isn't even part of his target audience).
"Now were all so proud of Grandpa
He's been takin' this so well
See him in there watchin' football
Drinkin' root beer and playin' cards with cousin Belle"
So grandpa's just fine with this, apparently. He's taking the death of the woman he just spent his entire life building a family with so well that he just goes back to watching football and playing cards?
Did grandpa pay off Santa Claus and the reindeer?
The concept of Santa Claus moonlighting as an assassin for hire is not only terrifying because of his supernatural powers of light speed and work ethic, but because he can see us when we're sleeping, and we're awake.
All of us. He's like a fat, bearded, murderous God, ready to kill us all if we stop believing in him.
This is terrifying.
12. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Speaking of which...
"He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town"
This sounds like a threat. This entire song is a threat.
and Santa does sound a little too focused on watching little kids and this all sounds very threatening, what exactly is going to happen to kids when Santa comes to town?
But what really makes this song disturbing lies in the fact that there's an everpresent being watching children 24/7, and that if they screw up once, even once then they don't get to enjoy what is easily the most joyous season of the year in the West with the rest of the world.
If you don't live by this weird, fat, bearded guy's rules, you have nothing but coal, trauma, alienation and social exclusion to look forward to during the holidays.
Why do we even need God if we have Santa Claus? If you piss Santa off you don't get Skyrim for Christmas.
Of course, it's easier to come to more obvious conclusions like this one...
11. Santa Baby
Eartha Kitt sang the original version of this song in 1953. It's the sexiest Christmas song, but operates under the guise of what is basically a proposition for prostitution.
We've already seen Santa take money for murder on this list, and in this song, we assume he can be bought with sex.
A good piece of advice for guys would be to ask a girl they like what her favorite Christmas song is. If it's Santa Baby, then find a new girl.
This song is about a gold digger. Literally. She asks for a platinum mine in this song, and that's before she asks for something from Tiffany's. A WHOLE MINE. And then she wants more. This is the greediest person alive and she's willing to bang the sh*t out of Santa Claus to get whatever she wants.
Yachts, a deed to the house, a duplex and checks as stocking stuffers?
Jesus. If this song doesn't scare the mothers of little girls, it should scare the absolute living hell out of all and any guys.
10. 12 Days of Christmas
First of all, there are only two days of Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there are not 12.
If your true love is sending you a total of 23 birds, 49 people, and 5 golden rings you may want to consider finding a new true love because this one is involved in black market dealings or is one of those brash, irresponsible billionaires who'll most likely get you killed by the end of the year.
9. Christmas Shoes
This may be the worst song ever written in the history of holiday songs (which is actually kind of a long history). This is just torture. This song is about a guy buying last minute gifts and he's waiting in line behind some kid who says:
"Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my Mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight"
Are you kidding? This kid is out on Christmas Eve buying shoes for his mother who's going to die on Christmas. Where the hell is the father and why isn't he buying the shoes?
Then it gets even better:
"He counted pennies for what seemed like years
Then the cashier said, "Son, there's not enough here"
He searched his pockets frantically
Then he turned and he looked at me
He said Mama made Christmas good at our house
Though most years she just did without
Tell me Sir, what am I going to do,
Somehow I've got to buy her these Christmas shoes"
He doesn't have enough?! Are they serious?!
If you're not crying by this point just wait because a choir of small children then begin to sing the chorus. If that's not enough, it then goes into a single child singing with just a piano.
The real tragedy in the song, though, lies in the fact that this is a song you can hear at Macy's, and it's one that chronicles a child with a dying mother who's out committing a gesture well beyond his means in order to see his mother smile just one more time before she passes.
This is what people are singing.
8. Baby, It's Cold Outside
This song was written by Frank Loesser in 1944, it was written as duet for Loesser and his wife, Lynn Garland, to sing at their Navarro Hotel housewarming party. It was considered by Garland to be "their song", then Losesser sold it to MGM and became a Christmas song. However, this song has very little to do with Christmas and more to do with holding someone against their will. The girl wants to leave and the man keeps telling her it's too cold to leave:
"I really can't stay - Baby it's cold outside
I've got to go away - Baby it's cold outside
This evening has been - Been hoping that you'd drop in
So very nice - I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice
My mother will start to worry - Beautiful, what's your hurry
My father will be pacing the floor - Listen to the fireplace roar
So really I'd better scurry - Beautiful, please don't hurry
Well Maybe just a half a drink more - Put some music on while I pour"
First of all, this girl clearly needs to dress better for the weather. Secondly, the song goes on like that, with the girl making up more reasons to go, and the guy shooting her down with "baby, it's cold outside" and she always gives in. By the end of the song she just gives in completely:
"Brr its cold...
It's cold out there
Cant you stay awhile longer baby
Well... I really shouldn't... alright
Make it worth your while baby
Ahh, do that again..."
Is anyone else getting a date rapey vibe? The moral of this Christmas song is: lay off the sauce, and make sure you bring a coat, hat, gloves, and pepper spray whenever you go on an apparently inescapable winter date.
7. Away In A Manger
This is a very well known Christmas song that is sung by young carolers as they go door to door, in churches, around pianos etc. It tells the story of the baby Jesus and then says a little prayer to him:
"Be near me, Lord Jesus,
I ask Thee to stay,
Close by me forever,
and love me, I pray!
Bless all the dear children
in Thy tender care
And take us to heaven,
to Live with Thee there."
So there's this God-baby that's going to kill all these children and then bring them up to heaven to live with him? That's not very tender and caring, it's Jonestown.
The concept of a killer baby with unlimited powers coming to Earth to claim our children is one of the scariest things I can think of. Especially when they're all so willing to do it and everyone celebrating the baby's birth. I can seriously think of very few things scarier than that. Children of the Corn, The Village of the Damned and Away in a Manger.
6. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
The Roman Catholic Church in Boston actually condemned this song when it was released on the grounds that it mixed kissing with Christmas. They must've forgotten about mistletoe (and all that child rape).
"I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus
Underneath the mistletoe last night.
She didn't see me creep
Down the stairs to have a peek;
She thought I was tucked
Up in my bedroom fast asleep
Then, I saw Mommy tickle Santa Claus
Underneath his beard so snowy white.
Oh, what a laugh it would have been,
If Daddy had only seen
Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night!"
Merry Christmas kid, Mommy is an adulterer.
What people don't bring up often is that Santa comes very late at night and that Mommy is downstairs kissing him...where is Daddy? I assume Daddy is not home because I don't think Mommy would risk it, and I'm sure the kid would run to Daddy and say, "Dad, you need to go see what Mom is doing to Santa."
That'd be kind of cool, if that kid innocently tore apart his family, right? Well apparently, this is what the kid thinks:
"Then I saw mommy tickle Santa Claus
Underneath his beard so snowy white
What a laugh it would have been
If daddy had only seen
Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night."
What a creepy, sadistic, Damien-esque little weirdo. This song is about a kid, and a marriage, desperately in need of counseling
5. Do They Know It's Christmas?
Look at their hair.
This was a song written by Bob Geldof to raise funds for Ethiopia and released by Band Aid in 1984.
"But say a prayer - pray for the other ones
At christmas time
It's hard, but when you're having fun
There's a world outside your window
And it's a world of dreaded fear
Where the only water flowing is a bitter sting of tears"
Wait...what? Why? Why are people crying at Christmas and why are people singing about it in such a cheery manner??
"And the christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you"
That is just rude! Thank God it's them instead of you? Really? That's not charitable at all. And this is really a disgusting thing to see coming from Sting and Bono -- and that's not even counting their hair.
"And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time"
Well, there's never going to be. The climate in Africa is not one that allows for snow because it's below the equator.
"The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows
No rain or rivers flow"
It rains in Africa, and there are a lot of rivers that flow, so, yeah, at least they do have that. This song really is trying to take everything away from Africa.
"Do they know it's Christmas time at all?"
No, they don't and now neither does anyone else. Because no one has calendars. Anywhere.
Way to go Bob Geldof, you ruined Christmas.
4. You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch!
The movie "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" has the moral that Christmas is about being with the people you care about, not just presents. The Grinch learns this when he steals Christmas from the Who's in Whoville and they still stand around the tree singing.
That's a nice sentiment.
The song, on the other hand, is just a bunch of insults. Really creative, well-thought-out, true and hurtful insults:
"Your soul is an apalling dump-heap,
Overflowing with the most disgraceful
assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable,
Mangled-up in tangled-up knots!
You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch!
With a nauseous super naus!
You're a crooked jerky jockey,
And you drive a crooked hoss,
Mr. Grinch!
You're a three-decker sauerkraut
and toadstool sandwich,
With arsenic sauce!"
Wow, that's harsh. I mean geez, tell us how you really feel.
The movie itself has a great message, but this song is truly just a series of people lashing out at someone who we eventually learn doesn't really deserve it.
So this is what we've kept from this awesome moral lesson from Dr. Seuss? What we've kept in department stores, kids shows and entire theme parks is that one time we really let this social outcast who eventually learned the errors of his ways just f*ckin have it? What the hell.
3. Winter Wonderland
"Later on, we'll conspire,
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid,
The plans that we've made,
Walking in a winter wonderland."
Are we dumping a body in a winter wonderland? What exactly were we conspiring by the fire that we must face unafraid?
And then we get this gem:
"In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you're in town."
So, part of this really popular, classic Christmas song is two kids building a snowman and pretending he's someone who can marry them? Little kids getting married is the subject of one of the most overplayed songs in American history, apparently, as well as threatening sounding lyrics.
The whole song is about snow covering up any random, creepy secrets these kids may be keeping from the world. And it's weird.
2. Jingle Bells
"A day or two ago
I thought I'd take a ride
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
We got into a drifted bank
And then we got upshot"
Reckless driving and accidents is that what we call fun around Christmas now. Learn it.
1. Please, Daddy
Here's a song by John Denver, the full title is Please, Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas).
"Please Daddy, don’t get drunk this Christmas
I don’t wanna see my Mumma cry
Please Daddy, don’t get drunk this Christmas
I don’t wanna see my Mumma cry
Mumma smiled and looked outside the window
She told me son, you better go upstairs
Then you laughed and hollered Merry Christmas
I turned around and saw my Mumma’s tears"
This one pretty much speaks for itself. Nothing like alcoholism, child abuse, tears and then drunken sex and/or spousal abuse to get you in the Christmas spirit.
source.
Lol at this article.
I'm literally eating pop-corn rn, and damn one got stuck on my tooth. &%&#$*#"!=)$#"!!!