We hear it before we see it coming. Within days after Thanksgiving — or sometimes even before — holiday music starts permeating the air. It’s followed shortly by the avalanche of decor: mountains of tinsel, fake snow, gingerbread houses and, of course, Santa himself.
Whether you’re at the mall, grabbing dinner at a restaurant or just listening to the radio, holiday music becomes nearly inescapable and typically plays up until New Year’s.
For many people, the annual return of holiday music puts an extra bounce in their step or becomes that pleasant seasonal earworm they don’t mind humming.
For others, non-stop holiday music gets old fast. But unless you’re planning to stay inside without an internet connection, you’re probably not going to be able to avoid Mariah Carey’s record-breaking “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
“I’m Jewish and I don’t actually celebrate Christmas, but when the music starts up at the beginning of the season, it reminds me of school concerts. Plus, some of it is just really catchy. On the other hand, as December goes on, it can be kind of a bittersweet reminder that the year is coming to a close and makes me reflect on what I did or didn’t accomplish,” says Elissa Schmidt of Fort Lauderdale, a communications consultant who works from home.
She might feel differently if she worked in retail. “Many, many years ago, I worked in a shop,” says Alana Radmin Oxfeld, founder of State of Kid — a business that’s part children’s boutique, part classes for parents and little ones, with locations in Miami’s Design District, Miami Beach and South Miami. “The owner had a holiday playlist with the same songs playing all day on repeat. It came from corporate, and it was maybe a 10-song playlist that we had to listen to for over a month. It was so irritating — I will never forget that experience. It’s something that really stuck with me.”
When Radmin Oxfeld decided to go into business and open her first brick-and-mortar location in 2019, she pledged not to do the same thing to her employees. Yes, there’s a lot of merry music, she says, but there are also Kidz Bop holiday playlists and custom playlists that Radmin Oxfeld and her staff collaborate on themselves. “As a business owner,” she explains, “my top priority is keeping my staff happy. Because when the staff is happy, everyone’s happy.” Beyond employee satisfaction, mixing things up is good for business. It creates an atmosphere where customers can sense authentic good spirits rather than forced, manufactured festivity.
Variety is absolutely key, agrees D. Shawn Berry, artistic director and cofounder of Young Singers of the Palm Beaches, which performs about 10 concerts over the season. So is inclusivity, which is exactly why the organization created “Winter Tapestry 2025: Songs of Joy, Light and Hope” — a collection of tunes that includes Hanukkah songs and Hispanic classics like José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad.”
“As the artistic director, I pick the opening and closing songs, and then all of the other conductors select the music for their groups,” Berry says. “We try to represent, as best we can, the diversity of the children and singers that we have. I think also what we try to do in choosing music is create an emotional arc. This year, our concert falls on the first night of Hanukkah, so we’re going to open with a Hanukkah holiday blessing.”
The set list is also varied across age groups, so everyone can get their moment. “The little kids are doing ‘Into the Unknown’ from ‘Frozen 2.’ The high school girls are performing ‘A Hand for Mrs. Claus’ by [Idina Menzel and] Ariana Grande, and then we’re going to end with everyone singing ‘Silent Night,’ which is just full of beautiful chords and melodies."
For some, however, melancholy songs like “Silent Night” can stir unpleasant emotions. “Like anything else, holiday music comes with both the positive and the negative,” says Dr. Patricia Shutt, a licensed pyschologist at the Therapeutic Oasis of the Palm Beaches.
“Personally, I love it. That’s all I play in my car from Thanksgiving on. But so much of it has to do with your personal associations with it. For others, it could be really, really triggering — especially for people who’ve experienced major depression over the holidays, that cyclical kind of major depression. They hear this music, and it actually triggers their memory of being depressed, and they start becoming afraid of being depressed again. Music is really powerful when it comes to activating memories.”
Shutt further explains that a familiar holiday song can instantly transport someone back to a difficult time — whether it’s losing a loved one or going through a painful breakup or financial stress — from previous years. For individuals dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or holiday-related anxiety, the omnipresence of cheerful music can feel particularly alienating. It creates this pressure to feel joy when they’re struggling internally, and the disconnect between external expectations and internal reality can deepen feelings of isolation. She recommends that those affected practice self-compassion and set firm boundaries, whether that means limiting exposure to certain environments or communicating their needs clearly to friends and family.
Of course, it’s unrealistic to advise her patients to just stay inside and avoid the world, but what Shutt does is acknowledge and validate their feelings.
“Music is so powerful, right? It has this incredible power to it. It’s almost like it lives in a different part of, not just our mind and our memories, but our body — our body physically reacts to it.”
This physiological response to music explains why certain melodies can evoke such strong emotional reactions, and why the holiday season’s soundtrack can be incredibly polarizing for different people.
Fortunately, streaming services like Spotify make it easy to create our own personalized playlists for our cars and homes to help us get through the season — whether or not they include holiday tunes. In your own spaces, you’re in complete control of your own soundtrack.
The takeaway: For those who absolutely love holiday music — from “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Jingle Bells” to soulful classics and reimagined pop hits — hum or sing your heart out this December. For the holiday music resisters? Take heart: January isn’t far away, and with it comes the welcome return to regular musical programming. Until then, crank the volume if it makes you happy — or keep those earbuds handy if it doesn’t.
A Global History Playlist
Across the world, different cultures celebrate the December holidays with music of their own. In France, “Petit Père Noël” pays tribute to Father Christmas. In Japan, “Christmas Eve” by Tatsuro Yamashita is a beloved seasonal ballad. “Juligen,” a hip-hop Christmas song, is big in Sweden, while, throughout Latin America, songs like “Cascabel” — the Spanish version of “Jingle Bells” — and “Feliz Navidad” fill the air. Among Jewish families, lighting the menorah and singing traditional favorites like “I Have A Little Dreidel” is part of the celebration.