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Fair warning: if you’ve clicked on this article and choose to keep reading, you will get the song in question stuck in your head. Continue at your own peril.
We’ve had a lot of conversations this year about when is the appropriate time to bring out Christmas lights and music. I have to say, my building Xmassed the lobby before Thanksgiving and it felt way too soon to me. (This included an inflatable Santa that they’re keeping plugged in all the time so we tenants on the first floor can enjoy the electrical buzzing 24/7; it’s turning me into a Grinch real fast this year.) But there are devotees who believe the season starts on November 1, like Katherine Schwarzenegger and, of course, Mariah Carey. I understand wanting to listen to music that only gets played once a year as much as possible during that period. The downside, though, is hearing certain (north) polarizing songs on loop ad nauseum. One such little ditty is the 1979 synth-tacular tune from Paul McCartney, “Wonderful Christmastime.” People with ears have been debating the earworm on Reddit:
For many listeners, the gripe comes down to repetition and style. McCartney sings the line “Simply having a wonderful Christmastime” over and over while a chorus of children chimes in with “Ding dong, ding dong…” If the song hits your ears the wrong way, that loop can feel endless.
The debate recently resurfaced on Reddit, where fans (and non-fans) discussed just how polarizing the track really is. Let’s just say a few people got pretty candid.
“It’s my most hated Christmas song and has been for decades. God how I hate it,” one listener wrote. Another added, “I LOATHE this song with every fiber of my being. It is the dumbest song ever.”
One user even dubbed it the “Worst song ever written,” while another said, “That song is an abomination.”
Some listeners described an almost surreal feeling when it comes on — and not in a good way. “I feel like I’m in a fever dream every time it plays. I think it’s the synth, meaningless lyrics and the repetition, but it never seems to end. It’s the longest couple minutes of any song.”
Still, nearly half a century after its release, “Wonderful Christmastime” remains a seasonal staple. You’ll hear it everywhere, radio stations, department stores, grocery aisles, whether you love it or not.
And plenty of fans genuinely do love it. “Not his best, but very nostalgic for me as I get older. There are worse Christmas songs,” one user admitted.
Another even compared it favorably to John Lennon’s holiday anthem. “I’ll go ahead and say it, I prefer Wonderful Christmastime to Happy Xmas (War is Over) by a mile.”
Others praised the song for its fun, feel-good energy. “It’s genuinely one of my favourite Christmas songs, and is sampled in a great De La Soul song ‘Simply.’”
Another added, “A perfectly fine Christmas song,” while one fan wrote, “Honestly I like my Christmas songs to actually be fun, so… yeah I like it.”
There are some exceptional takes on the Reddit thread, one of my favorite being, “on ‘Wonderful Christmastime,’ Sir Paul McCartney set out to make a timeless christmas classic and also to figure out what every button on his synthesizer did, and he absolutely succeeded at one of those things.” I don’t know if I’d use the word “hate” with this song, only because it’s so inane and void of substance that there’s nothing really there to be up in arms against. To me, it’s a perfect example of how McCartney and Beatles writing partner John Lennon balanced each other so well. (Though I’d firmly take “Happy Xmas (War Is Over) ANY DAY over “WC” and cannot believe someone said the opposite out loud on a public forum.) Their dynamic makes me think of the weighing of the heart ceremony in the Egyptian afterlife, where the deceased person’s heart is taken out and weighed on a scale against the goddess Ma’at’s feather of truth. When I first learned of this ritual, I swore it was described that the heart had to be the exact same weight as the feather to get to heaven — meaning you can’t have spent your life too heavy-hearted or too light-hearted. But when I went to back this up on the interwebs, most sources are saying the heart just couldn’t be heavier than the feather, lighter was ok. I like my version better! And the point is, I think Lennon kept McCartney from being too light, and vice versa. (And to those of you who had on your bingo card Kismet tying in Beatles, Christmas, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead all into one story: happy holidays.)
