Editing Christmas music (section)

==Adopted Christmas music==
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2021}}
What is known as Christmas music today, coming to be associated with the holiday season in some way, has often been adopted from works initially composed for other purposes. Many tunes adopted into the Christmas canon carry no Christmas connotation at all. Some were written to celebrate other holidays and gradually came to cover the Christmas season.

* "[[Tempus Adest Floridum]]", a romantic spring carol with Latin words dating to the 13th-century ''[[Carmina Burana]]'' and a melody attested no later than 1584, became associated with Christmas after [[John Mason Neale]] set his epic ballad "[[Good King Wenceslas]]" to its melody in 1853. Neale's poem does not directly mention Christmas or the nativity but describes Bohemian Duke [[Wenceslas I, Duke of Bohemia|Wenceslas I]]'s journey to aid a poor traveler on a cold [[St. Stephen's Day]]; that day falls on the day after Christmas and within the traditional [[Twelve Days of Christmas]].
* "[[Joy to the World]]", with words written by [[Isaac Watts]] in 1719 and music by [[Lowell Mason]] (who in turn borrowed liberally from Handel) in 1839, was originally written anticipating the [[Second Coming]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/12/joy-to-the-world-aka-christmas/420330/ |title=12 Days of Christmas Songs: 'Joy to the World' Isn't Supposed to Be One |first=David A. |last=Graham |date=December 17, 2015 |website=The Atlantic}}</ref>
* "Jingle Bells", first published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in 1857, was originally associated with [[Thanksgiving (United States)|Thanksgiving]] rather than Christmas.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Estrella |first=Espie |date=August 18, 2017 |title=What Are the Origins of the Christmas Carol 'Jingle Bells'? |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/jingle-bells-history-2456082 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331225016/https://www.thoughtco.com/jingle-bells-history-2456082 |archive-date=31 March 2019 |access-date=December 24, 2017 |work=ThoughtCo}}</ref>
*With a Welsh melody dating back to the sixteenth century, and English lyrics from 1862, "Deck the Halls" celebrates the [[Paganism|pagan]] holiday of [[Yule]] and the [[New Year]], but not explicitly Christmas ("Troll the ancient Yuletide carol/See the blazing Yule before us/While I tell of Yuletide treasure").

"Shchedryk", a Ukrainian tune celebrating the arrival of springtime, was adapted in 1936 with English lyrics to become the Christmas carol "Carol of the Bells" and in 1995 as the heavy-metal instrumental "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24." "[[When You Wish Upon a Star]]", an [[Academy Award]]-winning song about dreams, hope, and magic featured in [[Walt Disney]]'s ''[[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]'' (1940). What later became the main theme for Disney studios was sung by [[Cliff Edwards]], who voiced [[Jiminy Cricket]] in the film. In Scandinavian countries and Japan, the song is used in reference to the [[Star of Bethlehem]] and the "ask, and it will be given to you" discourse in [[Matthew 7:7–8]]; in the movie it is in reference to the [[Blue Fairy]].

Many popular Christmas tunes of the 20th-century mention winter imagery, leading to their being adopted into the [[Christmas and holiday season]]. These include:

* "Winter Wonderland" (1934)
* "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (1937)
* "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (1944)
* "A Marshmallow World" (1949)
* "Jingle Bell Rock" (1957)
* "My Favorite Things" (1959)

"[[Do You Want to Build a Snowman?]]" (2013), from the movie ''[[Frozen (2013 film)|Frozen]]'', features lyrics that are more of an illustration of the relationship between the two main characters than a general description of winter or the holidays, but its title rhetoric and the winter imagery used throughout the film have led it to be considered a holiday song.

"Sleigh Ride", composed originally in 1948 as an instrumental by [[Leroy Anderson]], was inspired by a heatwave in Connecticut. The song premiered with the [[Boston Pops Orchestra]] in May 1948 with no association with Christmas. The lyrics added in 1950 have "nothing to do with Santa, Jesus, presents or reindeer," but the jingling bells and "sleigh" in the title made it a natural Christmas song. Lyricist [[Sammy Cahn]] and composer [[Jule Styne]] also found themselves in a heatwave in July 1945 when they wrote "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", inserting no reference to Christmas in the song.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lennon |first=Troy |url=https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/songs-that-were-never-written-for-christmas/news-story/cfb7bcb96b526b03379920a81fe78e12 |title=Songs that were never written for Christmas |date=December 18, 2017 |work=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=December 20, 2017}}</ref> "[[Holiday (Vampire Weekend song)|Holiday]]" (2010) is about the summer holidays, but has been used in some Christmas ad campaigns.

[[Perry Como]] famously sang [[Franz Schubert]]'s setting of "[[Ave Maria (Schubert)|Ave Maria]]" in his televised Christmas special each year, including the song on ''[[The Perry Como Christmas Album]]'' (1968). The song, a prayer to the [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary]] (quoted from the [[Gospel of Luke]]) sung in [[Latin]], would become a "staple of family holiday record collections."<ref name="Balke">{{Cite news |last=Balke |first=Jeff |url=http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2011/12/classic_christmas_the_perry_co.php |title=Classic Christmas: The Perry Como Christmas Album |date=December 19, 2011 |work=Houston Press Blog |access-date=December 23, 2013 |archive-date=December 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224110118/http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2011/12/classic_christmas_the_perry_co.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> American ''a capella'' group [[Pentatonix]] released their version of "[[Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)|Hallelujah]]", the 1984 song written by [[Leonard Cohen]] and covered famously by a number of acts, on [[A Pentatonix Christmas|their Christmas album]] shortly before the songwriter's death in 2016. Besides the [[Hallelujah|title]], and several biblical ([[Old Testament]]) references, the song contains no connection to Christmas or the holidays ''per se''; an earlier 2014 rewrite introduced by [[Cloverton (band)|Cloverton]] repurposed the tune and some of Cohen's lyrics to make it more explicitly Christian and Christmas-themed.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 25, 2014 |title=Why I Hate the Christmas Version of ‘Hallelujah’ |url=https://forward.com/opinion/211592/why-i-hate-the-christmas-version-of-hallelujah/ |access-date=December 21, 2024 |website=The Forward |language=en}}</ref> Various versions have been added to Christmas music playlists on radio stations in the United States and Canada.

In the United Kingdom, songs not explicitly tied to Christmas are popularly played during the year-end holidays. "Stop the Cavalry", written and performed by English musician [[Jona Lewie]] in 1980, was intended as a war protest, which his record label was unwilling to release in its original form. The label reworked the record, added a [[tubular bell]] and a brass band sound, and built upon a throwaway line about wanting to be "home for Christmas" to make the song a Christmas song.<ref name="Sunday Post">{{cite web |last=Crae |first=Ross |date=December 18, 2019 |title=Story behind the Christmas song: Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie |url=https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/story-behind-the-christmas-song-stop-the-cavalry-by-jona-lewie/ |access-date=December 4, 2022 |website=The Sunday Post |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thisisdig.com/feature/best-christmas-songs/ |title=Best Christmas Songs: 60 Classic Tracks For The Holiday Season |last=Crossan |first=Fionn |date=December 1, 2021 |website=Dig! |access-date=December 4, 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref>