The Science Behind What Makes Music Sound Christmassy
Within the opening notes of classic Christmas songs, listeners are instantly transported to the festive season. But what specific musical elements trigger these holiday associations, and how do they work on our collective consciousness?
Musical Semiotics and Cultural Association
Popular music researcher Philip Tagg's work on musical semiotics provides insight into how we interpret musical signs. In his book Music's Meanings, Tagg demonstrates how instruments can acquire cultural associations that override their original contexts.
The pedal guitar exemplifies this phenomenon. Originally rooted in Hawaiian musical tradition, the instrument migrated to country music so successfully that modern listeners immediately associate it with Nashville rather than the Pacific islands.
Sleigh Bells: The Ultimate Christmas Signifier
One instrument stands as the definitive Christmas musical marker: sleigh bells. From Prokofiev's orchestral Troika (1933) to contemporary hits like Ariana Grande's Santa Tell Me (2014), these percussive elements serve as instant festive shorthand.
The association stems from practical origins. Christmas's connection to winter weather created a natural link to sleighs as winter transport, and consequently to the warning bells that announced their approach. This chain of association has become so embedded that sleigh bells now directly evoke Christmas without requiring the intermediate concept of actual sleighs.
The broader bell family reinforces this connection. Church bells, traditionally rung to celebrate Christ's birth, have extended the festive bell association into Christmas decorations and artistic representations.
Contemporary Christmas Music Analysis
The UK Official Charts Company's analysis of the "top 40 most-streamed Christmas songs" reveals bell sounds in the majority of entries. From the glockenspiel opening of Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You (1994) to Band Aid's synthesised tubular bells in Do They Know It's Christmas (1984), the pattern remains consistent.
Other Christmas musical elements include lyrical melodies and prominent brass sections. Significantly, these components share a common characteristic: they evoke historical rather than contemporary musical styles, deliberately avoiding modern pop conventions.
Nostalgia as Musical Strategy
Christmas functions as an inherently nostalgic holiday, encompassing both homesickness and temporal longing. The season encourages geographical and emotional journeys home, creating environments where traditional rhythms supersede daily routines.
Artists deliberately exploit this nostalgia through musical choices that reference the past. This explains why Christmas albums predominantly feature reinterpretations of established classics rather than original compositions. Familiar songs provide immediate emotional connection points for listeners.
The Crooner Standard
The easy listening crooner style represents the pinnacle of Christmas musical nostalgia. Artists like Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole established a template of warm vocals accompanied by light orchestration that remains synonymous with the season.
This style's power was evident when Billie Eilish performed Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas on Saturday Night Live in 2023. She abandoned her characteristic synthesised sound for a traditional piano, drums and upright bass arrangement, delivering vocals in an uncharacteristically gentle tone.
The Complete Christmas Formula
Michael Bublé's 2011 album Christmas demonstrates the complete Christmas musical formula. With two tracks in the top 20 most-streamed Christmas songs, the album combines crooned vocals, light orchestration of classic songs, and yes, sleigh bells.
The album's success illustrates how effectively these musical elements can be deployed to create instant festive recognition, proving that Christmas music's power lies not in innovation but in the masterful deployment of established cultural codes.