Christmas Music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of carols or songs may employ lyrics whose subject matter ranges from the nativity of Jesus Christ, to gift-giving and merrymaking, to cultural figures such as Santa Claus, among other topics.
Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme. While most Christmas songs prior to 1930 were of a traditional religious character, the Great Depression era of the 1930s brought a stream of songs of American origin, most of which did not explicitly reference the Christian nature of the holiday, but rather the more secular traditional Western themes and customs associated with Christmas.
These included songs aimed at children such as “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, as well as sentimental ballad-type songs performed by famous crooners of the era, such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “White Christmas”, the latter of which remains the best-selling single of all time as of 2018. Elvis’ Christmas Album (1957) by Elvis Presley is the best-selling Christmas album of all time, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide.
Pop music and Rock and Roll Christmas music include:
- Elvis Presley
- John Lennon
- Bing Crosby
- Vince Guaraldi
- Jose Feliciano
- Brenda Lee
- Band Aid
- Paul McCartney
- Bobby Helms
- David Bowie
- Judy Garland
- Josh Groban
- Nat King Cole
- The Carpenters
- Phil Spector album
- Burl Ives
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ringo Starr and others.