In 2021, medium.com estimated there to be under fifty thousand holiday songs. With so many to choose from, and shopping centers blasting holiday songs all through December, it’s time to decide whether or not holiday music is any good. 

It is important to take into account that one’s own holiday experience can impact their opinion. For some, holiday music can be a reminder of all the stress that’s to come with the holidays; while for others, it’s an exciting reminder of what’s coming up. 

That aside, holiday songs themselves can also be rather repetitive, especially those that focus on love rather than the holiday itself. Freshmen Regan Sacks points out: “It gets annoying and repetitive because they all [are] like, I love you.”

Repetitiveness can skew our opinion on a song or genre by oversaturating an idea. Therefore the lack of variation in holiday songs has partially altered public opinion on them, moreso in a negative light. In short, while holiday music’s quality lessens due to the sheer repetitiveness of the genre, a gentler approach is needed due to the unintentional downgrades the brain makes due to outside effects. 

On the other hand, in its simplest form, holiday music was made to spread cheer and music to celebrate the winter season. In those terms, holiday music has done its job and is an overall enjoyable listen. Throughout the winter season, the sheer amount of places that have holiday music playing demonstrates the overlooked greatness of the genre, which is able to yearly replace most stores’ regular radio for an entire month. 

Another freshman, Nicole Ogiba, confirms this, “Benefits of listening to holiday songs are that you will get more excited for the holidays to come.” In other words, the holiday season’s mood is lifted up by the music generating excitement for the holidays. 

Sacks later explains another reason that holiday music is a useful genre: “More artists should at least have one holiday song like any holiday really that’s going to expand their brand for those people who are like, oh, I want to try out a new Christmas song and then they find out they really liked this group or person.” Holiday themed music provides chances for individuals to find new(or old) artists and bands to listen to. 

Although more variation is needed in holiday music, it’s unfair to solely judge it on that fact alone. The music itself is perfect in completing its job of creating joy and excitement for the holiday season.