The holiday season is an incredibly mixed bag – deep down, I do enjoy this time of year, with classic movies and memories of years gone by, but at the same time it’s a point in the year that I can’t stand. Working in retail has a pretty negative effect on a persons love of the holidays, what with peoples attitudes, being forced to commute in that traffic and cold to and from, and the like.
The worst thing of all, though, and the thing that probably over time can be the most annoying is the music. It’s bad enough when any store or workplace plays music day in, day out, with its predictable looping and often terrible selection, but it gets infinitely worse when it comes to Christmas music.
Generally, from November 1st until towards January, Christmas music plays in every single store, virtually nonstop. Sometimes you get a terrible standard pop song in there, from time to time, but otherwise, it’s song after song about snow, presents, Santa, and more. In light doses, these songs are fine, but hearing them hour after hour, day after day, is maddening.
It isn’t even so much the songs, but the fact that when you really think about it, there aren’t that many songs out there! I always make the joke that holiday playlists are the same 12 songs over and over, and that isn’t far from the truth!
It’s not just the holiday classics, it’s more modern songs too! I’ve heard multiple versions of “Last Christmas”, most notably the original Wham version as well as the Taylor Swift cover; I’ve heard at least 3 versions of the “This Christmas Will be a Very Special Christmas To me” song (whatever it’s called, you know the one), and who knows what else – this mixed in with the typical Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and the classic Alvin and the Chipmunks tune (who the hell wants a Hula-Hoop anyway?).
I wish I could recall more of the songs, but I find myself constantly trying to forget that I have to hear these tracks day in, day out, for 2 months straight. That’s not to mention the songs you hear in commercials. I’ve heard “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” more times than I can count, and it got old fast – Hell, for a song from 1953 I hadn’t heard it once in my entire life until 2012, and once I heard it, it’s been prominent every year since. Hell, as I type this part of the article, the song just started playing on a USPS commercial. You can’t escape this stuff no matter how hard you try!
It would be one thing if it was just December, but these songs, as I mentioned, start in November and just don’t stop. It’s annoying, to say the least. No other collection of songs, with so few actual variations (remember, it’s all pretty much the same one or two dozen songs, with cover after cover) is played so constantly for such a long time.
Unless you are exposed to it in an already moderately stressful work environment, you might not be able to see where I’m coming from, but I can assure you, no one, and I mean no one I work with enjoys hearing any of the repetitive music at work – let alone the Christmas stuff. It’s not the songs themselves, in most cases, but just the constant, nonstop repetition.
If you enjoy holiday music, good for you. It gets old fast to me, and that’s just how I feel about it.
