Why do Christmas songs sound like…

Christmas?

Christmas is the time of the year when everyone shares the same spirit, by decorating
houses, eating a lot, buying and receiving presents and sharing with their beloved ones.
There are many movies about Santa Claus, elves and Christmas myths. But all these
things are nothing without the Christmas songs.
If you listen the Jingle Bells song, you automatically think about Christmas, but why?
There are a few secrets that all the Christmas songs share, that will be unraveled below.

The first and one of the most common ingredients to make a Christmas song is the use
of sleigh bells. The sleigh bells were used over the horses that pull sledges, because the
sledges don’t have breaks, that’s why the people had to attach bells to them, so other
people will know that the sledges are coming and prevent any accidents.

The second one is the use of a chord (musically called ii7(b5)) that has a melancholic,
soft and sweet sound, just like Christmas. Most of the Christmas songs use it between
the IV and I chord that makes the song feel like it is melting, in addition to that, the
composers lower the tune to make it sound like Christmas.

The third one is the use of childish sounds, like kids’ voices, kids chorus, whistles and
others more. Because the people usually associate kids with Christmas, because they
sound naïve and full of joy.

Then, to compose Christmas songs, just mix all of these ingredients, we add some
random lyrics about Santa Claus, children, sharing, snow or something related to this time
of the year and the result will be a proper Christmas song that everyone will enjoy.