Christmas music seems to be all that is played from Thanksgiving to January. All you hear during the holiday season is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” for the 100th time in a Starbucks or retail store, carolers going door to door in neighborhoods belting out jingle bells, and Michael Bublé on the radio. But there is a group that gets overlooked during the Christmas season: those who don’t celebrate Christmas.  

Christmas music is loved for a reason. It spreads holiday cheer, uplifts people, and makes people feel warm and happy in a season that is full of cold and death.  

“I listen to it every morning, I love when it plays,” Tsambika Limenos (‘27) said. “Even in November.”  

There is a lack of musical celebration left for other holidays that are celebrated through the months of November-December, often overshadowed by Christmas.  

“People don’t have a choice but to listen to Christmas music because it is all that is really played,” Haylie Katz (‘24) said. 

There are songs that celebrate other holidays but are not heard mainstream. A song celebrating Hannukah is “The Dreidel Song,” which is known by people, but it isn’t something you would hear in a coffee shop or on the radio. There are songs that celebrate Kwanzaa as well: “Seven Days of Kwanzaa,” “O Kwanzaa,” and “Kwanzaa is Here.”  

“I don’t hear other music a lot,” Limenos (‘27) said. “I would listen to it.” 

Christmas music may be dominating the musical-religious world; however, other religious music can give the same warm, holiday feeling while giving attention to the other holidays celebrated during the Christmas season. 

Link to The Dreidel Song: https://youtu.be/WKreDYVWark?si=S3WRlKUspq1MNKF4 

Link to Seven Days of Kwanzaa: https://youtu.be/sfoj1hMxtQk?si=1AGbF1L452xlNfrC 

Link to O Kwanzaa: https://youtu.be/7rD8tagW5Kc?si=rDm5Xq22ykgCgeDT 

Link to Kwanzaa is here: https://youtu.be/QiSvIU-e88I?si=soVmxRAyy-ZXaLIf