Why Do Christmas Songs Make Me Sad? One Carol Was Written in Grief

Read Time:12 Minute, 56 Second It happens in a shop. You are holding a basket, half thinking about dinner, and a Christmas song comes on over the speakers. Nothing happens for a few bars. Then your throat closes, your eyes sting, and you have to study a shelf of tins until it passes. If you have ever typed “why do Christmas songs make me sad” into a search bar, you already know the usual answers. Nostalgia. Minor keys. The gap between what the songs promise and what your year actually was. Those answers are true as far as they go. But there is one they all miss, and it is hiding in plain sight inside one of the carols itself. One of the best-loved Christmas carols was written by a man in the worst years of his life. It has a verse about despair that most people sing without noticing. And the two verses that explain the despair were cut. Why Do Christmas Songs Make Me Sad? The Ordinary Answers First Start with the honest, unglamorous reasons, because they are real.

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