There is an entire repertoire of songs that we only hear for one month out of the year, because they are associated with Christmas. This might be because we hear them so much during that one month that we can no longer stand them after the New Year holiday. But some of them got lumped into the Christmas category because they were about cold weather and snow. They would be appropriate up until March, but we don't hear them after Christmas at all.
Then there are Christmas songs that started out as something completely different, like the song that was written for a Soviet comedy film in 1934. One familiar carol is actually about the second coming of Christ, which you can understand once you know that and go over the lyrics in your head. And then there's one song that was originally about an unfaithful lover, but was changed over hundreds of years and translations. Read about these five Christmas songs and what they originally meant at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Charles E. Beckett)
