“Give or take the jingle bells on the track, would the song lose anything if the title was “All I want this summer . . . ” of “All I want for my birthday . . . ?”

Answer: Yes it would. Your point that the song isn’t inherently “about” Christmas because it can be substituted for any other holiday/time of year is incorrect, since the lyrics contain many references that are solely Christmas-related: “presents”, “Christmas tree”, “stockings”, “reindeer”, “North Pole”, “Santa Claus” (and for good measure, “St. Nick”) are all invoked.

While I don’t necessarily agree with your overall position (I love the song myself), I think your stronger point — and more fascinating, if we apply the standards of close-reading and textual analysis — is the one you initially made about the song dismissing Christmas artifice for pop artifice. This is an excellent reading/critique of the song, and it’s a more robust argument; I was intrigued by this conceit and wanted to hear more about it. Switching midstream to “the song could be switched for any other song” is intellectually disappointing since it is outside the scope of the initial argument, doesn’t support the initial argument, and is ultimately refuted by the examples I listed above.

Good catch though on Mark “sliding” between definitions of “love” (insisting on a delineation of the particulars of intent, is the sign of an intellectually honest debate). Although let me also assure Mark that I agree with him on the overall merit of “All I Want for Christmas is You”, and that I have enjoyed reading his blog for some time now.

To restate my point with perhaps more precision, I think it’s absolutely valid for “All I Want for Christmas is You” to be considered an honest-to-god Christmas song. To me, it’s valid to declare that all you need to be happy during Christmas is the love of another person because to me, the purpose of Christmas is to take a moment to be incredibly grateful for the people you love.

That’s a large sentiment, and I see a piece of it reflected in this song. The giddy belief that your mate is all you need to be happy is certainly a legitimate element of the spirit that makes Christmas important to me.

Now, is that giddiness the only way to express the belief that Christmas is about giving thanks for loved ones? No. There are many ways a work of art can express the thanks that I consider to be the spirit of Christmas. There are certainly more moving ways to express that idea. There are more spiritual ways. There are more community-minded ways, and there are more serious ways, too. But at the end of the day, “All I Want for Christmas is You,” silly pop song that it is, still captures at least a small part of what Christmas means to me.

And is my take on what Christmas means the only take that’s valid? No. There are plenty of great ways to interpret the holiday. I mean, I also appreciate it as a reminder that we should be nice to strangers, look for the godliness in ourselves and others, and really think about gifts that other people want to receive. I just happen to put “thanksgiving” at the top of my personal list. But if somebody else wants to focus on five other things altogether, then good for them.

To that end, I’m interested to know what Christmas is about for you, and for all my readers. What are you looking to see reflected in a piece of Christmas-related art? What makes a work of Christmas art valid for you?

To answer your question, Gonzalo, “Last Christmas” was never officially released as a single in the U.S., but it gets a lot of play here.

Sure, there’s not a religious angle, but for a lot of people, Christmas is a holiday that focuses less on religion and more on the secular, satisfying spirit of being in love and being with those loved ones. I don’t have a problem with that, so to my mind, then, a romantic song with a Christmas bent is perfectly appropriate.

Don’t tell anyone.

By the way, one other modern-ish song that has had some staying power is Wham’s “Last Christmas”, which came out in 1984 too. Not the same level of brilliance, but it seems to have endured the test of time (at least it has in the UK… is it as famous here in the US?).

I actually paid money for this song though. I find it absolutely delightful. I danced around a half-decorated Christmas tree to this song last weekend with a big glass of wine in my hand.