I have a Christmas-related confession: I've never dashed through the snow on a one-horse open sleigh, I've never roasted chestnuts on an open fire, I've never gone caroling, and I've never seen mistletoe in real life. I have a feeling I'm not alone on that last one. Of course, we all know the tradition. The merry sprig, dotted with white berries and tied with a fanciful ribbon, is hung over doorways to catch unsuspecting couples who must kiss if they meet beneath it or else they'll welcome bad luck. There are many ancient legends explaining the reasons behind the ritual, ranging from good fortune to fertility, but it's not nearly as prevalent as the Christmas songs we listen to year after year have led us to believe.
That begs the question: Why does mistletoe still show up in so many songs when most of us have never seen it in real life?
For Pat Pattison, who teaches lyric writing and poetry at Berklee College Of Music, the answer is simple: It's a great word. "Sings well with the open vowel at the end, but, more important, whether we've ever seen it or not, symbolizes romance and a longing to be kissed," he told Songfacts. "And there's the additional aspect of getting to kiss someone because of mistletoe's tradition, especially someone you'd be too shy to approach otherwise – like a kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve. In Australia they've never seen snow, yet they sing 'Jingle Bells.'"
Because 2020 isn't exactly the best year to revive a tradition that involves spontaneously kissing strangers, let's meet under the mistletoe in songs instead.
Join together beneath the mistletoeThat begs the question: Why does mistletoe still show up in so many songs when most of us have never seen it in real life?
For Pat Pattison, who teaches lyric writing and poetry at Berklee College Of Music, the answer is simple: It's a great word. "Sings well with the open vowel at the end, but, more important, whether we've ever seen it or not, symbolizes romance and a longing to be kissed," he told Songfacts. "And there's the additional aspect of getting to kiss someone because of mistletoe's tradition, especially someone you'd be too shy to approach otherwise – like a kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve. In Australia they've never seen snow, yet they sing 'Jingle Bells.'"
Because 2020 isn't exactly the best year to revive a tradition that involves spontaneously kissing strangers, let's meet under the mistletoe in songs instead.
By the holy oak whereon it grows
"Ring Out, Solstice Bells" by Jethro Tull (1977)
If it's part of a Celtic religious ceremony known as The Ritual of Oak and Mistletoe, a white-robed priest will climb the tree and cut down the mistletoe so it can be used to create a cure-all elixir that promotes fertility in barren animals and combats all types of poisons. Two white bulls are also sacrificed during the ritual.
Not your typical Christmas party - or Christmas song, for that matter. But Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull's frontman, told Songfacts he deliberately set out to write a radio-friendly song when he wrote the pagan carol for the 1977 folk-rock album Songs From The Wood. He didn't plan on releasing it as a Christmas single, though; that was the record label's idea. "After a futile attempt to record a simpler, catchier version, we reverted to the original recording," Anderson remembered. "It was released just too late to make the Top 10 charts in time for Christmas. But it has remained a radio play staple in the radio playlists for Christmas ever since."
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
"I'll Be Home For Christmas" by Bing Crosby (1943)
Bing Crosby didn't have druids and ritual sacrifices in mind when he dreamed of mistletoe in his classic "I'll Be Home for Christmas." By the time Crosby recorded the song in 1943, mistletoe was already a quaint addition to holiday décor. Nearly two centuries earlier, English servants popularized the trend of kissing beneath sprigs of mistletoe and it soon caught on to the middle class. No one's smooching in Crosby's tune, though. He's singing from the perspective of a homesick WWII soldier who promises his family he'll make it home for the holidays (if only in his dreams). While he was envisioning blankets of fresh snow the previous year in his hit "White Christmas," Crosby adds mistletoe and presents under the tree to his dream of Christmas morning splendor.
Several other artists have taken a crack at the Christmas standard, including Johnny Mathis on his hit Merry Christmas album in 1958, the same year Billboard issued its Hot 100 chart, but Mathis didn't release it as a single. The only versions to enter the tally were Josh Groban's 2008 rendition (#95) and Kelly Clarkson's 2011 take (#93).
Mistletoe as typically hung. It's often combined with holly and pine cones to fill it out. Photo: Valentina Razumova, DreamstimeOr candlelight on the mistletoe
"I'm Beginning To See The Light" by Ella Fitzgerald and Ink Spots (1945)
Bing Crosby may pine for mistletoe, but it doesn't do a thing for Ella Fitzgerald in her 1945 hit "I'm Beginning To See The Light," the only non-Christmas tune on our Mistletoe Songs list. We can't really blame her. Mistletoe is actually a parasitic plant that grows on trees and sucks the life out of them, which kind of kills the mood. But all things romance are a no-go for the singer - including the soft glow of moonlit skies, lantern-shine, and candlelight on the mistletoe - until she locks lips with her new man.
"I'm Beginning To See The Light" was a popular number in 1945, with versions by Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots, Harry James and His Orchestra (with Kitty Kallen), and Duke Ellington (with Joya Sherrill), all landing in the Top 10. That same year, yet another mistletoe song was in the works. But it started as an attempt to beat the heat.
Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe
Help to make the season bright
"The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole (1946)
In July 1945, Mel Tormé and Robert Wells tried to escape the sweltering summer heat by imagining a frosty winter with the typical Christmas accoutrements, including the ever-popular mistletoe. Their wishful thinking turned into the standard "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On Open Fire)."
Tormé recorded the tune several times himself, but it first hit big with the King Cole Trio in 1946. That version was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 1974. Nat King Cole, the trio's leader, recorded the song a couple more times, and his 1961 version, with arranger/conductor Ralph Carmichael, is regarded as the definitive rendition.
I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus
Underneath the mistletoe last night
"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" by Jimmy Boyd (1953)
By now, we know it's bad luck to refuse a kiss under the mistletoe, so Jimmy Boyd shouldn't have been too surprised when he "Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" beneath the magic greenery in the 1953 chart-topper. Apparently, little Jimmy wasn't the only one left confused by the sight. Plenty of listeners thought the boy caught mommy in an extramarital affair with Kris Kringle, not realizing it was really dad in the costume. Several radio stations even banned the tune upon its release and it was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in Boston over the misinterpretation. Columbia Records sent 13-year-old Boyd to plead with the Council of Churches to get the ban lifted. Decades later, the revelation still causes an annual furor on social media when more and more folks figure out the true meaning.Many artists covered the song, including Spike Jones of "All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)" fame, but perhaps the most popular is from the 1970 Jackson 5 Christmas Album, which has 12-year-old Michael Jackson stumbling upon the scandalous scene and pleading with his brothers to believe him.
Oh, by gosh, by golly
It's time for mistletoe and holly
"Mistletoe And Holly" by Frank Sinatra (1957)
Frank Sinatra is firmly entrenched in the holiday season among Crosby, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, and other classic crooners who covered the gamut of Christmas standards. But for his 1957 album A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra (aka The Sinatra Christmas Album) Ol' Blue Eyes co-wrote the festive tune "Mistletoe And Holly" with songwriter Dok Stanford and his former manager/bodyguard Hank Sanicola.
Although it didn't chart, it was one of the earliest singles to feature the kissing plant in the title. Maybe it's the divorce from Ava Gardner, which was finalized in 1957, that's throwing him off his game, but Sinatra isn't feeling very amorous in the tune. It's other folks who are "stealin' a kiss or two." He's more concerned with decorating the tree and eating granny's pies than the mistletoe, which is merely a cheerful decoration.
Mistletoe hung where you can see
Every couple tries to stop
"Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee (1958)
Even though the Christmas tree should be the main attraction in a song called "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," all of the couples at Brenda Lee's Christmas party hop are eager to congregate under the mistletoe. They'd better hurry: According to mistletoe lore, a white berry is plucked from the plant after each kiss - when the berries are gone, the kissing must stop.
Lee was just 13 years old when she recorded the 1958 tune, written by "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" songwriter Johnny Marks. The single didn't make much of an impression at first, but after Lee notched a couple of hits it soared to #2 in 1960.
Millennials will remember the song from the Christmas classic Home Alone, when Kevin stages a fake party to foil Marv and Harry's plan to rob his house (incidentally, there's not a mistletoe in sight among the McCallisters' decorations).
Oh, ho the mistletoe
Hung where you can see
Somebody waits for you
Kiss her once for me
"A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives (1964)
Burl Ives earned his Christmas cred as Sam the Snowman, the narrator in the 1964 TV special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer who sang "Holly Jolly Christmas" and other beloved tunes. Another Johnny Marks composition, the song was introduced by The Quinto Sisters earlier in the year, but Ives popularized it when he sang it for the movie.
After a Christmas crisis is averted thanks to Rudolph's shiny red honker, the gang decorates for a holly jolly Christmas, with the mistletoe as the main attraction. Ives wants a vicarious thrill when he sings about an impending mistletoe moment: "Somebody waits for you, kiss her once for me."
Despite its ubiquity around the holidays, "A Holly Jolly Christmas" didn't chart on the Hot 100 until 2016 when Billboard started accounting for streaming on the tally. It entered at #46 but reached its peak in 2020 when it hit #4.
Hang all the mistletoe
I'm gonna get to know you better
This Christmas
"This Christmas" by Donny Hathaway (1970)
It took a while for audiences to warm up to the tune but it became a holiday staple in the Black community and saw dozens of covers from other artists, including a hit version by Chris Brown. Sadly, Hathaway didn't live to see his wish fulfilled; he died in 1979 at age 33.
I said, "You're right, it's cold tonight
But can you stop for a drop before you go?"
He said, "Why not if the music's hot?
And I'll chance a dance beneath the mistletoe"
"Christmas Rappin'" by Kurtis Blow (1979)
Hathaway wasn't the first, or last, Black artist to sing of the mistletoe's seductive charm. Texas blues singer Charles Brown crooned, "Well I want to kiss you baby, while you're standing 'neath the mistletoe," in his #3 R&B hit "Merry Christmas Baby" in 1947. In the jazzy "Christmas Night In Harlem," Louis Armstrong beckoned the neighborhood folks to join in the ritual:
Come on now ev'ry Jane and Joe
Greet your sweet neath' the mistletoe
with a kiss and a hi de ho
But mistletoe made the leap from jazz to hip-hop when Harlem-born rapper Kurtis Blow released "Christmas Rappin'" in 1979. Blow recounts a "Twas The Night Before Christmas"-style tale of Santa crashing a party in the hood and getting freaky with the girls under the mistletoe.
But Santa wasn't the only one getting lucky with the love weed. It brought Blow some good fortune too when it sold 400,000 copies and secured him a record deal with Mercury. The success of the single also proved that rap had commercial appeal and helped open the doors for other hip-hop artists to get signed to major labels.
In the fireplace is the yule log
Beneath the mistletoe as we drink egg nog
"Christmas In Hollis" by Run-D.M.C. (1987)
Nearly a decade later, Run-D.M.C brings the party, along with the mistletoe, to a different borough: Queens. In "Christmas In Hollis," Run has a run-in with Kris Kringle on a dark Christmas Eve night and finds the fat man's wallet, which is stuffed with a million dollars. He plans on mailing it back to Santa, only to discover it's a gift for him. Now that's a reason to celebrate. D.M.C. sets the scene back at mama's house, with plenty of food and some drunken mistletoe shenanigans.
Although Bruce Willis doesn't think much of it in Die Hard, "Christmas In Hollis" is a seasonal favorite and one of the most popular Christmas rap songs.
Christmas time, mistletoe and wine
Children singing Christian rhyme
With logs on the fire and gifts on the tree
A time to rejoice in the good that we see
"Mistletoe And Wine" by Cliff Richard (1988)
But the song has much darker origins. It was written for a 1976 musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story The Little Match Girl, a tragic tale of a poverty-stricken child who sees visions of a happy Christmas in the flames of the matches she lights to keep warm on the winter streets.
Sarah Stewart, wife of the song's co-writer Leslie Stewart, told Songfacts how the meaning behind the clichéd Christmas imagery - like mistletoe - was lost in Richard's version:
"The most interesting aspect of the song and its subsequent fame is that in its original context it is meant to be a kind of pastiche carol - all the Christmas clichés - which is sung by well-to-do carol singers who are in fact indifferent to the fate of the starving little matchgirl, despite the words they sing."
But Richard's cheerful interpretation was obviously a hit with UK listeners. A few years earlier, they welcomed another mistletoe chart-topper with Shakin' Stevens' "Merry Christmas Everyone." In the song, the Welsh singer is eager to track down a girl to share the ritual with.
It's no surprise that mistletoe songs find favor in England, where the festive trend spread in the late-18th century. In the Suffolk town Tenbury Wells, mistletoe auctions have been a big business for more than a century. The town even holds an annual festival where a Mistletoe Queen is crowned.
And I just wanna keep on waiting
Underneath the mistletoe
"All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey (1994)
Of course, there's no shortage of melancholy Christmas songs, but Mariah Carey wrapped hers up with an uptempo retro-pop arrangement decked out with synthesizers, bell chimes, and mistletoe. But before we get to Mariah and her lonely holiday, let's talk about Elvis for a minute.
Elvis Presley set the standard for modern mistletoe songs when he issued "Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)" on his first holiday album, Elvis' Christmas Album, in 1957. One of two original tunes commissioned for the release (the other is the Leiber and Stoller hit "Santa Claus Is Back in Town"), the song highlights the romantic tradition surrounding the mistletoe, which is meaningless to Presley when his girl is so far away.
The Christmas tree is ready
The candles all aglow
But with my baby far away
What good is mistletoe
The lonely vibe, which hits full force in "Blue Christmas," is tempered by the cheerful arrangement and Elvis' drawling delivery of the lyric, but The King made mistletoe a symbol of romantic longing that defines future mistletoe songs like Mariah Carey's powerhouse "All I Want For Christmas Is You."
There's likely no need to summarize Mariah's inescapable holiday hit, but let's consider that she shuns all Christmas paraphernalia, including presents, stockings, toys, and snow, except for one: mistletoe. Mariah claims all she wants for Christmas is her guy, but she finds comfort waiting underneath the mistletoe, which will be the site of their romantic reunion.
Mariah's songwriting partner Walter Afanasieff thought it was a bad idea for her to release a Christmas album at the peak of her career because, at the time, only fading artists did projects like that to stay visible. Mariah agreed, but relented under pressure from Tommy Mottola, her then-husband and head of Sony Music Entertainment. So in the summer of 1994, the reluctant pair wrote and composed "All I Want For Christmas Is You" in just 15 minutes, not knowing it would become a modern Christmas standard.
The best-selling Christmas single by a female artist, the song is an annual staple on Billboard's Holiday 100 Chart and continues to break records. In 2019, it peaked at #1 on the Hot 100 for the first time, breaking the record for the longest journey to the top.
Mistletoe doesn't look so romantic in the wild - it's a parasitic plant. Here it is on a fruit tree in Germany. Photo: Jochen Schneider, DreamstimeYou went away upon Boxing Day
Now how the hell am I gonna make it into the New Year
"Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)" by The Darkness (2003)
Fresh off the release of their debut album, Permission To Land, The Darkness took a shot at the UK Christmas #1 race with the lonesome number "Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)."
Unlike our other forlorn singers of mistletoe songs who are wishing for their loved ones to be home in time for Christmas, frontman Justin Hawkins already has his girl for the big day. Unfortunately, he's left by himself the other 364 days of the year when they return to being long-distance lovers. Rather than a symbol of romantic promise, the mistletoe becomes a painful reminder of their separation.
The single almost nabbed the top spot but was held off by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' cover of Tears For Fears' "Mad World."
I should be playin' in the winter snow
but I'ma be under the mistletoe
With you, Shawty, with you
"Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber (2011)
Taking a cue from Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber released a Christmas album early in his career. Under The Mistletoe was only the teen sensation's second studio album and featured a cover of Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." But the only problem The Biebs faces in his "Mistletoe" tune is missing out on some snow play because he's too busy lip-locked to "Shawty" under a festively adorned doorway.
Tween girls were gripped with Bieber fever back in 2011, but it seems like he can't get any holiday action from anyone his own age without the help of his coercive décor. Case in point: In "Christmas Eve," he claims, "The mistletoe can pull us closer"; in "The Only Thing I Ever Get For Christmas," he sings, "The mistletoe is where I'll be waiting, meet me there"; and in "Home This Christmas," he still waits under the mistletoe "while you're driving here through the winter snow."
But when it works, it works. "Mistletoe" peaked at #11 on the Hot 100 and Under The Mistletoe debuted at #1 on the albums chart, making Bieber the first male artist to debut at the top of the tally with a Christmas album.
I'm wearin' our Christmas sweater
While talking to the mistletoe tonight
I want something that lasts forever
So kiss me on this cold December night
"Cold December Night" by Michael Bublé (2011)
Who would you rather meet under the mistletoe: Justin Bieber or Michael Bublé? Apparently, those were two of the choices in 2011, when Bublé also issued a Christmas album (titled Christmas) with a mistletoe song. In "Cold December Night," the modern-day crooner is so lovesick for a faraway woman, he's resorted to talking to a plant - albeit a romantic one. He's hoping it will help make the object of his affection fall in love with him, but she has to show up first.
To get into the mood to record a holiday song in the middle of July, Bublé decorated the studio with Christmas lights. The album, which features yet another cover of "All I Want For Christmas Is You," peaked at #1 and remains his best-selling release.
Four more days until you're coming home
Three more dreams of you and mistletoe
"One More Sleep" (Leona Lewis, 2013)
Following the trend of hopeful romantic reunions capped off with a mistletoe rendezvous, Leona Lewis is literally counting down the days to the event in her 2013 song "One More Sleep." The London-born singer had been spending much of her time touring, with Christmas being the only respite where she could reunite with friends and family, including her boyfriend.
Like Bublé's album, Christmas, With Love was recorded in the height of summer, but Lewis got in the Christmas spirit by doing a deep dive into classic holiday songs. "One More Sleep" peaked at #3 in the UK.
I'm avoiding every mistletoe until I know
It's true love that he thinks of
"Santa Tell Me" by Ariana Grande (2014)
Grande said she wrote the tune about "being fed up with Santa because he doesn't necessarily pull through all the time." The single fared better in the UK, where it peaked at #13.
Text me Merry Christmas
Send a selfie too
If you do, I'll go
'Neath the mistletoe
And pretend my screen is you
"Text Me Merry Christmas" by Straight No Chaser (2014)
Forget crying to Santa about being alone on Christmas. In the digital age, there's no need to hook up with your mistletoe mate in person: All you need is your phone. In Straight No Chaser's "Text Me Merry Christmas," actress Kristen Bell, backed by the a cappella group, can't be with her guy (duet partner Michael Luginbill) for the holiday but she still wants that kiss under the mistletoe. All she needs is a selfie from him and a spot by the kissing plant, and she's good to go.
The 2014 tune holds up even better in 2020 when people separated from their loved ones during the COVID-19 crisis have to get creative with their Christmas traditions.
Sure it's madness, but it's magic
As soon as you hang up the mistletoe
'Cause you're the reason for the season
No, we don't need to keep up with the Jones
"Cozy Little Christmas" by Katy Perry (2018)
In Christmas 2018, Katy Perry inadvertently gave us another appropriate mistletoe song for the socially distanced celebrations of 2020: "Cozy Little Christmas." Inspired by an intimate holiday in Copenhagen with her family, where they enjoyed the simple pleasures of lighting candles on the tree and eating traditional foods, Perry wanted to write a song that celebrates the non-commercial spirit of the holiday.
In the Danish Christmas tradition, mistletoe is associated with Norse mythology and the god Balder, who was murdered by an arrow made of mistletoe wood. The tears of his weeping mother turned the plant's berries from red to white and, some say, we kiss beneath them to honor the fallen god.
But slain gods and poisoned arrows are more in the realm of a dramatic, art-pop Christmas piece from Florence + The Machine rather than a pop confection from Katy Perry. As to be expected, she trades murder for romance in her mistletoe song. Like Mariah before her, the singer doesn't need any gifts or bling for her cozy little Christmas for two - only the mistletoe and her man.
The song debuted on Amazon Music and quickly made its way up the charts, peaking at #53 in the US and #22 in the UK.
Under the mistletoe
Watching the fire glow
And telling me, "I love you"
"Christmas Tree Farm" by Taylor Swift (2019)
The music video features glimpses of life on the Christmas tree farm via the singer's childhood home movies. We see the Swift family stockings hanging on the mantel and their frolics in the snow, but one thing that's missing is the mistletoe.
The single peaked at #59 on the Hot 100 and took the #19 spot on the Holiday 100.
Magic fills the air
Standing over there
Santa hear my prayer
Here under the mistletoe
"Under The Mistletoe" by Kelly Clarkson (2020)
By 2020, plenty of us still haven't seen mistletoe in real life but it's still going strong in our Christmas songs. As Pat Pattison told us, a little sprig of mistletoe can give a shy person the courage to take a shot at romance with their crush. That's exactly what's going on in Kelly Clarkson's "Under The Mistletoe," her duet with Brett Eldredge. Clarkson, who also mentioned the little evergreen shrub in her 2013 track "Wrapped In Red," has fallen head over heels in love, but she's worried her feelings are unrequited. Throwing the threat of COVID to the wind, she hopes a meeting under the mistletoe will reveal the truth.
In reality, many mistletoe-buying folks (apparently there are some of you out there!) are wary of taking part of the kissing tradition amid the pandemic. In Florida, where the plant flourishes, sales of mistletoe plummeted in the lead-up to Christmas. Even Tenbury Wells, the English village that has been a mistletoe hub since Victorian times, was forced to cancel its annual auction to discourage the spread of 2020's brand of virulent "holiday cheer."
But for the rest of us, who have only met under the mistletoe in Christmas songs, the tradition will always live on in our holiday music.
This was just a sampling of a much longer list of mistletoe songs. Does your favorite Christmas tune feature the famous-yet-elusive kissing plant? Let us know in the comments.
December 10, 2020
Here's our full list of Christmas songs
Fact or Fiction: Christmas Songs
Scrooge Writes a Christmas Song: The "Christmas Wrapping" Story
More Song Writing
