I was talking to an Italian about this and she said that Christmas carols/music isn’t really popular in Italy which I found surprising, I’d always imagined that it’d be the norm throughout all countries in which Christmas is widely practiced.

17 comments

  1. I’m not really sure what you mean by this question.

    Christmas pop music is ubiquitous. Most of the music being the same as in the US I reckon with a few Dutch songs/songs by Dutch artists thrown in here and there.

    More traditional Christmas music is almost exclusively religious. Many churches will sing a few Christmas songs during the Christmas service and/or have a special service focused around singing Christmas hymns. A lot of the most popular ones also exist in English either with a similar text or only the same melody. But the most popular one, Ere zij God (Glory to God) is Dutch. Can’t have a Christmas service without singing the Ere zij God at the end. In Protestant churches anyway idk what they do at the Catholic ones.

    There really isn’t much traditional secular Christmas music. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is O Christmas Tree. This makes sense culturally since we have our gift giving holiday with St. Nicholas on December 5th (this weekend) so Christmas has mostly remained a holiday with only real importance in religion.

  2. Well, although their origin was not related to christmas, we have [villancicos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villancico?wprov=sfla1) that now are basically cristmas carols

    https://youtu.be/n31q6VLnqeI

    https://youtu.be/LQEtxLDitEk

    https://youtu.be/xoqWreAiGGA

    And of course we also have the international ones too, like this of French origin

    https://youtu.be/sPosjY-Ac74

    We also have 2 popular instruments, the zambomba

    https://youtu.be/vq35Q8460gg

    And a bottle of anise

    https://youtu.be/CqZeUqQDDaQ

  3. Of course there is.

    Hundreds of them and every federal state has its own unique historical collection of it . „Silent Night, Holy Night“ is Austrian for example.

    One of the first Christmas Carols is Italian (Roman) btw.

    Edit:I would really like to know what illiterate muppet dv’d this… Christmas Carol envy?

  4. There are many, and they are mostly salms found in the church song books.

    There also tons of danish non-religious popular Christmas songs which spans many genres

  5. We have many christmas carols but most people see them as kids songs or very religious people songs… , so kids learn them at school , religious people can sing the more religious one at home/church but other people… only those *really* into christmas listen to them….

    I personnaly love christmas music, but every time I try to put some carols at christmas, my entire family complain that it’s cringe, they don’t like it and prefer to have some classical music/soft jazz as a background music (or no music at all)… My husband doesn’t like it either so I just listen to them when I’m alone at home but it’s not the same. I have a toddler now I hope he will like it…

    There is no culture stuff like singing in groups from home to home or around the tree.

  6. It’s indeed quite popular. December is prime time for norwegian artist earning a lot of money having concerts in churches around the country singing/playing christmas music. Many artists make a great part of their earnings during the whole year in that period. Don’t know if it’s true, but some said that 1/3 of the population here goes to such “christmas-concert” in the periode leading up to christmas. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxperulRHfY&t=98s&ab_channel=Venchem) you have a typical example of such a church concert. Such concerts are often shown on tv here in the period between christmas eve and new year.

  7. Yes we have them and as with pretty much all the traditional songs they tend to be somewhat melancholic. Here’s few examples

    1. [Varpunen jouluaamuna](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qsaz6aY7RQ) (Sparrow on christmas morning) The song is about a little girl giving a seed to a starving sparrow which in the end reveals himself to be the girls dead brother

    2. [Sylvian joululaulu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ewq-L5Da-s) (Sylvia’s christmas song) This song is about a bird having to spend christmas in captivity in foreign land.

    3. [En etsi valtaa, loistoa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi8Imt6P5iM) (I seek no power, no glory) The name of the song pretty much sums it up

    4. [Tuikkikaa, Oi Joulun tähtöset](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYeOYgNeNWQ) (Twinkle, oh little stars of christmas) This song tells you that you better rejoice, sing and play now that it is christmas for it will soon be over and all the shit, misery and grief that is your every day life will be back.

  8. This is a cultural trauma, made by Soviets. Since Christmas were banned for more than 4 decades, next to none of Christmas song were created until late 1980s.

  10. I agree that we don’t really do Christmas carols in Italy. Having now moved to Germany where they are definitely A BIG DEAL, it was quite a cultural change. Seriously, my German wife must know 20+ different German ones by heart.

    I can only name 1 Italian Christmas Carol, but I know lots of English language ones.

  11. Yes your friend is right, christmas carols are definitelly not a thing in Italy, the ones we have, are mostly religious-themed and strictly used for the mass so usually you don’t hear them outside of churches or religious events.

    > I’d always imagined that it’d be the norm throughout all countries in which Christmas is widely practiced

    Honestly i’ve always perceived them like something coming from the anglo/germanic culture

  12. Yes, they are very popular. Most of our carols are about Jesus or the customs of the Christmas.

    We also have a tradition called “colindat” which is in a way like when kids go from door to door on Halloween, but in this tradition the kids are not dressed in costumes, they are singing Christmas carols and they receive sweets, oranges and other things, often adults would come with them and they are invited to drink a glass of hot wine.

    This tradition is held with a day or two before Christmas and we have multiple such traditions for this time of the year, in one someone would dress like a goat and they would travel from door to door, in another kids would have a star to represent the star that the mages saw when Jesus was born and so on and so forth.

  13. Yes, absolutely. You have the traditional carols that are sung by choirs and sometimes by groups of kids who go from door to door asking for money, and you also have the modern kind like Last Christmas by Wham, Fairytale of NY etc.

  14. Christmas music in the UK is a mixture of traditional carols, secular but Christmas themed songs, and Christmas pop songs.

    Kids will have a school Carol service and practice for weeks beforehand and enjoy singing rude versions of the carols.

  17. Christmas Carols are huge. I’m pretty sure most people know at least 10 by heart and they are played and sung every where startling at the beginning of December (sometimes earlier). Many famous musicians published some interpretation of traditional Christmas carols ( die Toten Hosen, Nina Hagen, Helene Fischer to name a few). Christmas Carols are one of my favorite thing during Advent/Christmas season. I love singing te loudly while I’m baking Christmas cookies or under the shower. We also sing them on Christmas and on most advent sundays. But I guess I’m a bit extreme in that regard…

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