Do you love or hate Christmas music? It might come down to science | Opinion
It’s time! (sung in a high-pitched Mariah Careyesque voice)
Welcome to December, and it’s time for the Christmas music. Well, it’s been time, with many stores and venues already playing the carols and yuletide tunes since before Halloween.
A colleague informed me that he’s had to listen to the Noel bombs piped through outdoor speakers while on his way to the gym ever since October.
Me? I do love Christmas music, but all in good time. However, with Thanksgiving falling so late in November this year, I find I’ve been jonesing to decorate and listen to the tunes.
On Thanksgiving morning, without prompting, my husband started hauling up the Christmas decorations from the basement. I think it’s because I had followed the unwritten rule of not going into Christmas frenzy until after Turkey Day.
But I’m ready, and I know I’m not alone — online searches show people are looking for radio stations playing Christmas music. And the studies back it up.
That’s right. Scientists say Christmas music can be good for you.
All is calm, all is bright?
I’m not talking just about religious Christmas music. December has become such a secular holiday season for a lot of people, you can find Christmas music for nearly anyone. Researchers in both Missouri and Kansas are doing work on the power of music — saying show it affects us, improves our well-being and makes our lives better.
“There’s (music) in every culture across history,” said Amy Belfi, an associate professor in the Department of Psychological Science at Missouri University of Science and Technology. In an article in Popular Science, she was quoted saying our affection for Christmas music is driven by nostalgia. “Almost everyone loves it and has some connection to it. It’s a large part of the human experience.”
Belfi’s research in the Music Cognition and Aesthetics Lab examines how music influences our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
“I think that a lot of the reason why people love Christmas music is more about those associations than the actual sounds itself. There are Frank Sinatra versions of these songs that have been around for decades that our parents and grandparents and kids listen to. That is perhaps unique to Christmas music,” she said in the article.
Monday, Belfi told me that the music cognition community is pretty active. She’s right, and there’s a lab at the University of Kansas. It’s run by Rebecca Lepping, an assistant professor in the KU School of Medicine Department of Neurology. As a cognitive neuroscientist, musician and music psychologist, she says she is “passionate about the power of music to affect us, improve our well-being and make our lives better.”
I asked Lepping whether Christmas can be good for us. She said that Christmas music is often upbeat and cheerful, and helps to lift our moods and energize us.
“But more than that, Christmas music is an identifier for the entire holiday season and all the nostalgia, memories, and other positive emotions that come with it, including gratitude, generosity, hope, patience and more.” Lepping said. ”Music links strongly to memory making Christmas music especially powerful for bringing up nostalgia, cultural heritage, feelings of shared community, and reinforcing personal identity.”
Nostalgia and memory can work the opposite way, if the memories are negative. “Music preference is determined by many things, some that have to do with the music itself, and others that are based on those memories and other associations a person has linked to the music,” she said.
Don’t worry, be happy
It might all come down to how emotional the Christmas music is. Researchers in the American Psychological Association’s journal Emotion studied listeners of happy and more neutral or somber music. The article said researchers observed “enhanced empathy and compassion when emotional, but not when neutral music was present during videos displaying emotionally negative narrations.”
Even earlier studies, including two at the University of Missouri, track this idea of music affecting our moods. A research study by Yuma Ferguson for MU in 2013 found that upbeat music — think “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” versus. “Blue Christmas” — can improve your mood, but only with intention.
In the first study, participants successfully raised their mood when they listened to upbeat classical music and tried to think positively. Those who merely listened to the music, without trying to influence their emotions, experienced no change.
Participants in a second study reported increased happiness after two weeks of lab sessions where they were instructed to try and feel happier while listening to positive music. This finding contrasted with control participants who only listened to music.
So maybe it’s really all about psyching yourself into finding joy this time of year, and that’s represented by the seasonal music. But not everyone can do it. In fact, some people detest it.
“Some people might dislike the sound of sleigh bells jangling, which are often part of Christmas music. Or maybe they associate Christmas music with people and traditions that don’t align with their own identity and heritage,” Lepping explained.
Some research shows that looping Christmas music on repeat can exacerbate any holiday stress or anxiety you already have. Maybe we should call on those radio stations to vary the playlists more, because too much of anything can be annoying. But it’s also about being forced into an emotion, Lepping said.
“Some people are sensitive to how repetitive it can be to listen to the same few songs over and over that bring up the same emotions, and for two to three months every year those same songs are playing wherever they go. They may not be ready to jump into the holiday season just yet.”
I love Christmas music, but I had a death in the family last December, and so that will color the holiday for me, and, I imagine, for others who have had a similar loss. Lepping has an idea about that.
“Because Christmas music is a signal of the entire season, thoughts of the holiday season may bring up difficult memories or emotions in addition to all the positive ones. This can be true even for people who like Christmas music because we all have complicated and changing emotions and moods.”
Lepping said that’s just part of what makes us human.
Yes, humanity — it’s the best part of the holiday season.
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 5:10 AM.
