Log In
Register
Read the original blog post
8.20pm
11 November 2010
Offline
I touched on this last year, but I think that it might be a topic in and of itself.
It annoys me when Happy Xmas (War Is Over) gets played as a Christmas song. I get that the word “Christmas” is in the title and all, but I consider it an anti-war song, not a Christmas song. The lyrics have little to do with Christmas itself, other than the word Christmas appears many times. It being played as a Christmas song misses the point of the song entirely.
What do other people think? Should it be played as a Christmas song? This is an opinion question, so, you know, no wrong answers.
I'm Necko. I'm like Ringo except I wear necklaces.
I'm also ewe2 on weekends.
Most likely to post things that make you go hmm... 2015, 2016, 2017. 
8.33pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline 
Yes. John conceived it as a Christmas song that evoked and carried an anti-war message based on the slogan ‘War Is Over (If You Want It)’ which John and Yoko had used on a billboard campaign in 1969 and which would be played every year. Songfacts adds that “John also claimed another inspiration for writing the song: he said he was “sick of ‘White Christmas.'””.
The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:
LongHairedLady"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
8.34pm
2 June 2014
Offline Song is popular, it has got Christmas title and that’s all. I have heard songs like “Santa Tell Me” and “All I Want For Christmas Is You” on radio. So it is not somethin new, just radio gathering listeners
8.40pm
1 November 2013
Offline
I hear this song so much during Christmas on the radio. I would say yes it is Christmas song
10.23pm
21 November 2012
Offline Errr..yes?
10.52pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline You also only have to look to the chorus where John and Yoko are wishing you “a very merry Christmas and a happy new year”.
The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:
Matt Busby"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
11.07pm
Reviewers
29 August 2013
Offline meanmistermustard said
You also only have to look to the chorus where John and Yoko are wishing you “a very merry Christmas and a happy new year”.
Indeed – classic Christmas song for mine. Brilliant combination of themes.
==> trcanberra and hongkonglady - Together even when not (married for those not in the know!) <==
11.31pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline As for the song itself i think its one of the best for this time of the year getting away from Santa, materialistic presents and all the other guff that normally turns up in a christmas song. A great song it is, one of the few Christmas songs i’m not fed up with even before hearing it for the first time this year.
The following people thank meanmistermustard for this post:
Matt Busby"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
3.34am
8 February 2014
Offline I was about to turn 6 or so, and the song was all about Christmas to me. With liberal deist parents who wouldn’t even let me play with a toy gun, All You Need Is Love was the coolest Christmas song ever, because it was more about world peace than religion, which was apparently a really big deal – still is (world peace that is)
have a thing for the “bittersweet” emotion that holidays often bring and that song in particular (“what have we done, another year older and a new one just begun” already looking back on the old year with nostalgia as if it hadn’t been much different than other years)
On another level, it’s a simple, humble prayer, like a prophet might say (wait, did anyone say the Beatles weren’t prophets? 
seriously, the lines wishing Happy Christmas “to the near and the dear ones, the old and the young” etc. are just a simple request for everyone to have a couple easy weeks in the year.
At least, that’s what I get out of it. ymmv 
(and yes, of course I found gun shaped sticks and played “Cowboys-n-Injuns”)
5.51am
19 September 2010
Offline GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING:
If the Pogues Fairy Tale of New York counts as a Christmas song – with the lyrics
You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead
On a drip in that bed
You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It’s our last
counts, this counts.
As if it matters how a man falls down.'
'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal.
8.00am
Reviewers
29 August 2013
Offline mr. Sun king coming together said
GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING:
If the Pogues Fairy Tale of New York counts as a Christmas song – with the lyrics
You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead
On a drip in that bed
You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It’s our last
counts, this counts.
Whoever wrote that lot must be fun at Christmas parties.
==> trcanberra and hongkonglady - Together even when not (married for those not in the know!) <==
10.20am
22 December 2013
Offline YES, of course it should “be considered a Christmas song”. By the OP’s same logic Band-Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ shouldn’t “be considered a Christmas song” either for the lyrics have more to do with Famine in Africa than Jingle Bells. Christmas is about coming together and John & Yoko simply expanded that concept far beyond the family dinner table, they’re showing us that everyday can be Christmas, “if we want it”. The word “Peace” is commonplace amongst many traditional Christmas songs, and this was an extension of John & Yoko’s Peace Campaign. There’s no such nonsense as Santa Claus and Reindeer S******g on Everyone’s Roof on December 25th, this Christmas song is about the real world, not fairy tales…:-)
The following people thank Billy Rhythm for this post:
Hey Jude !, Ahhh Girl, Matt Busby6.06pm
8 November 2012
Offline I agree they (Happy Xmas and Do They Know) should both be considered Christmas songs. I just find my tolerance for the one-the-nose preachiness in either to wane with each year (the “thank God it’s them instead of you” line in particular makes me want to gnash my teeth).
parlance
6.40pm
Members
18 March 2013
Offline mr. Sun king coming together said
GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING:
If the Pogues Fairy Tale of New York counts as a Christmas song – with the lyrics
You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead
On a drip in that bed
You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
It’s our last
counts, this counts.
That’s the Celtic way of flirting- the amount of times I have been called “an old slut on junk” is ridiculous- I mean, I’m a young slut thank you very much!
INTROVERTS UNITE! Separately....in your own homes!
***
Make Love, Not Wardrobes!
***
"Stop throwing jelly beans at me"- George Harrison
9.42pm
28 July 2014
Offline Hello friends, let me say my opinion. I see Happy Xmas (war is over) as a critique of Christmas. I understand that John meant that the years pass and we continue the same, without changing what we should. That Christmas should be an opportunity to change the world and we end wars.
To me, he created this song to see if we could better understand what he kept saying (the so clearly, by the way). We know the story of John and his struggle.
I do not think it wrong to be a Christmas song, but I think it should be seen in the right way and not as a simple music. Here in Brazil, it already has a version in Portuguese, and people really do not understand. Same is the case of All You Need Is Love .
Speaking of which, good Christmas and new year for you !!
The following people thank Rita Eleanor for this post:
Starr Shine?Nobody told me there'd be days like these!!
4.42pm
10 August 2011
Offline IMO any song with the word “Xmas” in the title is a Christmas song. Not to mention the opening lyric “So this is Christmas…”
Whether the song is a preachy downer that’s counter to the spirit of the holiday or a welcome a timely reminder that all isn’t well in the world is a personal choice.
With that, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
The following people thank Into the Sky with Diamonds for this post:
Zig, Rita Eleanor"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
12.04am
2 July 2014
Offline Yes, of course! It’s a generally cheery song and it DOES mention Christmas. It’s sort of like how the Gremlins is a Christmas movie. Though it’s not explicitly ABOUT Christmas, it does have characteristics of the Christmastime, and people always play it around the season.
"Something in the way she moves . . . attracts me like a pomegranate" - George Harrison
1.32am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline It’s certainly more Christmassy than songs like Frankie Goes To Hollywoods’ ‘The Power Of Love’ or East 17’s ‘Stay Another Day ‘ which get played every year and turn up on Christmas compilations.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
1.48pm
17 October 2013
Offline It didn’t used to be before John changed the lyrics………….
The following people thank Wigwam for this post:
Starr Shine?, sigh butterfly2.22pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Is there anything John didnt borrow from?
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
1 Guest(s)