Ariana Grande first performed her 2013 original Christmas song “Santa Tell Me” on A Very Grammy Christmas, and it did relatively well on the pop charts for a new Christmas song. Creating a new Christmas song is something that I would consider high risk, high reward. While a cover of a Christmas song is less risky given widely liked source material, it is unlikely to be played year after year over the original version. A new Christmas song presents an opportunity - if it does well, it will chart year after year and continue to earn money every December. But if it flops, there’s no reason for the listener to revisit it the rest of the year.
As mentioned above, “Santa Tell Me” did well in terms of commercial success, and it continues to be a Christmas radio staple in part due to Grande’s popularity. But is it actually good?
In this writer’s opinion, the short answer is yes and the long answer is yes, but it is very weird.
There’s a lot to like about this song. The production is great, and the song has that perfect combination of nostalgic “Christmas-y” chords and sleigh bells to fit right into any holiday playlist. And of course, Ariana Grande is an extremely talented vocalist, and I’m convinced she could make anything that a team of twelve writers threw together sound otherworldly.
But the concept of the song is weird.
“Santa tell me, if you’re really there - Don’t make me fall in love again if he won’t be here next year”. The entirety of the song is centered around Grande asking Mr. Claus if her crush is still going to be there next year, “‘cause [she] can’t give it all away” if he won’t stay with her.
I don’t think Arian Grande understands that Santa is pretty much powerless in this situation.
Sure, he could tell if her crush is naughty or nice. And from the well-established “All I Want For Christmas is You”, which we can accept as cannon, it is feasible that Santa could bring the couple together using some kind of Christmas magic. But Ariana is asking something different of Claus - she is asking him to predict the future. This simply doesn’t fall under his domain.
New concepts have to be invented for new Christmas songs, and it seems that “Santa Tell Me” has caught on enough that the average listener doesn’t mind the reach of a premise. But what might this mean for future Christmas songs? What else might Santa be capable of, if we now accept as a society that he can see the future? Can he read minds? Control minds? Where does the madness end?
At the end of the day, “Santa Tell Me” is a catchy and inoffensive Christmas song. I hope that Ariana Grande is able to find a man that will stay with her true love that she asks for in the song - by Christmas magic or by other means.
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