How To Write a Christmas Song

Christmas is known for chills and good songs. There is always a lot of excitement and love in the air. As a musician, you probably are already considering a good Christmas song to write to compliment the atmosphere. If you are entirely clueless about how to write a Christmas song, this article will guide you rightly from the starting point to the end of the process.

Read on to create a beautiful Christmas song!

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Materials Needed for Writing a Christmas Song

The materials you will need for writing a Christmas song are the same materials you always use for the writing of your other songs. However, if you don’t have them before, here is list of items you can get:

You need songwriting materials

To write a great Christmas song, you need to get yourself prepared by gathering all the songwriting materials you will need. You will need items like chord patterns, rhyme dictionaries, keys and song templates. However, you will definitely get some templates from us to help your songwriting process. You can also get a music sheet, or you can do your jottings in a notebook.

Ready Mind

You need to prepare your mind for songwriting. At times, you might even need to bring the Christmas excitement memories back to write a beautiful song. Christmas is a happy moment, so you might need to write your song when you are happy and excited.

Instrument

Also, you might need an instrument to help hasten your songwriting process. You can just have a guitar, drum or piano around you. They help in the creation of melody and rhythm. And also the proper flow of your lyrics from line to line.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to write a Christmas song:

Step 1

Gather all the materials you will be needing. They are all listed in the heading above.

Step 2

Start from the intro or chorus. The regular song structure is; intro, verses, chorus, bridge (optional) and outro. You may also need to read through our article on how to write a song about someone to perfectly understand how the song structure works.

Step 3

Write about what Christmas is always like in your locality or what people cherish about it. You can as well write about what Christmas represents and what moments people expect from Christmas.

Step 4

Write down all your lyrics and select the lines that best express your thoughts. Also, note that they should be capable of fitting into the Christmas atmosphere. If you are writing about Christmas, try as much as possible to center on it.

Step 5

Are all your lyrics ready? The next thing to do is to try creating a melody and chord progression for them. You can try the common chord Progressions. Try the beat on your instrument to see if they fit.

Step 6

Do a dry run of your song, and you can also determine the tempo of some parts of the song.

Step 7

Record yourself singing the song and playing your instrument along. Then, listen to your recording and focus on places that need adjustments.

Step 8

You can play the song to a couple of trusted friends. Watch their reactions to the song; can they relate to it? Christmas songs are meant to be very relatable and give that “Christmas feeling”. If that is not the case, you don’t need to beat yourself to it, you can just replace some lines in the lyrics to accommodate a more relatable experience.

Step 9

No matter what the outcome is, don’t be discouraged; you can always still work around the lyrics or the beat. And, of course, you still have plenty of time to work on it before Christmas!

Good Read:

Tips for writing Christmas song

Melody

One of the things that are often looked out for in a Christmas song is melody. So, ensure you give your song a nice catchy melody. Write a melody that centers on the Christmas moments people have in the simplest way. Also, try to keep your beats and melody in the simplest form so that people can easily sing along.

Look at the Environment

In case you have no clue on what to write or inspiration to start writing. You can commence your writing by taking a look at the environment or tradition of the people you are writing a Christmas song for. You may even narrow it down to the family level.

Bring back the memories of how Christmas has been in your locality, the passion and the things people enjoy about Christmas. Write on those things.

Keep your lyrics simple and Rhythmic

One thing about popular Christmas songs is that they are simple to sing along. They also do not have many complicated lines or lots of mixed feelings; they are simply straight to the point. All these have kept those songs in people’s hearts for so long.

Also, Christmas is a cheerful moment; people want to chill and enjoy. Writing a song that will stress people out may pull them back. So, try to communicate your thoughts and messages in the most basic way.

Make use of a Christmas song Template

In case you are finding it hard to do any of the above, you can set your songwriting back on track by listening to Christmas song templates that are the closest to what you are writing about. You can check out our last subhead for ideas.

You can also make use of their chord progression if they align with your lyrics. Likewise, you could just pick up a chord progression and introduce a spice to it. However, most Christmas songs have a particular note they mostly sound like. You can use that as well.

Write an Enjoyable Song

Also, write enjoyable things about Christmas. You can definitely use your experience with Christmas over the years for this. Write what will make people laugh, relax and enjoy themselves. Just try to be positive as much as possible in your writing.

If for instance, your writing is centred on Jesus Christ, like the “oh come ye faithful”, make it communicate hope to the people.

Stay on a thought

It is possible to feel like writing a lot of things, most especially because Christmas is a broad topic with lots of ideas. However, try as much as possible to focus on a particular sphere of Christmas. This tells why “Santa Claus is coming to town” will not include a “Jingle bell” in its lyrics.

So, if, for instance, you are writing about the excitement that comes with Christmas, try to focus on that part and allow your lyrics to revolve around it. Writing lots of things all together can get people confused and uninterested.

If at all you have to deviate a bit, try to ensure you conclude a thought in verse before saying another thing in another verse.

Time Signatures and Song structure

You can make use of the commonly used; Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus (VCVC) song structure. It is quite straightforward and also easy. However, if you have intentions of introducing a little tilt to it, you can include a bridge to the song structure.

Similarly, you can also make use of the common 4/4 time signature. This will keep your song easy to sing along. During the Christmas period, people are not specifically looking for something out of the ordinary but rather a song that is enjoyable, relatable and singable. So, always look out for that all through the process.

What is the Best key for a Christmas Song?

You surely should know what key means; it is the scales of notes in which a song evolves around. They usually contain major and minor scales, and at times a central note is also included. Knowing the scales that are under a key is always helpful in creating a chord progression.

They help you know the scales to select. An example of a key will be a key of D minor that has the following scales; D — E — F — G — A —Bb — C. Most Christmas songs are written in the keys of D, F, G and Em. All these keys are combined differently.

Therefore, you can mix them the best way they will suit your song.

Templates of Christmas Songs

Here are 15 top Christmas song templates to assist you in coming up with your own Christmas song. If you are stuck at the stage of choosing a chord progression, listening to these songs can help with that as well. The templates include:

A Holly Jolly Christmas.
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Jingle Bells
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Joy to the World
Here Comes Santa Claus
While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night
Deck the Halls
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Oh come, all ye Faithful
Silent Night
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
Ding Dong, Merrily on High
What Child is This?

Conclusion

Now you have all you need to write a Christmas song. There is one more thing left; it’s you dropping a hit Christmas song! Be sure to make use of all you have gathered in this article to put out your best Christmas song out there. The world needs to hear your Christmas song.

If any part is not clear enough to you, you can go through our related articles on songwriting to get the most out of this. Enjoy every bit of the process!

How To Write a Christmas Song

Materials Needed for Writing a Christmas Song