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How to make a hit Christmas song
Feeling is key, but money helps too
Erik “First name only please!” The music doctor
Video:
GOLDEN DREAMS: How to make a hit Christmas song
“You’re just in time, buddy,” says Erik, “for Christmas 2025.” Shucks. I’ve come to Erik desperate to find out how to get my Christmas song recorded and turned into a worldwide hit before this Christmas. It starts, I’m dreaming of a summertime Christmas…
Erik is a doctor. A music doctor of note. Famous bands send him their songs from everywhere — North America, Europe, Asia — and pay him to rescue them, or at least give their ditty the professional sheen that will get them noticed. I quoted Erik in these pages last summer after we met with biochar advocate Steen Rasmussne at McP’s in Coronado.
Here’s what he tells me now. “Usually, holidays involve a lot of emotions, a lot of thought. Anybody who writes a holiday song has something in their heart that they want to convey. And usually, holidays involve joy, appreciation about where you’re coming from, empathy for those less fortunate. Get it right and it pays. Holiday music sells! Think of ‘White Christmas,’ Bing Crosby’s 1942 recording, the biggest selling single of all time. It has sold 50 million records. But generally, the way songs get popular is you’ve got to have a lot of money behind you. There are exceptions. TikTok has done a great job with what we call ‘bedroom performing artists,’ someone who appears out of their bedroom and comes out with something kind of cute, films it, dances around to it, sings some great lyrics, and all of a sudden it goes viral. When it does, it’s huge. But usually, the only way that you get your song out there is to actually have enough marketing funds behind it — to be able to push your music.
For those of us past our TikToking prime, there is an alternate approach: come up with a demo and put the demo out there for a developing artist who’s coming in hot. You already know they’re stepping up the ladder, and maybe you get to ascend with them. “But before you do this, you’ve got to make sure your song is published and copyrighted, so you know this song is in your name — so people can’t just take it away and say, ‘I wrote that song!’ Get an entertainment attorney, seriously!”
When it comes to lyrics, “most songs throughout history have been about some form of love lost. The most popular songs ever written are sad songs. You go back to the Beatles, the Stones, Sinatra: mostly, it’s about loss. ‘Where is my baby? Now she’s gone…’ A great song depends on two things: great lyrical concepts, and great editing. People over-write. You have to be able cut, cut, cut. Most artists aren’t really talented that way. They write songs that end up at 9 minutes and 33 seconds. You really want to get it down to 2 minutes and 30 seconds, 3:30 max. And you’ve got to knock the producer’s socks off in the first 30 seconds. Because it’s a busy world out there. And write for others: of course, back when Sinatra was on top, recording companies would get other artists to write songs for him to sing. Today, most artists write their own songs. Especially in, say, folk music. Though in pop music, you might have three, six, seven, eight writers [working on one song].”
But holidays may be the happy exception to the Keep It Sad rule. “I like to think of a holiday/Christmas/Kwanzaa etc. song as something that’s from the heart. But for a ‘White Christmas’ success, you have to have the right management. Most music that gets released is special…to the person who makes the music. But can you transcend that for somebody else to like it? Hate to say, but you need the right production company to shop the songs and get them out there. I would say $1000 gets you started, for a couple of 30-second ads, aimed at this time of year. But basically, you’re looking for goosebumps. Uplifting, emotional reactions. And you’re looking for danceability! Everybody dances on today’s videos. When people get happy, especially the little ones, they dance. Even President Trump was moving his fists around, dancing on-set. I didn’t see Kamala dance too much. Maybe that’s why she didn’t win.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
How to make a hit Christmas song
Feeling is key, but money helps too
How to make a hit Christmas song
Feeling is key, but money helps too
Erik “First name only please!” The music doctor
Video:
GOLDEN DREAMS: How to make a hit Christmas song
“You’re just in time, buddy,” says Erik, “for Christmas 2025.” Shucks. I’ve come to Erik desperate to find out how to get my Christmas song recorded and turned into a worldwide hit before this Christmas. It starts, I’m dreaming of a summertime Christmas…
Erik is a doctor. A music doctor of note. Famous bands send him their songs from everywhere — North America, Europe, Asia — and pay him to rescue them, or at least give their ditty the professional sheen that will get them noticed. I quoted Erik in these pages last summer after we met with biochar advocate Steen Rasmussne at McP’s in Coronado.
Here’s what he tells me now. “Usually, holidays involve a lot of emotions, a lot of thought. Anybody who writes a holiday song has something in their heart that they want to convey. And usually, holidays involve joy, appreciation about where you’re coming from, empathy for those less fortunate. Get it right and it pays. Holiday music sells! Think of ‘White Christmas,’ Bing Crosby’s 1942 recording, the biggest selling single of all time. It has sold 50 million records. But generally, the way songs get popular is you’ve got to have a lot of money behind you. There are exceptions. TikTok has done a great job with what we call ‘bedroom performing artists,’ someone who appears out of their bedroom and comes out with something kind of cute, films it, dances around to it, sings some great lyrics, and all of a sudden it goes viral. When it does, it’s huge. But usually, the only way that you get your song out there is to actually have enough marketing funds behind it — to be able to push your music.
For those of us past our TikToking prime, there is an alternate approach: come up with a demo and put the demo out there for a developing artist who’s coming in hot. You already know they’re stepping up the ladder, and maybe you get to ascend with them. “But before you do this, you’ve got to make sure your song is published and copyrighted, so you know this song is in your name — so people can’t just take it away and say, ‘I wrote that song!’ Get an entertainment attorney, seriously!”
When it comes to lyrics, “most songs throughout history have been about some form of love lost. The most popular songs ever written are sad songs. You go back to the Beatles, the Stones, Sinatra: mostly, it’s about loss. ‘Where is my baby? Now she’s gone…’ A great song depends on two things: great lyrical concepts, and great editing. People over-write. You have to be able cut, cut, cut. Most artists aren’t really talented that way. They write songs that end up at 9 minutes and 33 seconds. You really want to get it down to 2 minutes and 30 seconds, 3:30 max. And you’ve got to knock the producer’s socks off in the first 30 seconds. Because it’s a busy world out there. And write for others: of course, back when Sinatra was on top, recording companies would get other artists to write songs for him to sing. Today, most artists write their own songs. Especially in, say, folk music. Though in pop music, you might have three, six, seven, eight writers [working on one song].”
But holidays may be the happy exception to the Keep It Sad rule. “I like to think of a holiday/Christmas/Kwanzaa etc. song as something that’s from the heart. But for a ‘White Christmas’ success, you have to have the right management. Most music that gets released is special…to the person who makes the music. But can you transcend that for somebody else to like it? Hate to say, but you need the right production company to shop the songs and get them out there. I would say $1000 gets you started, for a couple of 30-second ads, aimed at this time of year. But basically, you’re looking for goosebumps. Uplifting, emotional reactions. And you’re looking for danceability! Everybody dances on today’s videos. When people get happy, especially the little ones, they dance. Even President Trump was moving his fists around, dancing on-set. I didn’t see Kamala dance too much. Maybe that’s why she didn’t win.”
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