Music

One part "White Christmas," two parts “Baby Please Come Home.”

What is it that makes Christmas music so Christmassy? Is it the chestnuts? The nutmeg? The cinnamon? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

According to this new video from Vox, it’s a special chord found in some Christmas song classics that give it that special yuletide feel.

In this video, Vox talks to Adam Ragusea from Mercer University, who explains the influences of Mariah Carey’s hit and breaks the songs down note by note. When played together, Carey’s song sounds an awful lot like Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” and the Phil Spector-penned “Baby Please Come Home.” But there’s one chord in particular that makes them brings them all together. In music terms, it’s going from a “tonic chord” to a “diminished chord.” But all you need to do is hear how similar these things seem to get the gist.

via Vox

Check out the video above, and enjoy the songs below. See if you can hear what makes them so Christmassy.

 

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" brings questions along with its holiday cheer. Questions like: "Wait, why won't he just let her go home?" and "Did this lovable Christmas song just imply that he drugged her drink?"

If you haven't noticed a certain lack of consent, you may want to listen again.



This couple has completely rewritten the lyrics to sound a lot less disconcerting.

If this is giving you mildly annoyed feelings already, you'll want to check out these.

When Anthony Mish, Seattle Seahawks mega-fan, created The Hawk House he went all out. According to his GoFundMe, he's put in $30,000 or roughly 175,000 Christmas lights and then spent 400 hours blanketing his house, all as a tribute to his favorite team.

Typically Mish's extravagant display is on from 5pm - 9pm weeknights and 5pm - 10:30pm on weekends. Which leaves some neighbors less than enthused. Mish claims that while drivers love the display, he's working to "tone it down" to satisfy some neighbor's complaints.

Of course when the Seahawks are playing on Sundays, Mish changes up the display a bit to support his team.

Because why not?