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Christmas Wrapping
"Christmas Wrapping" is a Christmas song by the American new wave band the Waitresses. First released on ZE Records' 1981 compilation album A Christmas Record, it later appeared on the band's 1982 EP I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts and numerous other holiday compilation albums. It was written and produced by Chris Butler, with vocals by Patty Donahue.
"Christmas Wrapping" received positive reviews and AllMusic described it as "one of the best holiday pop tunes ever recorded". It has been covered by more than a dozen acts, including the Spice Girls.
In 1981, ZE Records asked each of its artists to record a Christmas song for a compilation album, A Christmas Record. The Waitresses were in the middle of a difficult tour and the Christmas song commission was "the last thing we wanted", Butler said later.
Butler wrote the song that August, assembling it from assorted unused riffs. He finished the lyrics in a taxi on the way to the recording studio, Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. Butler said the lyrics came from his hatred of Christmas: "Everybody I knew in New York was running around like a bunch of fiends. It wasn't about joy. It was something to cope with." The bassist, Tracy Wormworth, was inspired by Bernard Edwards' bassline on the recently released "Good Times" by Chic.
Written while hip hop music was beginning to gain prominence, "Christmas Wrapping" is "almost rapped" by Donahue. Its title, a pun on "rapping", alludes to the 1979 song "Christmas Rappin'" by Kurtis Blow. Butler said he did not really think of Donahue's performance as a rap, as it was a new musical form, but said: "It was OK for a white guy to tell a story but tell it in rhythmic verse. And, it does have a melody, just three notes because Patty was no belter, but she’s a good enough actress that she could act it out." Butler said he also liked the meaning of "wraparound", as the story is circular.
"Christmas Wrapping" is told from the perspective of a busy single woman who declines to participate in the exhausting Christmas season. On Christmas Eve, she seeks cranberries at a grocery store, where she encounters a man she has been interested in all year, bringing her Christmas "to a very happy ending". In the final refrain, she admits that she "couldn't miss this one this year".
"Christmas Wrapping" was released as a single in the UK in 1981 on Island Records. It did not initially make the charts, but was reissued in 1982 and reached No. 45 on the UK Singles Chart that December. It remains the Waitresses' highest-charting single in the UK, and despite its modest chart placing, the song was certified platinum by the BPI in 2024.
Butler said the reception was a rejuvenating gift for the band: "We do the Christmas song, forget about it and go back on the road. The next thing I know when calling back to New York is that it's all over the radio and much to our surprise it leaps over our heads and hits all the cities where we're heading and all of a sudden we're back on an upswing again."
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Christmas Wrapping
"Christmas Wrapping" is a Christmas song by the American new wave band the Waitresses. First released on ZE Records' 1981 compilation album A Christmas Record, it later appeared on the band's 1982 EP I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts and numerous other holiday compilation albums. It was written and produced by Chris Butler, with vocals by Patty Donahue.
"Christmas Wrapping" received positive reviews and AllMusic described it as "one of the best holiday pop tunes ever recorded". It has been covered by more than a dozen acts, including the Spice Girls.
In 1981, ZE Records asked each of its artists to record a Christmas song for a compilation album, A Christmas Record. The Waitresses were in the middle of a difficult tour and the Christmas song commission was "the last thing we wanted", Butler said later.
Butler wrote the song that August, assembling it from assorted unused riffs. He finished the lyrics in a taxi on the way to the recording studio, Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. Butler said the lyrics came from his hatred of Christmas: "Everybody I knew in New York was running around like a bunch of fiends. It wasn't about joy. It was something to cope with." The bassist, Tracy Wormworth, was inspired by Bernard Edwards' bassline on the recently released "Good Times" by Chic.
Written while hip hop music was beginning to gain prominence, "Christmas Wrapping" is "almost rapped" by Donahue. Its title, a pun on "rapping", alludes to the 1979 song "Christmas Rappin'" by Kurtis Blow. Butler said he did not really think of Donahue's performance as a rap, as it was a new musical form, but said: "It was OK for a white guy to tell a story but tell it in rhythmic verse. And, it does have a melody, just three notes because Patty was no belter, but she’s a good enough actress that she could act it out." Butler said he also liked the meaning of "wraparound", as the story is circular.
"Christmas Wrapping" is told from the perspective of a busy single woman who declines to participate in the exhausting Christmas season. On Christmas Eve, she seeks cranberries at a grocery store, where she encounters a man she has been interested in all year, bringing her Christmas "to a very happy ending". In the final refrain, she admits that she "couldn't miss this one this year".
"Christmas Wrapping" was released as a single in the UK in 1981 on Island Records. It did not initially make the charts, but was reissued in 1982 and reached No. 45 on the UK Singles Chart that December. It remains the Waitresses' highest-charting single in the UK, and despite its modest chart placing, the song was certified platinum by the BPI in 2024.
Butler said the reception was a rejuvenating gift for the band: "We do the Christmas song, forget about it and go back on the road. The next thing I know when calling back to New York is that it's all over the radio and much to our surprise it leaps over our heads and hits all the cities where we're heading and all of a sudden we're back on an upswing again."