All I Want For Christmas.... - a review of the famous Christmas song

First of all, hi! This is my second blog post for this Advents wreath, which was created so kindly by Marie-Theres Schindler. Here is a link to my first post I wrote about Tea and Punch. Today’s theme is “All I Want For Christmas.” I really hope you like it.

Level B1

What would you like for Christmas?

What is it that people really want for Christmas? Is it perhaps lots of presents? Or could it be the simple things: loved ones, a fire burning in the background? Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. But, as Mariah Carey sang in her famous Christmas song, there is only one thing she really wanted: You. Shall we look at the song? Ok, let’s do that:

Let’s look at the song in more detail. What are the things that Mariah doesn’t want?

Presents
Don’t need to hang my stocking
Santa Claus
Snow
Make a list for Saint Nick
Reindeer

Now we know, what is not on her Christmas wish list. How does she describe what she wants?

I just want you for my own
I just wanna keep on waitin underneath the mistletoe
I want you here tonight
I just want you here tonight, holding on to me so tight

Proper English or not?

Is the English that Mariah uses properly used? It depends on whether you’re American, or British like me.

First of all Americans love to use shortened forms of verbs for example: wanna. However, not all the language in the song is wrong. As you can see from the above examples, she does say: want to, which as a Brit, I find so much nicer. Furthermore, there is a case of her saying: ‘cause, the shortened form of because. This is not always an American thing, it is mainly a thing done in popular music.

Are there any other uses of English?

Yes, yes, yes! There are a few good uses of rhyming:

Saint Nick – click
snow – mistletoe
singing – ringing
true – you
own – know

Creative song

In my opinion, this song is very creative. First of all, because of the different uses of shortened forms. And finally, there are some great examples, as you can see above, of rhyming words.

Have you got what you want for Christmas?

In 1994, when Mariah sang this song, she was still waiting for her loved one to join her. However, I hope, with this song, you’ll have one thing from this Christmas: improved English. Despite this not being my favourite Christmas song, it is very good to learn English with as Mariah sings it very clearly.

Further bloggers who wrote about “All I Want for Christmas” (in German) are:

Anika – https://www.wanderingmind.de
Svenja – https://allthewonderfulthings.de
CeeJay – @wilderhearts.de

All I Want For Christmas…. – a review of the famous Christmas song