The Waitresses Christmas Wrapping Music
by The Waitresses

1982 FULL VERSION + Lyrics
Written by group founder Chris Butler, in this Song a woman meets a guy at a ski shop and gets his number. As the year goes by, they make dates, but for different reasons, they can't get together. The woman is exhausted and ready to spend Christmas alone, but when she goes out for cranberry sauce to complete her meal, she runs into this guy and finds out he is also spending the holidays alone. Finally, they get together, giving her a Merry Christmas after all.

The inspiration for this Song came from the Magical Christmas Feeling engendered in New York City that is seen in movies like Miracle on 34th Street. It's the idea that things will somehow work out in the end. "There is a feeling in New York that there is something in the background cooking around that time of year," Chris Bulter said in an interview. "It does make things work out O.K."

When Chris Butler wrote this song, he was not feeling very festive. The Waitresses were signed to ZE Records, whose boss, Michael Zilkha, asked the bands on his roster to each come up with a Christmas song that would go on a holiday compilation issued by the label. The Waitresses were in the middle of a grueling tour, and weren't happy about the task, especially since it was July and they weren't exactly in the Christmas spirit.

Butler was a notorious Scrooge, so this was a particularly daunting task. He banged out the Song very quickly, writing the last of the Lyrics in a Taxi from his apartment in New York to Electric Lady Studios, where they recorded it. The end result was a very uplifting Christmas Song with a Happy Ending.

"I think my subconscious wanted something to cure me of my Grinch-Hood, to fabricate this story where I'm in touch with some kind of force in the background that is working for good," he said. "It does kind of work out sometimes like this. And it's what people want. A lot of songwriting for me was fulfilling fantasies of how I wish the World was. I wish the World was a certain way, and I wish that there really was something wonderful in the background working, especially around that time, that made everything turn out okay."

Most Christmas Songs invoke Traditions and Togetherness, but this one is about a girl spending Christmas alone in New York City. Single folks spending Christmas away from their families is an underserved market when it comes to Christmas Songs unless you count the many "Blue" Christmas Songs about Holiday Heartbreak. Chris Butler had spent some Christmases alone, however, and knew what it was like. "I did have to create my own Christmas," he told us. "I put up my one Stocking in my non-functioning Studio Apartment on my Fireplace that had been bricked up."
--SongFacts.com