Up On The Housetop
I must admit that “Up on the Housetop” hasn’t been in my rotation of Sufjan Christmas favorites. Some time ago, I created an abridged playlist that excluded some of his more unusual holiday offerings, and I never went back to revisit the whole collection.
But I’m glad that I came upon Sufjan’s rendition of “Up on the Housetop” this year. There’s something about the odd arrangement and Sufjan’s vaguely unsettling lyrics about the “spirit of the dead” that caused me to listen a little closer to the song. When I did, the track raised questions for me about the setting. All of the action takes place on the rooftop of a house, as children presumably wait in bed for Santa to come down the house’s chimney to deliver them gifts and a little bit of Christmas magic.
So many Christmas songs are preoccupied with the idea of home, from the classic “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” to Taylor Swift’s “‘tis the damn season” (which, I contend, belongs on all Christmas playlists). At Christmas, we see ourselves coming back home to our adoring families or celebrating quietly with a loved one in the warmth of a living room.
“When I was a child I used to wonder / How Santa put my toys under the tree,” begins the song “Ain’t No Chimneys in the Projects” by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. “I said, momma can you tell me how this can be,” the song’s protagonist continues, “When there ain’t no chimneys in the projects?”
As Sharon Jones points out, often, the imagined idea of home in our Christmas lore is a house. Decking the halls of an apartment is trickier when any holes you put in the wall risk a lost security deposit. Jones’ protagonist wonders how Santa can visit her without a chimney and why her zip code seemingly excludes her from Santa’s largesse?
Why is Christmas so connected with home and housing? Maybe it’s because the Biblical Christmas story involves a search for shelter and the yearning for relief from the cold winter’s night. Ironically, the story as told in the Bible portrays the family celebrating the first Christmas in someone else’s barn, not a chimney in sight.
These songs about home hit me differently now. Like so many cities, my hometown is currently embroiled in a furious debate about housing and unhoused folks. Our collective inability (or unwillingness) to house our neighbors is never more apparent than during the chilly winter nights this time of year.
Each Christmas, we seek our own version of home. Whether that’s a giant suburban house bedecked with lights or a dingy apartment with roommates; a church basement or a local bar; a quiet nursing home or a tent next to a clamorous interstate — Santa should still be able to find you.
Paul McKean loves listening to, playing, and thinking about music. In his day job, he tells stories about higher education at Willamette University. He lives in Salem with his partner Jeff and his dog Milo.