Personally, I rarely listen to the words of Christmas songs or even the words of any songs. As a musician, the tune is instinctively much more important to me.
However, since I have been brought up in the traditions of Western Christianity, I am familiar with the hymns of the Church of England, many of which form the main body of Christmas carols at Christmas.
So, speaking as a devout unbeliever, I really resent humming along to the tune of a traditional carol at Christmas and finding myself unconsciously adding the occasional word here and there which are essentially words of worship.
Without doubt, I don’t believe in the words of these traditional carols and I really don’t want them going through my head. Unfortunately, it seems that, in my school-days, I have been brainwashed because it is very difficult to put them out of my mind.
Naturally, at Christmas there are popular Christmas songs that do not have a religious theme, and some of them are very good. These concentrate on togetherness, friendship and the humanity of man to man and appeal to me much more – although, of course, I can’t properly remember the words of these songs either 
Perhaps it’s time for humanity to start redefining Christmas in human terms rather than in deistic terms. Surely, being kind to each other, helping each other and loving and supporting our families is not something that needs to be imposed on us by an external force or deity. These best human qualities are surely values that will better enable our species to survive and thrive and it is in all our interests to promote them.
So, if you’re a song writer, why not put pen to paper and write some great Christmas songs. Perhaps you will become famous and I look forward to humming your songs next year – although, of course, I probably won’t be able to remember your words
Bye for now
Rob
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