Public Domain Christmas Songs Download
Alfonsa Pan
Many classic Christmas songs that are presumed to be in the public domain are in fact copyrighted, so make sure to double-check your sources before deciding a track is public domain. PDInfo Online (www.pdinfo.com) is a good starting point if the liner notes and copyright information are unavailable. Here are just a few notable songs that would require a mechanical license:
IMPORTANT: This list is based on USA Copyright Law and is intended only as a help in researching public domain music. This list is NOT sufficient documentation that music is in the Public Domain. To prove PD status in the USA, you MUST find a published copy of the song with a copyright date of 1922 or earlier. Our PD Sheet Music Reprints are exact reprints of books and sheet music published in 1922 or earlier and include music, lyrics, and complete original copyright information. Some of these songs may not be PD in countries other than the USA.
Based on the Copyright Act of 1976, a song may be considered public domain for a variety of reasons. Generally, songs become freely usable between 70 and 95 years after they were created, published and registered. In the United States, as of 2022, most songs and musical works from 1926 or earlier are in the public domain.
Not all Christmas songs, carols or hymns are in the public domain. This commonly held misconception could prove costly for churches unless they understand that many Christmas tunes are copyrighted and owned by secular music publishers.
When it comes to Christmas songs, understanding which ones are copyrighted and which are public domain can get complicated. For public domain songs, you can do anything you want with them without the need to obtain permissions, pay royalties, or credit the original author. This does not apply to copyrighted arrangements of a song in the public domain. Songs that are copyrighted will require permission, licensing, or exemptions.
With all the holiday music out in the world, it may seem almost impossible to create an original hit that will blow the socks off the masses. Luckily for you, there are tons of songs in the public domain that you can cover for free without fear of musical prosecution.
Public domain refers to songs and other forms of intellectual property that are not owned or controlled by one person or organization. You are free to use these for any purpose you wish. In the United States, music and lyrics published in 1922 or earlier are considered to be in the public domain. Not all countries follow these same laws for copyrighted material. While a public domain song is free to be used, a new copyrighted arrangement or recording of a public domain song is not. In other words, while the original music for Away in a Manger is public domain, a particular recording or arrangement of it may still be copyrighted.
As a general rule, most of what was written in the 20th century is still under copyright protection. However, many Christmas carols pre-date copyright years and are considered public domain. These include:
If a Christmas song is in the public domain, it may be used without worrying about the legal ramifications of copyright law violations. When in doubt, assume that copyright protection applies or contact a qualified attorney to help you perform the necessary research to see if a song can be used for your project. Some artists have graciously given their arrangements to the public, so you may find some unique and modern arrangements within the public domain as well.
If you simply want to have a copy of the lyrics to your favorite public domain Christmas carols, there are a few websites that offer printable lyrics. Note that the websites may also have lyrics to songs not in the public domain, so be sure to check it with the list above before using the lyrics.
Unrestricted personal listening of some songs is available on a computer, tablet, phone, iPod or burning a personal CD. While many of the songs in free Christmas music aren't public domain, the artists performing the music sometimes offer their renditions free. Of course, you can't alter or use the albums/songs for other venues, but most contributing artists allow the following uses:
You can use public domain songs without obtaining permission, paying royalties, or crediting the original author. However, this does NOT apply to copyrighted arrangements of a song in the public domain. Songs that are copyrighted will require permission, licensing, or exemptions.
I absolutely love Christmas music. It takes up about 61% of my listening time between November 1st and December 31st, the other 39% being podcast episodes I\u2019ve heard before and pop music I have no business still listening to. I have heard every Christmas song under the fucking sun. I\u2019ve heard the rock ones, the country ones, the metal ones, the lo-fi ones, the slutty ones \u2013 on and on and on, I got \u2018em. The holiday music industry is dependent on covers, artists wouldn\u2019t be creating slapped together holiday albums if there wasn\u2019t a guaranteed sell during the Christmas cash grab season. There have been endless variations of \u201CJingle Bells\u201D because it\u2019s the most popular Christmas song known to man and also because it\u2019s public domain and freely available to be covered without copyright strikes. But there are only a handful of modern Christmas songs that have established their place in the festive zeitgeist so well that they can be considered classics. You know the one by Mariah Carey, and obviously the other is Wham!\u2019s \u201CLast Christmas.\u201D
Okay, I\u2019m going to say something controversial: I think we all need to loosen our hold on the brakes of the Meghan Hate Train(or). Her last album has some really good pop songs; she even scrapped one of my favorite songs of 2018 for it! She has potential! And this cover shows it. It nicely reinterprets the synths of the original with a smooth vocal that\u2019s really not trying to show off its chops. Unfortunately, though, the engineer could\u2019ve really smoothed out the instrumentation here, at certain points the bass is entering crunchy territory. And Meghan Trainor doesn\u2019t need any more reasons for hate.
I would like more Christmas songs to come imbued with original, lighthearted skits. Berlant and Early are possibly one of the most brilliant comedy teams working right now, and they lend their effervescent presence to this understated rendition by Molly Burch. To start off a cover of \u201CLast Christmas\u201D with a brrrppp landline imitation sound is bold, but to continue with a soft piano arrangement is even more surprising, especially when measured against the others in this list that are desperate to throw the fact that they\u2019re covering \u201CLast Christmas\u201D again in my face. Burch\u2019s vocals are soft, indie girl perfection with Berlant and Early adding their own adlibs and spoken bits throughout. It\u2019s a version of \u201CLast Christmas\u201D that interpolates its own story of heartbreak to embed into the original, making it not only an easy listen but a surprisingly reverent one too. Burch, Berlant, and Early all contribute a supreme sweetness here that\u2019s worth listening to over and over again, even with one of the longest runtimes on this list at a whopping 4:53, long for Christmas music!
How many times do I have to ask people to listen to Allie X? Ms. X is someone who is completely unafraid of remaining entirely herself in everything she does \u2013 she\u2019ll cover your song but she\u2019ll do it in a way that\u2019s all her own, no vocal affectations from the original and nothing that doesn\u2019t sound supremely X, which is really just her way of saying something has a certain je ne sais quoi. Like Jepsen\u2019s cover, Allie X includes some delicious sax here that fits beautifully against her voice. Allie X\u2019s cover proves a longstanding theory I\u2019ve had that independent artists know how to mix their songs far better than label producers doing it without any input from the artist. Sky Ferreira once said that she had to test \u201CDownhill Lullaby\u201D from stage speakers, over-ear headphones, earpods, phone speakers, and car speakers before feeling comfortable releasing it \u2013 this cover has that same quality. There is nothing here that doesn\u2019t sound right on the beat and perfectly orchestrated, it\u2019s one of the most unique and fun selections on this list.
I, too, would dump Kelly Clarkson on Christmas if we were driving along together and \u201CLast Christmas\u201D came on the radio and she sang it like this. No part of this is pleasing, we really do not have to always be showing off what our voice can do! Aren\u2019t there enough memes of Christina Aguilera singing Christmas songs to deter people from that? We truly do get it, Kelly, you\u2019re very talented and down to Earth! Please spare innocent ears from tinnitus this holiday season, we really do not need to overwhelm the hospitals.
Following the previous four deaths that included copyrighted Christmas songs, a copyright strike from a four way copyright claim pile-up is seen. It shows the YouTube copyright claim removal page and a red button with an unhappy face. The notice on the screen says:
Musicians should be able to record and upload video of public domain folk songs and Christmas tunes without having their work copyright flagged and/or shut down by the major music corporations that are falsely claiming to own these songs on YouTube. Any musician who has tried to upload their version of "O Christmas Tree (1824)," "O Little Town of Bethlehem (1868)," or even "Happy Birthday (1912)", can describe the frustrating bullying power of these corporations on the platform. YouTube needs to start its own database of public domain tunes (anything written before 1923) and grant them the protected status the law allows.
Question: This is an interesting problem, for sure. Correct me if I'm wrong, but modern arrangements of PD songs are copyrighted and I doubt content ID can keep them all straight. If it always worked via metadata unique identifiers, it would work, but listening algorithms are bound to make mistakes.
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