From peppermint mocha everything to the tunes infiltrating just about every speaker around you, Christmastime is in full swing. While it’s customary to throw on your favorite holiday playlist, you may be spreading holiday fear instead of cheer to your furry friends. That’s right, some of the most popular Christmas songs stress out your pets.
The music experts at Fanatix set out to learn more, using findings from the BBC and Natural Library of Medicine. Those findings concluded that slow-tempo songs with little to no percussive elements are best for your pets. Fanatix then analyzed 90 popular Christmas songs from Spotify’s Christmas Hits playlist and identified the top 10 most stressful tunes for your pets and offered up an alternative 10 songs to ensure your pets are enjoying the season as much as you.
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The most popular Christmas tune on the music streaming list is Wham’s Last Christmas, which takes the cake as the most nerve-racking song for pets, with a beats per minute (BPM) of 206. High-tempo songs are more likely to irritate your critters.
Here’s the full list of popular, yet distressing, Christmas songs for your pets. And don’t worry, Mariah Carey is nowhere to be found on it, so carry on.
The Most Stressful Christmas Songs for Pets
| Title | Artist | Tempo / BPM | |
| 1 | Last Christmas | Wham! | 206 |
| 2 | Merry Christmas Everyone | Shakin’ Stevens | 203 |
| 2 | Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas) | The Andrews Sisters | 203 |
| 3 | It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year | Andy Williams | 202 |
| 4 | Santa Tell Me | Ariana Grande | 192 |
| 5 | Christmas Eve / Sarajevo 12/24 – Instrumental | Trans-Siberian Orchestra | 186 |
| 6 | Please Come Home for Christmas – 2013 Remaster | Eagles | 183 |
| 7 | Driving Home for Christmas | Chris Rea | 180 |
| 8 | What Christmas Means to Me (feat. Stevie Wonder) | John Legend, Stevie Wonder | 170 |
| 8 | Holiday Road – Spotify Singles Holiday | Kesha | 170 |
| 9 | We Wish You the Merriest | Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Fred Waring | 169 |
| 10 | Where Are You Christmas? | Faith Hill | 168 |
If your rotating holiday playlist has more than a couple of the songs from the list above on it, Fanatix also provided another list of lower-tempo songs to add into your mix that will be more tolerable to your animals — though annoyance through repetitiveness isn’t factored in here.
Fanatix found that songs within the 50-60 BPM range are generally well tolerated by pets and suggested these alternatives:
The Most Pet-Friendly Christmas Songs
| Title | Artist | Tempo / BPM | |
| 1 | Carol of the Bells (From “Home Alone” Soundtrack) | John Williams | 47 |
| 2 | Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree | Brenda Lee | 67 |
| 3 | Do You Hear What I Hear? | Bing Crosby | 73 |
| 4 | The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) | Nat King Cole | 73 |
| 5 | Christmas Time Is Here – Vocal | Vince Guaraldi | 75 |
| 6 | Frosty the Snowman | The Ronettes | 77 |
| 7 | Sleigh Ride | The Ronettes | 77 |
| 8 | Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) | Gene Autry | 80 |
| 9 | The Prayer | Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli | 82 |
| 10 | O Holy Night – Spotify Singles Holiday | Ravyn Lenae | 84 |
I don’t know about you, but there are some bangers on the more pet-friendly list, even if Frosty the Snowman and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree have been played to death already. Consider adding some of these songs to your playlist — your pets will be thankful.
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