Olivia Rodrigo Christmas song Take Me Home (4 Christmas), Digi Mart USA News: Pop star Olivia Rodrigo released her first-ever Christmas song on Thursday night, alongside a festive music video starring Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon.
The track, called Take Me Home (4 Christmas), finds the singer asking her boyfriend to “show some serious commitment” by bringing her to his parents’ house for the Christmas break. The release follows her chart-topping third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love.
Soon after the song came out, fans noticed similarities to The Waitresses’ 1981 festive hit Christmas Wrapping. According to a message Chris Butler, who wrote The Waitresses’ song, posted on Facebook, the resemblance was intentional.
Butler said Rodrigo had contacted him to seek permission for the song and praised her “phenomenal” writing. He said he initially assumed an email from someone claiming to be Olivia Rodrigo was a fake, but after researching her career he became a fan, noting that she had hired an all-female band and negotiated control of her master recordings.
In his post, Butler said he replied to the email and wrote that he liked her music, particularly its arrangements and lyrics. He also accepted her invitation to hear the Christmas song, writing that it “was/is great” and could be “a smash, maybe even that elusive Christmas number one.”
Although the song draws on The Waitresses’ new wave and post-punk sound, Butler does not receive a writing credit on Take Me Home (4 Christmas), because it neither samples nor interpolates any of his music. On social media, Rodrigo said the song was written last summer with her longtime collaborator Dan Nigro and Amy Allen, who has previously contributed to songs by Harry Styles, Sabrina Carpenter and Tate McCrae.
The festive video follows the single’s storyline, with SNL star Ben Marshall playing her feckless boyfriend and Nixon starring as her prospective mother-in-law. It is shot to look like a vintage home movie.
The release arrives in the same week as several other major contenders for this year’s Christmas number one in the UK. Sam Fender has covered the Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want for this year’s John Lewis Christmas advertising campaign, while CMAT has teamed up with Elton John for a countrified version of his festive classic Step Into Christmas.
Alanis Morissette is releasing an album called Good Weather for Immaculate Conception, and Sufjan Stevens is issuing a compilation of his festive output, titled Worst Christmas Ever.
Nile Rodgers has also teamed up with X Factor star Rebecca Ferguson to cover The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), although the duo have received a backlash for using AI to create the song’s video. Kate Nash has written a track called Christmas Eve, which tells the story of the night her grandparents met in Dublin.
All of the new Christmas songs face competition from Wham’s Last Christmas and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, which typically dominate the festive charts. The two songs entered the UK’s Spotify top 10 on 1 November, two weeks earlier than last year.
Wham secured the Christmas number one slot in both 2023 and 2024 and could receive a sales boost this year, as fans mark the 10th anniversary of George Michael’s death. Last year’s festive chart-topper was Kylie Minogue’s XMAS.
