Christmas Wrapping is a Christmas song by American band The Waitresses and was released in 1981. It tells the story of several near-misses a young woman has seeking the company of a young man she's interested in, and how the wear and tear of the year is starting to put her off even Christmas.
Trivia
- A & P, the supermarket that provides the woman in the song with "the world's smallest turkey", was a major US Supermarket chain until the mid-2010's when it closed down or sold off its remaining stores. As of 2016, the chain no longer exists.
- While The Waitresses had a few hits in the 1980's and still have a small but loyal following, repeat play at Christmas-time makes this easily their most recognized song.
Lyrics
"Bah hum-bug!"
No that's too strong
Cause it is my favo-rite holi-day
But all this year's been a busy blur
Don't think I have the en-er-gy
To add to my al-rea-dy mad rush
Just cause it's tis the sea-son
The per-fect gift for me would be
Comp-le-tions and con-nec-tions left from
Last year, ski shop
En-coun-ter, most in-ter-es-ting
Had his num-ber, but never the time
Most of '81 pas-sed along those lines
So deck the halls, trim those trees
Raise up cups of Christ-mas che-er
I just need to catch my brea-th
Christ-mas by my-self this year
[Instrumental bridge #1]
Cal-en-dar pic-ture, frozen land-scape
Chil-led this room for twen-ty four days
Ever-greens, spark-ling snow
Get this win-ter over with!
Flashback to spring-time, saw him again
Would've been good to go for lunch
Couldn't a-gree when we were both free
We trie-d, we sai-d we'd keep in tou-ch
Didn't of cour-se til sum-mer-time
Out to the bea-ch to his bo-at
Could I join him?
No, this time it was me sun-burn in
the thi-rd de-gree
Now the cal-en-dar's just one page
And, of course I am excited
Tonight's the night, but I've set my mind
Not to do too much ab-out it
[Instrumental bridge #2]
[Choir #1]
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
But I'll think I'll miss this one this year
[Repeat Chior #1 for three more times]
Hardly dash-ing throu-gh the snow
Cause I bun-dled up too ti-ght
Last min-ute have-to-do's
A few cards, a few calls
Cause it's r-s-v-p
No thanks, no party lights
It's Chris-tmas Eve gonna re-lax
Turn-ed down all my in-vites
Last fall I had a night to my-self
Same guy called, Hall-o-ween par-ty
Wait-ed all night for him to show
This time his car would-n't go
For-get it, it's cold, it's get-ting late
Trud-ge on home to cele-brate
In a qui-et way, un-wind
Do-ing Christ-mas right this time
[Instrumental bridge #3]
A&P has pro-vided me
With the world's small-est tur-key
Al-ready in the oven, nice and hot
Oh damn! Guess what I forgot?
So on with the bo-ots back out in the snow
To the on-ly all-night gro-ce-ry
When what to my wond-er-ing eyes should appear
In the line is that guy I've been chas-ing all year
I'm spend-ing this one alone he said
Need a break, this year's been crazy
I said 'Me too', but why are you?
You mean you forgot cran-berries too?
Then sud-den-ly we laughed and laughed
Caught on to what was hap-pen-ing
That Chris-tmas magic's brought this tale
To a very happy end-ing
[Instrumental Bridge #4]
[Chior #2]
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
Couldn't miss this one this year
[Repeat Chior #2 until the song fades out]
Appearances in Christmas specials
- Fred Claus
- Shrek the Halls
- Glee: Extraordinary Merry Christmas (2011)