A new study from kids’ bed specialist Cuckooland tried to find the best Christmas songs that’ll have kids falling asleep on the 24th and throughout the holiday season. “The function of a lullaby is to soothe a baby and put them to sleep, so common features we would expect to see in lullabies would be, a slow(ish) tempo, relatively quiet dynamics, simple rhythm pattern – potentially one that imitates a rocking movement and a simple melody,” says Annaliese Grimaud, a researcher at the Music & Science Lab at Durham University. Grimaud added that repetitive songs, which are predictable and thus easier to memorize and sing, and those with higher-pitched vocals (because of the connotation that mothers usually sing babies to sleep) also work better as lullabies. The researchers analyzed over 4,500 songs from Spotify playlists that had the word “lullaby” in the title and found the most common tempo (91 bpm), key (C), and time signature (4/4) of those songs. “Santa Baby” by Eartha Kitt was the number one “Christmas lullaby,” followed closely by Gene Autry’s “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)” and Stevie Wonder’s “What Christmas Means to Me.” Now will playing a Spotify playlist of these songs actually make your kid fall asleep? Probably not. Is it worth trying if there’s any chance it could help your kids, hopped up on Christmas cookies and Yuletide excitement, fall asleep? Absolutely. Here’s the complete list:
