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These Christmas Songs Stress Your Pets Out. Here's a Better List

You better check your music playlist twice if you want to keep your pets from stressing this Christmas season.

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Headshot of Blake Stimac
Blake Stimac Writer
Blake has over a decade of experience writing for the web, with a focus on mobile phones, where he covered the smartphone boom of the 2010s and the broader tech scene. When he's not in front of a keyboard, you'll most likely find him playing video games, watching horror flicks, or hunting down a good churro.
Blake Stimac
2 min read
Husky puppy dog playing with christmas tree lights.

If you find that your pets are destroying your Christmas decorations, it could be that they hate your Spotify holiday playlist.

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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


 TitleArtistTempo / BPM
1 Last ChristmasWham!206
2 Merry Christmas EveryoneShakin' Stevens203
2 Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)The Andrews Sisters203
3 It's the Most Wonderful Time of the YearAndy Williams202
4 Santa Tell MeAriana Grande192
5 Christmas Eve / Sarajevo 12/24 - InstrumentalTrans-Siberian Orchestra186
6 Please Come Home for Christmas - 2013 RemasterEagles183
7 Driving Home for ChristmasChris Rea180
8 What Christmas Means to Me (feat. Stevie Wonder)John Legend, Stevie Wonder170
8 Holiday Road - Spotify Singles HolidayKesha170
9 We Wish You the MerriestBing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Fred Waring169
10 Where Are You Christmas?Faith Hill168

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


 TitleArtistTempo / BPM
1 Carol of the Bells (From "Home Alone" Soundtrack)John Williams47
2 Rockin' Around the Christmas TreeBrenda Lee67
3 Do You Hear What I Hear?Bing Crosby73
4 The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)Nat King Cole73
5 Christmas Time Is Here - VocalVince Guaraldi75
6 Frosty the SnowmanThe Ronettes77
7 Sleigh RideThe Ronettes77
8 Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)Gene Autry80
9 The PrayerCeline Dion, Andrea Bocelli82
10 O Holy Night - Spotify Singles HolidayRavyn Lenae84

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.