Why So Much of Christmas is Protected by Copyright

When it comes to Christmas traditions, they can seem like they have been around forever. After all, many of us have enjoyed these traditions our whole lives, and, in some cases, so have our parents.

However, much of what we consider holiday traditions, whether books, movies or music, is not nearly as old as it may feel. While they may have been around for generations, from the perspective of copyright, many are still very young.

But even in cases where something is public domain, the current version you enjoy may still have copyright protection in the newer elements. For example, the composition of Jingle Bells was published in 1857 and is in the public domain. However, more recent performances and recordings of those performances are still protected by copyright.

As such, it isn’t easy to find public-domain Christmas content. But this problem isn’t unique to Christmas. You can say something similar about any other holiday, theme or topic. The reason isn’t a conspiracy to keep Christmas under copyright protection but rather the nature of media and copyright.

Christmas and the Public Domain

To be clear, determining when things lapse into the public domain in the United States is complicated. Because of changing laws and requirements, there’s no simple “one size fits all” solution, in particular for works published before 1978.

However, for simplicity’s sake, we will focus on works in the public domain without dispute. Those are works published more than 95 years ago (or 100 years ago for sound recordings). This means that, on January 1, 2025, works from 1929 (or 1924 for sound recordings) will expire.

While many Christmas traditions predate that, not much holiday media does. For example, the songs Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman were published in 1949 and 1950, respectively. The Rankin/Bass specials featuring those characters were published in 1964 and 1969, respectively.

As such, the composition for Rudolph has 20 years to wait before it expires, and the sound recording has 25.

Musically, the 1940s were a heyday for Christmas music. During that decade, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Little Drummer Boy, White Christmas and many other songs were published. We must wait 20 years for all their compositions to enter the public domain, and the performances will be even longer.

For films, the wait is even longer. Rankin/Bass published most of their iconic specials in the 1960s and 1970s. Though the 1940s produced many Christmas classics, the most-searched holiday films are all significantly newer, with many from the last forty years.

In short, the reason is remarkably simple: Most Christmas content is too new to be in the public domain. The linear nature of time is working against those seeking a public domain holiday.

Not Just Christmas

However, it’s not just Christmas that has this issue. The cutoff date of 1929 omits most created works.

Both recorded music and cinema began to gain traction around the start of the 20th century. Though books and music compositions had been around for thousands of years before then, they were new forms of entertainment and grew fairly slowly.

That’s why, on this public domain day, major literary works such as Ernest Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms and the English translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front will enter the public domain.

However, we’re just starting to get sound pictures that have expired This year’s biggest film is The Cocoauts, the first Marx Brothers film. Though important historically, it’s unlikely that many have heard of it.

Despite all the excitement over the first Mickey cartoon expiring last year, the impact has been underwhelming. Copyright still protects the vast majority of Mickey’s shorts and films.

Simply put, though movies and sound recordings before 1929 exist, they are few in number and limited in their current popularity. That is true across all media genres, not just Christmas.

Bottom Line

To be clear, there is a legitimate debate about how long copyright protection should last. Reasonable people can disagree on that topic.

However, being under copyright protection has not made these classics much more difficult to obtain. I don’t think that holiday classics make much of an argument one way or another.

Still, it’s unlikely that there will ever be a truly public-domain Christmas. While many of the works we discussed will lapse into the public domain, new ones are constantly being made. The current number-one holiday song, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You, was released in 1994. Elf on a Shelf was released less than 20 years ago, in 2005.

The holiday season is about creating new traditions and reinventing old ones. As long as holiday traditions evolve, they’re unlikely to become public domain.

While that may not be ideal for those who enjoy the traditions, it’s a significant help for those who create them. It may be annoying to have to pay for these traditions, but it helps ensure the creation of new ones down the road.