Jimmy Fallon Is Our Best Cultural Ambassador of Christmas
“It’s never too early for Christmas.”
There are probably a few people that come to mind when you think of the King or Queen of Christmas. Bing Crosby, Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass, Jim Henson, John Hughes, Mariah Carey, Charles Dickens, Michael Bublé, Kelly Clarkson. All synonymous with the holiday season, to be sure. But aside from the ones who are dead, synonymous isn’t quite the same as ambassadorship, you know? Bublé branches out now. Carey only just partook in the Macy’s parade — and looked pained the entire time. They don’t lead the charge on sharing that infectious Christmas spirit with the world in the same way that Jimmy Fallon does. When we consider Fallon’s original Christmas output, his incorporation of the season into his television presence, and his overall willingness to participate in every possible tradition an NBC-employed New Yorker can, it’s clear that Fallon is our best cultural ambassador of Christmas.
Fallon might not have a chart-topper like “Last Christmas” or “All I Want for Christmas Is You” or “Christmas Tree Farm.” He may not have directed Elf or starred in The Night Before. But he does make his presence in the holiday space well-known. For one, he and Dolly Parton collaborated on an original Christmas song this year entitled, “Almost Too Early for Christmas.” The song is mostly cutesy, but it has a fun, modern sentiment towards the holiday and is sung very well. He also sang it on his and The Roots’ float for this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It’s not an instant classic, but I like it enough to add it into my rotation! I’m a person who can become pretty swiftly nostalgic towards anything and I am already nostalgic for him singing this during the parade on that early holiday morning. So, yes, it has charm!
Additionally, Fallon also wrote a children’s book that centers around the holiday. 5 More Sleeps ’til Christmas is a quaint picture book that revolves around the frenetic energy of a child who can’t wait for Christmas. For kids, five days until Christmas is an eternity, but for adults, it’s more like, “Whoa. Slow down. Can’t we savor it a little longer?”
The book was also turned into an NBC Christmas special last year with Fallon as the narrator. It’s available to stream on Peacock, but you can also see him read it through the Barnes and Noble Storytime series. He’s written children’s books before, but he always jumps at the opportunity for fun ancillary activities like these, as with his inventions or his theme park ride. If it’s a bit off the path of hosting television comedy shows, he’s usually game for it, but considering he also read the book on The Tonight Show last week, there’s something about this Christmas book that’s extra special for him. He commits to it dearly.
Lastly, in terms of Fallon’s original output, he did star in a Lays ad. I suppose it’s more credited to Lays, since Fallon was simply the paid spokesperson, but I do think there’s also something to the sentiment of Lays hiring Fallon and his family for the Christmas ad in the first place. Like, sure you could get Joe Burrow or Bebe Rexha, but Fallon is somewhat synonymous with the holiday — or, at least, its vibrancy and warmth — so landing him for it just works. It makes an easy mark of people like me, who will be more sympathetic towards Lays, as a company and as a product, because I’ll probably think of Fallon, Christmas, and the happy memories tied to them when I saw the first ad. I mean, I still think about the Stevie Wonder/Andra Day Apple “Someday at Christmas” commercial so much that I watched the entirety of The United States v. Billie Holiday. I sculpted Matt Lauer in seventh grade (I didn’t know yet!) because he reminded me of the Thanksgiving parade! That stuff works on me, so I did thoroughly enjoy the Fallon Lays commercial.
Of course, there’s also the recurring pattern of Fallon bringing the Christmas spirit to his NBC tenure like SpongeBob bringing Christmas to Bikini Bottom. Throughout Saturday Night Live, Late Night, and The Tonight Show there are myriad instances of Fallon festivities.
As a cast member, Fallon partook in a fair amount of Christmas sketches. Most notably among them? The recurring performance of “I Wish It Was Christmas Today,” a slightly surreal (and certainly offbeat) song from Fallon, Tracy Morgan, Chris Kattan, and Horatio Sanz (unfortunately). It returns every year on NBC when they air a compilation special of SNL holiday sketches.
Beyond his stint as a cast member, Fallon has also hosted SNL three times and two of them have been for the Christmas episode (2011 and 2013; 2017’s installment was for Easter). It’s no coincidence! He’s holiday spirit incarnate. In the same way that you can always find hosts with an edge of spookiness about them for some Halloween episodes, Fallon’s the guy you go to for cheer and party vibes during the holidays. He’s got the persona that was born to wear that blocky red and white scarf above. It looks natural on him. Looks right.
In his 2011 SNL, Fallon hosted with musical guest Michael Bublé. It was a merry alchemy of Christmas, as Fallon is the man for the season and Bublé has a jolly voice evident from his then-newly-released, defining Christmas album. They haven’t conjured a pairing that perfect for the Christmas episode since. In that episode, Fallon clearly pushed a ton of Christmas output forward.
And the same is true for the holiday episode Fallon hosted two years later with his good friend, Justin Timberlake, as the musical guest. Arguably, there were even more Christmas-themed sketches.
That’s all without even mentioning some of the best sketches from those episodes that have since been removed due to music rights. In the 2011 episode, for example, Fallon celebrated his SNL homecoming by singing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” with the cast. (See also: Paul McCartney joining him for his second monologue.) The entire monologue is a euphoric one, full of cheer and celebration. Fallon brings the energy every time. Plus, in 2013, I loved the sketch he performed with Cecily Strong in which they put a hurried, manic twist on the classic, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
There’s a reason why Lorne loved having Jimmy host Christmas episodes, but a lot of that is because of the Christmas synchronicity present from Fallon on his talk shows. It’s like how Disney Plooos or Hallmark always feel they must provide something new for Christmas each year. They’re known for it! And so is Fallon. Primarily, Fallon’s Christmas tradition on Late Night and The Tonight Show is the “12 Days of Christmas Sweaters.”
Fallon has done the knit-based tradition as long as his Thank You Notes and his musical segments. It’s fun to see the people from all over the world dressed more and more garishly each year, but my favorite part is how Fallon always does little awkward bits with the NBC pages who open the doors each day.
Regarding those aforementioned musical segments, though, Fallon has some mainstays (Collage Songs, Classroom Instruments, Beat Battles), but he goes out of his way to provide festive spins on them during the holidays. I’ve always appreciated that.
When Fallon, The Roots, McCartney, and the cast of Sing sang “Wonderful Christmastime”:
When Fallon, The Roots, and One Direction performed “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”:
He did Classroom Instruments with Mariah Carey and “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” too, but I guess YouTube took it down. Fortunately, they’ve already collaborated on something Christmassy this year.
He recorded a song called “It Was a Masked Christmas” with Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion:
He even leaned into comedy when he performed Christmas Mad Libs with Chris Pratt and John Cena:
And that’s all without mentioning a holiday episode of That’s My Jam, the musical game show he hosts on NBC, a “Santa Baby” re-do with Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson, and a series of parody holiday songs with Lin-Manuel Miranda. But I’d be remiss not to mention my four favorite segments that he conducted and probably the reasons why I associate Fallon so strongly with Christmas to begin with: Darlene Love, Saoirse Ronan, Rashida Jones, and The Muppets.
One of my favorite Christmas songs is “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” U2, Michael Bublé, Darlene Love. I adore them all. But Fallon invited Darlene Love on the show in 2017 for another Classroom Instruments segment. He, The Roots, Love, and Anna Kendrick performed the staple in that fashion and it was absolutely magical. Sadly, it’s no longer on YouTube, but just look at how fun and festive this image is! It’s wonderful. I’m glad he doesn’t forget about the Christmas jams beyond the top five on Spotify.
Another favorite Christmas song of mine is “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues and Kristy MacColl. Obviously, by the name of this website, Saoirse Ronan is my favorite actor. You can imagine my supreme delight when she and Fallon (both proudly Irish) performed the song (earnestly and without cynicism!) with the backing of The Roots. It’s hard to compare to The Pogues and MacColl, of course, but I think they’re right up there with ’em. I love their rendition deeply and it’s one of the best moments Fallon has ever had as a talk show host.
Another one of his finest moments came on the Thanksgiving episode of Late Night back in 2013. He and Rashida Jones used to have a tradition of reconvening at 30 Rock for that annual installment to perform a medley of some of the year’s biggest hits, re-themed to be about the holidays. In 2013, they conducted this while I was in Florida for Thanksgiving to see family, attend the last Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party I would attend with my immediate family (for now), and visit some of the local theme parks. Naturally, this is already a memory I’ll clearly recall with fond nostalgia for the rest of my life. However, in 2013, not only were the songs chosen as some of the best of the year, but it also came when Thanksgiving was Thankgivukkah (Hanukkah’s first night falling on the fourth Thursday of November).
Some of the songs included were “Royals” by Lorde (themed to menorahs and dreidels), “I Love It” by Icona Pop (themed to stuffing), “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus (themed to Butterball and green bean casseroles), and “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers (themed to Santa Claus’ ho-ho-ho). Carrie Underwood even joined Fallon and Jones for some of them! I loved the songs and I obviously loved the holiday versions of them, so I listened to this medley three times a day for the rest of that calendar year. I even listened to it during homeroom and got my famously Fallon-curmudgeon teacher to say, “They’re actually pretty talented.” There’s just so many incredible and beautiful elements of my life and some favorite memories associated with this particular moment from Fallon that I can’t help but celebrate it and write about it here so it doesn’t get forgotten, since it’s no longer on YouTube either. (Tons of music rights issues there.)
The biggest one, though, has to be what might be the very first thing Fallon ever did for the holidays in the variety show space. In 2009, during his first year behind the desk that once housed greats like David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, Fallon stepped instead into the shoes of John Denver and performed the comedic version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” with The Muppets. Fozzie, Gonzo, Animal, Kermit. They were all there with Fallon (and they’ve performed plenty of non-holiday songs with him in the past) to help him spread some yuletide joy when he was just getting his footing.
But as far as I remember, this is the first time I learned of Fallon’s existence. I had never heard of him; I was just a kid. When I saw him sing a Christmas carol with the Muppets, though, I knew I’d love him for life. I’ve had a soft spot ever since and he’s always been a favorite of mine because when I see the energy he brings to everything, it’s not only infectious and inspirational, but it reminds me of being ten years old again, sitting next to a Christmas tree and watching a man I didn’t know bring the holidays to life with the Muppets I did. My family loved it and so did I. A core memory.
So whether he’s hanging out a Rockefeller Center for the Christmas tree lighting:
Or hanging out on a Macy’s float with Questlove or Ronald McDonald or Cookie Monster:
It’s clear that Fallon genuinely loves Christmas and the whole holiday season. There is no place of cynicism that he derives these bits from. It generates from a place of goodwill and joy that he wants to share with all people. When he conjures an idea about how to celebrate in new and merry ways, it’s only because he wants to share what the holidays mean with his friends, loved ones, and fans. In a world of people who scoff at Walmart for setting up Christmas displays on October 29, I like to be a Jimmy Fallon, someone who knows it’s never too early for Christmas because Christmas is a time when we can become our best selves if we’re able and if we choose to. He’s shown me how over the years, perhaps more than anyone not named “Mom” or “Dad.” It wouldn’t be Christmas without them, just like it wouldn’t be Christmas without Jimmy Fallon.
