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Here Are the 10 Most Distracting Christmas Songs

Plus, 10 holiday carols to play if you're struggling to be productive this season.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
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Bing Crosby takes listeners to sunny Hawaii for Christmas with his version of Mele Kalikimaka, named the most distracting Christmas song in a recent study.

 YouTube

Putting on Christmas music while you work? Think carefully about which yuletide tunes you pick. A recent study from project-management software company Workamajig reports that while certain songs can actually help maintain focus, others do the opposite.

According to the study, songs with beats per minute paced between 50 and 80 are best for productivity, and may actually help calm  listeners. Others, with much higher beats-per-minute ratios, are classified on the distracting list.

Here are the 10 most distracting Christmas songs, according to Workamajig, followed by the 10 songs best for productivity.

Most distracting

  1. Mele Kalikimaka -- Single Version, Bing Crosby
  2. The Happiest Christmas Tree, Nat King Cole
  3. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Andy Williams
  4. Santa Tell Me, Ariana Grande
  5. Caroling, Caroling, Nat King Cole
  6. Christmas Dream, Perry Como
  7. Please Come Home for Christmas -- 2013 Remaster, The Eagles
  8. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Judy Garland
  9. Jingle Bells -- Remastered 1999, Frank Sinatra
  10. Adeste Fideles, Bing Crosby

Best for productivity

  1. Carol of the Bells, Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych
  2. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, Brenda Lee
  3. Silver Bells, Bing Crosby
  4. Happy Holiday / The Holiday Season, Andy Williams
  5. O Christmas Tree, Tony Bennett
  6. Christmas Time Is Here, Vince Guaraldi Trio
  7. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You), Nat King Cole
  8. The Christmas Waltz - Remastered 1999, Frank Sinatra
  9. The First Noël, Andy Williams
  10. Linus and Lucy, Vince Guaraldi Trio

The study also points out that the top two most played holiday songs on Spotify, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" and V's "Christmas Tree" lean more towards more distracting with 150 BPM and 139 BPM.