Do Your Dogs Freak Out When They Hear Wham’s Last Christmas? There’s a Reason for That

As shoppers nab their last-minute Christmas gifts, holiday music is everywhere, from the malls to cars to living rooms. Even if you love hearing all the holiday hits, there’s someone who might not — your poor pooch. 

Unfortunately, your favorite festive tunes could be fraying your pet’s nerves instead of spreading cheer. Yes — some of the most beloved Christmas songs actually stress out your furry friends.

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The music experts at Fanatix set out to learn more, using findings from the BBC and Natural Library of Medicine. They found 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, offering 10 alternative songs to ensure your pets enjoy the season as much as you do. 

The most popular Christmas tune on Fanatix’s music streaming list of most stressful songs for pets is Wham’s Last Christmas, at 206 beats per minute (BPM). High-tempo songs are more likely to irritate your pets. 

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. 

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 BPM to 60 BPM range are generally well tolerated by pets and suggested these alternatives:

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 may thank you.