With three main versions - instrumental, full lyrics, partial lyrics - there are endless permutations, little moments throughout just asking for whoever’s taking on the reins to make their own. It also doesn’t reference the consumerism of the season in the least, instead taking a winter experience and encapsulating it perfectly in song. It’s a song that celebrates the moment, telling you to be present and enjoy what’s around you. “Sleigh Ride,” originally conceived by Leroy Anderson, doesn’t want to make you miss someone who isn’t there, or remind you of Christmases past. No, this is a song about a sleigh ride: of eating pumpkin pie with pals, of feeling warm despite the cold.

And it’s not even a Christmas song - it’s a holiday song, a celebration of the winter season despite folks like the Carpenters and Sesame Street trying to change a lyric from “birthday” to “Christmas” and claim it for the all-consuming tinsel avalanche of Christmas ubiquity. “Sleigh Ride” is unequivocally the best Christmas song of all time.

Doot know your meme