Of all the Christmas traditions, music is as much a part of the festive period as mistletoe, good food and the Christmas tree. Radio stations and shopping malls have been playing Christmas tunes for weeks in order to bring some festive cheer. Anglo-American classics dominate the airwaves in the Netherlands, but the Dutch have nevertheless created their own small market for Dutch-language songs as well. Our top festive tune? A song about a dead rabbit.

 
 
Many radio stations in the Netherlands have given up their normal programming and are playing Christmas songs instead. Commercial non-stop music station Sky Radio, for instance, went "Christmas" in early December, playing at least four Christmas tracks an hour. Come Christmas Eve, there will be 24 hours of non-stop Christmas songs. With this music policy, Sky Radio easily tops the December ratings of most popular radio stations in the Netherlands.
 

Year in, year out
The only problem is.... Sky Radio and most other stations play the same old Christmas songs every year. "Driving home for Christmas", "Last Christmas", "White Christmas", "Merry Xmas everybody".... The same old British or American Christmas songs, year in, year out.
 
Radio programmers simply say they only play what we, the listeners, want to hear. And apparently, from the surveys these radio stations conduct, we'd rather listen to another rendition of "White Christmas" or "Winter Wonderland" than new, fresh songs.
 

Decades old
It's the same everywhere. US music trade magazine Billboard publishes a weekly chart of most played Christmas songs and this week's listing is dominated by decades old songs like "A holly jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives, "Rockin' around the Christmas tree" by Brenda Lee and "It's the most wonderful time of the year" by Andy Williams.
 
But despite all this tradition, there is a small market for typically Dutch Christmas songs as well.
 

Lonely Christmas
Take Amsterdam singer André Hazes, for instance, who had a major hit about how lonely your Christmas can be when you're in jail. The song "Eenzame Kerst" ("Lonely Christmas") was André's breakthrough hit in 1977.
 
Watch the song here (Story continues below):

 

Even Bert and Ernie from the Dutch version of Sesame Street join in the festive fun with a little tune called "I'm a Christmas bauble"
 
Watch the song here (Story continues below)

 

 

These are just two examples of many quirky, novelty Christmas songs that have somehow made it to the airwaves in the Netherlands.
 

Rabbit
The most successful Dutch Christmas song was "Flappie", written by Dutch comedian Youp van 't Hek in the early 1980s for his sister. It's a sweet ditty about a young boy looking for his pet rabbit Flappie, which went missing on Christmas Day. But at the Christmas dinner, the truth is revealed: his father slaughtered the rabbit for the family to enjoy.
 
Watch the song here (Story continues below)

 

 
Cruel ending
The ending of the song is quite cruel: on Boxing Day, the boy's father goes missing and it soon becomes clear the boy has done the same to his father as his father did to his pet rabbit.
 
At least, these Dutch songs are a nice alternative to the same old Anglo-American, worn out Christmas songs.
 
But whether they'll ever surpass "Last Christmas" or "Merry Xmas everybody" on the top Christmas charts is a different matter.