People usually get it wrong. They hear the sleigh bells, the "Troika" melody from Prokofiev, and Greg Lake’s angelic voice, and they assume it’s just another cozy fireplace anthem. It isn't. Not even close.
When I Believe in Father Christmas hit the airwaves in 1975, it wasn't trying to compete with Bing Crosby or Slade. Greg Lake, the voice of King Crimson and one-third of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, was actually pissed off. He looked at how Christmas had turned into a giant, plastic cash grab and felt like something precious had been killed. He wasn't hating on the holiday; he was mourning it.
The song is a protest. It’s a beautifully orchestrated middle finger to the commercialization of a sacred memory.
The Story Behind the Scowl
Greg Lake didn't set out to write a "Christmas hit." Honestly, the guy was a prog-rock titan. He was used to twenty-minute epics about cyborg armadillos. But in 1974, he started tinkering with a riff at his home in London. He wanted to capture the contrast between the magic he felt as a kid and the gray, consumerist reality of being an adult.
He teamed up with Peter Sinfield. Peter was the lyrical wizard behind the early King Crimson albums—a guy who could turn a phrase until it bled. Together, they crafted something that felt like a folk song but sounded like a cathedral.
That Prokofiev Connection
You know that bouncy, jaunty instrumental break? That’s not Greg Lake. Well, it is, but it’s actually a snippet from Lieutenant Kijé, a suite by Sergei Prokofiev. Specifically, it's the "Troika."
Keith Emerson, Lake’s bandmate in ELP, was the one who suggested it. He thought the song needed a bit of "festive" energy to balance out Lake's somber acoustic guitar. It’s a brilliant bit of musical irony. You have this incredibly upbeat, Russian orchestral theme crashing into a song about the loss of innocence. It’s jarring. It’s meant to be.
Why Everyone Thinks It’s an Atheist Anthem
There is a huge misconception that I Believe in Father Christmas is an anti-religious song. People point to the line about "the God you got" or the general skeptical tone.
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Lake spent years debunking this.
He was a choirboy. He loved the tradition. The song isn't an attack on belief; it’s an attack on the packaging of belief. When he sings about the "hallelujah" being "sold," he’s talking about the storefronts, not the pews. He wanted to strip away the tinsel to see if anything was left underneath. It’s a humanist perspective, sure, but it’s deeply respectful of the original spirit of the season.
"I find it appalling when people say it's an anti-religious song," Lake once said in an interview with Mojo. "It’s about how Christmas has been taken away from people and turned into a shopping spree."
The Cold Reality of the 1975 Charts
If you want to understand how big this song was, you have to look at the competition. In 1975, the UK Christmas Number One spot was a battleground. On one side, you had Greg Lake with a thoughtful, cynical masterpiece. On the other side? Queen.
Specifically, "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Lake got beat. He landed at Number Two. In any other year, he would have walked it. But you can't really complain about losing to the greatest rock song ever written. Despite not hitting the top spot, the song has outlasted almost every other holiday track from that era. Why? Because it’s honest. Most Christmas songs lie to you. They tell you everyone is happy and the snow is always white. Lake tells you it’s freezing, the dreams are fake, and you’re probably going to wake up disappointed.
And then he tells you to have a merry Christmas anyway. That's the kicker.
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The Sinai Desert and the Music Video
Most people remember the video. It’s weird. It’s haunting.
They filmed it in the Sinai Desert. Why? Because Peter Sinfield thought it would be a "cool" juxtaposition to the usual snowy clichés. You have Lake standing in the middle of a literal wasteland, wearing a fur-lined coat, singing about Father Christmas.
A Quick Reality Check on the Visuals
- The Dead Sea: They actually filmed segments near the Dead Sea.
- The Rockets: There’s footage of rockets and war interspersed with the desert shots.
- The Message: The video was meant to highlight the conflict in the Middle East, grounding the song in the "real" world rather than a North Pole fantasy.
It was a bold move for 1975. Most artists were content standing in front of a tinsel-covered tree on Top of the Pops. Lake wanted people to feel uncomfortable. He wanted to remind the audience that while they were opening presents, the rest of the world was still turning—and often burning.
The Song's Musical Architecture
If you strip away the lyrics, the music is fascinating. It’s built on an open-G tuning on the acoustic guitar. This gives it that ringing, folk-like quality that stays under the skin.
Lake’s production style was meticulous. He didn't want a "wall of sound." He wanted space. You can hear every string pluck. When the orchestra kicks in for the Prokofiev section, it feels earned. It’s a massive release of tension.
The contrast between the intimate verses and the bombastic chorus is what makes it "Prog-lite." It bridges the gap between the complex arrangements of ELP and the three-minute pop song. It’s a masterclass in dynamics.
Modern Covers and the Legacy
A lot of people have tried to cover I Believe in Father Christmas. U2 did a version. Robbie Williams gave it a go. Most of them miss the point.
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They try to make it sound "Christmasy." They add more bells. They sing it with a smile.
But the reason Lake’s original works is the grit. There is a weariness in his voice. By the time he gets to the final line—"The Christmas you get, you deserve"—it feels like a warning. He’s telling us that the holiday is exactly what we make of it. If we make it about greed, that’s what we deserve. If we find something real in the "silent heaven," then we’ve won.
Misconceptions You Should Stop Believing
- It’s an ELP song. No. It was released as a Greg Lake solo single. While Keith Emerson played on it, it wasn't a "band" project in the traditional sense.
- It’s about hating Santa. Come on. It’s about the idea of Santa being used to sell toothpaste and cigarettes.
- The ending is mean. People think "The Christmas you get, you deserve" is an insult. It's actually a call to action. It’s about personal responsibility.
The Ending is the Beginning
Greg Lake passed away in 2016. Since then, the song has taken on a new layer of melancholy. It’s become a memorial to one of the greatest voices in rock history.
Every December, it pops back onto the charts. It gets played in supermarkets (which is ironic, considering the lyrics) and on classic rock stations. It survives because it’s the only Christmas song that acknowledges that adulthood is kind of hard. It admits that the "eyes of a child" are gone and they aren't coming back.
But it also offers a shred of hope. It suggests that even in a world of "vantage and lies," there’s still something worth believing in, even if it isn't a man in a red suit.
How to Truly Appreciate the Song This Year
If you want to hear what Lake was actually talking about, stop listening to it as background noise while you wrap gifts.
- Listen to the 1975 Original: Avoid the later re-recordings or live versions if you want the raw impact. The original 7-inch mix has a specific "coldness" that works.
- Read the Lyrics Without the Music: It reads like a poem about the loss of magic. It’s genuinely moving.
- Watch the Sinai Video: Look at the footage of the soldiers and the desert. It recontextualizes the whole "peace on earth" message into something much more fragile and urgent.
- Check Out the "Troika" Full Suite: Listen to Prokofiev's original work. It helps you see how Lake and Emerson were trying to connect high art with popular culture.
The best way to honor the intent of the song is to take Lake’s advice: stop looking at the price tags for a second and just look at the sky. Whether you believe in the miracle or not, the sentiment of wishing for a "brave new world" is something we could all use a bit more of.
Don't let the "hallelujah" be sold to you this year. Find your own. That’s the most "Greg Lake" thing you can do.