How to Make a Personalised Christmas Song for Your Family
Make a personalised Christmas song for your family: what to collect, the style that suits your lot, ideas for kids and grandparents, and how to play it.
A personalised Christmas song is a song written about your family — your names, your traditions, the jokes that only work in your house — and sung like a finished record. It takes about ten minutes to plan and a few minutes to make, so it is one of the few good gifts you can still sort out on the 23rd. This guide shows you how to make one that sounds like your family and not like a supermarket advert.
What makes a family Christmas song work
Every Christmas song on the radio is about Christmas in general: snow, bells, being home. A family song works for the opposite reason. It is about one Christmas in one house. Three things carry it:
- Names. Everybody who will be in the room hears their own name at least once. Leave someone out and that is the only thing they will remember.
- Traditions. Not "we open presents" but the strange rituals that are yours: the burnt parsnips, the board game that ends in a sulk, the one present opened on Christmas Eve.
- This year. One thing that happened in the last twelve months. A new baby, a new house, a new knee. It is what makes the song feel made now rather than pulled off a shelf.
Step 1: Write the family list (5 minutes)
Open the notes app on your phone and answer these questions in short phrases. Do not try to be poetic. You are collecting raw material, and the rawer it is, the better the song.
- Who is in it? Everyone who will be listening, including the dog. Write nicknames next to real names.
- What does your family always do? The walk, the film, the matching pyjamas, the aunt who arrives at exactly noon.
- What does your family always eat? Especially anything other families would find odd.
- What does your family always argue about? The thermostat, the rules of Monopoly, who carves.
- Who is new this year? A baby, a partner meeting everyone for the first time, a puppy.
- Who will not be at the table? Someone working abroad, someone at the in-laws, someone who has died. You can decide later whether they go in the song.
The only-us test
Read your list back. Cross out anything that would be true of any family in the country. "We love Christmas dinner" goes. "Grandad still calls the gravy 'the brown'" stays. The song is built from the lines that survive.
Step 2: Pick a sound that suits your lot
Christmas songs come in more flavours than sleigh bells. Choose the style for the family you actually have, not the one in the adverts.
| If your family is… | Try this style | And this mood |
|---|---|---|
| Loud, competitive, up at 6am | Pop or Rock | Celebratory or Energetic |
| A singalong crowd who know every musical | Showtune | Playful |
| Small and quiet: candles and a film | Folk or Ballad | Calm & cozy |
| Full of little kids | Pop with a big, simple chorus | Happy or Playful |
| Centred on Grandma and Grandad | Jazzy or Soul | Nostalgic |
| Spread across countries this year | Ballad with piano | Emotional or Nostalgic |
Those are the names the styles and moods go by in the Ribbontune studio, so you can pick them straight from this table. The occasion (Christmas) shapes the words; the style shapes the sound.
Step 3: Read the lyrics like the family editor
When the lyrics come back, read them twice before anything is sung: once for the facts, and once out loud for the feel.
- Count the names. Is everyone there? Is every name spelt the way its owner spells it? It is surprisingly easy to miss a cousin.
- Check the jokes land kindly. A line about Dad falling asleep after dinner is affectionate. A line about his weight is not, even if it is "only a joke".
- Swap anything generic. If a line could appear in any Christmas song, replace it with something from your list.
You can change any line before the song is made. Editing costs nothing, and it is the difference between a nice song and the one that gets played every year.
Got your list? Choose Christmas as the occasion, add your names and traditions, and the lyrics come back in seconds. Change any line, then we sing it. The finished song is usually ready in two to five minutes.
Make your Christmas songIdeas for every kind of Christmas
For the kids
Children want to hear their own name sung more than they want clever words. Put every child's name in the chorus, add what they asked for this year and one thing they did that made everyone laugh. Keep the brief short and the sound bright.
For Grandma and Grandad
Give them the long view: the first Christmas in their house, the year the oven broke, the number of grandchildren now round the table. Grandparents tend to play these songs to everyone who visits for years, so the details are worth getting right.
For a couple's first Christmas
First married, first house, first time hosting. Write about the small domestic things — the tree that was too tall for the room, whose decorations won. It makes a lovely present from one partner to the other, or from friends to the couple.
For a baby's first Christmas
Make it gentle. A first-Christmas song is mostly for the parents now and for the child later. If you want something to play at bedtime all year, a personalised lullaby with the baby's name may suit better.
For family who cannot come home
Send the song to whoever is abroad or on shift, and play it together on a video call. A song is one of the few gifts that arrives at exactly the same moment in two places.
When someone is missing this year
The first Christmas after a death is hard, and some families want that person in the song while others do not. Ask before you include them. If you do, keep it to one warm memory rather than the loss. For a song that is fully about them, our guide to making a memorial song goes gently through the choices.
How to give a song when there is nothing to wrap
A song lives on a phone, which is not the most festive thing to hand over. Five small moves fix that:
- Print the cover art. Every Ribbontune song comes with its own cover. Print it square, glue it to a card, and you have something to put under the tree.
- Add a QR code. Turn the song's share link into a QR code with any free QR generator and stick it inside the card. Most phone cameras open it straight away.
- Download the MP3 first. Do not trust the wi-fi at the in-laws' house on Christmas morning.
- Pick the moment. After the presents and before the food is a good gap: everyone is in one room and nobody is cooking. Christmas Eve works too, when things are calmer.
- Film the faces, not the speaker. Ask someone else to record. You will want that video every December from now on.
When to make it
There is no last posting date. The song is made online in minutes, so it is a real option even on Christmas Eve. The only deadline worth setting is your own: make it a day or two early, so you can read the lyrics again with fresh eyes and change a line if something feels off.
If you would rather have a song written and recorded by a human songwriter, order early. Those services usually cost $100 or more, need several days, and December is their busiest month.
What it costs
At Ribbontune your first song is free when you sign up. After that, a single song is $9, the Gift Set is $21 for three songs, and the Memory Collection is $50 for ten. There is no subscription, and unused songs never expire. Three songs cover both sides of the family and a godchild; ten cover everyone you would normally buy a candle for. Each song includes the full track, the cover art, a share page and an MP3 download. You can hear finished examples before you start.
