Month: December 2016

If you’re struggling to get more done in a day, it might be because you’re thinking of productivity as a one-size-fits-all endeavor, says Carson Tate, author of Work Simply. “We each have a productivity style, influenced by how we think and process information,” she says. “If you’re not customizing your strategies to that style, they’re not going to work for you and you’re going to get frustrated.” She breaks down the four styles and corresponding strategies that can turn you into an efficient, to-do-list-killing machine.

1. THE PRIORITIZER

Style Traits: You’re analytical and competitive. Long-winded explanations set your teeth on edge, and when coworkers start swapping stories about what they did over the weekend you start silently watching the clock (so much wasted time!). “Prioritizers are very focused on the outcome or goal—not the soccer game your kid had over the weekend,” says Tate. “They want people to make their point and back it up—they never met a piece of data they didn’t like.”

Productivity Boost: Play to your natural competitive streak by timing yourself as you run through routine tasks, suggests Tate. How quickly can you prep lunches before work? How many minutes does it take to clear out your inbox each morning? Trying to beat your own time will spur you to stay focused, but it can also nudge you to streamline—like prepping a week’s worth of veggies at once or setting up templates for emails you send again and again.

2. THE PLANNER

Style Traits: You’re hyper-organized, detail-driven, and thrive on deadlines. You have every appointment and reminder possible in your calendar, and you relish making action plans. Your biggest pet peeve is when people are running perpetually late. “These are the people who turn their work in early and will add an item to their to-do list even if it’s already done, just for the satisfaction of crossing it off,” says Tate.

Productivity Boost: Batching should be your new best friend, says Tate. That means scheduling time to knock out all of your phone calls at once or cranking through spreadsheet set-up, assembly-style. “Grouping similar tasks together lets you get into a flow state and not waste any time switching between tasks,” she explains.

Another trick that works particularly well for planners is creating a to-do list of things that can be done in 15 minutes or less. “There are so many microsegements in the day, where you finish one meeting and have another starting in 15 minutes,” says Tate. “Instead of defaulting to email, a 15-minute list lets you actually execute.”

3. THE ARRANGER

Style Traits: A natural born facilitator, you’re highly intuitive and communicative. You do your best work with people and on teams, and you tend to understand instinctually what needs to get done to wrap up a project. “They’re the people who will color-code their calendars, because color is important, or have certain types of pens for certain tasks,” says Tate.

Productivity Boost: Spending the entire day holed up in an office will actually backfire for Arrangers. “They need to intersperse solo work with group work,” says Tate, or their energy and focus will start to flag. Schedule a coffee break with coworkers, or break up a big work project with quick trips to the water cooler. Those minutes aren’t wasted—they’re recharging your efficiency and focus. Sunshine can also have a surprisingly big impact on productivity with this group, says Tate. Even standing near a window for a few minutes will perk you up to get more done.

4. THE VISUALIZER

Style Traits: Post-its and white boards are your go-tool tools, and even though your cubicle may seem like it’s in disarray you can locate anything in less than a minute. “Visualizers are big-picture thinkers and risk takers,” says Tate. “They’re great at juggling a large variety of work, and they work very quickly.” They’re also the ones who are most likely to squeak in just seconds before the deadline, and to chafe at lengthy processes. “Too much structure drives them crazy, because they want time and space to think and brainstorm.”

Productivity Boost: Stop thinking you can knock out a project in one long marathon work session. “Visualizers crave novelty, so to keep your energy and momentum high you need to break up the boring work with more interesting work,” says Tate. While ping-ponging between tasks might slow other styles down, it can actually fuel this group—so think of yourself as a sprinter, working on one thing for 20 minutes before moving on to something completely different.

As we get deeper into winter, getting dressed to go outside becomes an ordeal. Not only do we have to worry about wearing enough layers to stay warm, we also have to deal with static electricity giving our garments a life of their own.

If you’re hoping to tackle static cling head-on this season, it helps to first understand the science behind why it happens. TIME recently spoke with two experts, Rutgers University biomedical engineering professor Troy Shinbrot and George Mason University professor of Earth sciences Robert Hazen, about why this sticky phenomenon becomes so pervasive once the temperatures drop.

According to Shinbrot, the culprit is an excess of either positive or negative electrical charge. All atoms contain both positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons. When balanced in number, these charges cancel each other out; but when two objects make contact, electrons can come dislodged from their original atoms and jump to another, disrupting the object’s “neutral” charge.

The “cling” part comes in when these imbalanced atoms start sticking together. Opposites attract, atomically speaking, so when wool tights with too much positive charge are introduced to a dress with a neutral or negative charge, the protons in the tights will adhere to the electrons in the dress. Like charges, on the other hand, repel each other. If you get a bunch of positively charged atoms in one place the protons will push away from one another. This is why your hair sometimes acts like it wants to float off your head after you brush it. “Like people on a crowded beach who want to put space between themselves, they all stand up and spread out,” Hazen told TIME.

But that still doesn’t answer the question of why static cling is at its worst in the winter. For that we’ll need to shift gears briefly from atomic physics to meteorology: According to WCCO Minneapolis meteorologist Chris Shaffer, cold air means dry air (anyone who’s gone through multiple bottles of hand cream in January can attest to this).

In the summertime, water molecules in the air attract most surplus protons or electrons around you, so charges on your clothes or hair rarely stay imbalanced long enough for you to notice them. But when the air outside is cold and ill-equipped to retain moisture, these charges can quickly get out of control.

That doesn’t mean you’re forced to live with static cling until spring rolls around. There are ways to take the seasonal annoyance into your own hands: When getting dressed in the morning, keep a spray bottle filled with water and a tablespoon of fabric softener nearby. A spritz or two should be enough to tame sticky fabrics when the air is dry. For static that disrupts your ‘do, a little hair spray will work to the same effect. And it’s important not to underestimate the power of dryer sheets. The positively charged material combats the negative charges that build up as your clothes dry, and they can even be used outside the laundry room to wipe down unruly hair.

How much would it cost to be Santa Claus?

Kynan Eng:

It will cost $24.3 billion to make the toys, plus $683 million to deliver them by ocean and road freight (delivery time 2 months). Or, if it absolutely, positively must be there overnight, air freight will cost $95.8 billion before discounts. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough planes in the world to deliver everything in one day and airport capacity is limited, so it will take around 5 days if every commercial and military plane in the world (40,000 planes total) is pressed into service. Further details below.

How many kids in the world? Where are they?

Around 27 percent of the world’s population is aged 0–14, according to the CIA. As a crude approximation, we can extrapolate that to 32.8 percent of the world being aged 0–17. People are spread out around the world as shown in the list below, as of August 2016. Note that some regions of the world have a higher proportion of kids, but we will ignore this factor for the purposes of the calculation.

Population by Regions in the World (2016)

• North America: 579 million (190 million kids)
• South America: 423 million (139 million kids)
• Europe + Russia: 887 million (291 million kids)
• Africa: 1216 million (399 million kids)
• India: 1252 million (411 million kids)
• East Asia/Oceania: 3043 million (988 million kids)

TOTAL: 7.4 billion (2.43 billion kids)

How expensive to produce a toy?

In 2000, one McDonald’s Happy Meal toy cost 43 cents to produce. Let’s be generous, and say that we expend a production cost of $10 per child on toys, including packaging and wrapping paper. We will also assume that these toys weigh a total of 2 kg per child and a volume of 0.01 m3, including packaging. So our toy budget is $24.3 billion and we have to ship 4.86 billion kg, with a volume of 48.6 million m3.

Where are we shipping from?

Depending on who you ask, Santa Claus lives in one of several locations:

• Alaska, USA
• Rovanemi, Finland
• Kakslauttanen, Finland

However, in reality, modern Santa produces in and around Shenzhen, China. His northern residence serves mainly as a theme park, marketing headquarters, and tax haven. So everything must be shipped from Shenzhen or nearby Hong Kong.

Shipping cost: Ocean + road freight

The most cost-effective way to send stuff is by ship and then road. The data here comes from an online freight calculator. A standard 40-foot shipping container has an interior volume of 67.6 m3, of which about 60 m3 is usable after accounting for fork lift pallets, etc. So we can fit 6000 presents into each container. Therefore we will need to ship 405,000 containers. The world’s largest container ships can each carry upwards of 9000 containers, so we will need only 45 ships to carry all of the presents. The ocean shipping costs are broken down below ($cost/container x number of containers):

• North America: Hong Kong – Los Angeles: $1400 x 31667 → $44.3 million
• South America: Hong Kong – Panama: $1450 x 23167 → $33.6 million
• Europe + Russia: Hong Kong – Rotterdam: $750 x 48500 → $36.4 million
• Africa: Hong Kong – Port Said (Egypt): $625 x 66500 → $41.6 million
• India: Hong Kong – Mumbai: $600 x 68500 → $41.1 million
• Asia: Hong Kong – Shanghai: $400 x 507167 → $39.5 million

For the road shipping cost, we will make a wild assumption that the average road distance is about 2400 miles, which is about the distance from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. This costs around $1100 per container in the USA, which we will use as the overall cost. So we get:

Total ocean + road freight cost = $236M + $446M = $683M

Shipping cost: Air freight

The point of origin will be either Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport or Hong Kong International Airport, which are very close to each other. Air freight requires two air legs (Hong Kong → regional hub → destination city) and one road leg. The exception is within Asia, which requires just one flight. The first-leg air freight costs are as shown below (cost quoted per present).

• North America: Hong Kong – Los Angeles: $19 → $3.61 billion
• South America: Hong Kong – Panama: $20 → $2.78 billion
• Europe + Russia: Hong Kong – Frankfurt: $19 → $5.53 billion
• Africa: Hong Kong – Port Said (Egypt): $22 → $8.78 billion
• India: Hong Kong – Mumbai: $25 → $10.28 billion
• Asia: Hong Kong – Beijing: $21 → $20.7 billion

Total first leg: $51.7 billion, plus second leg ($18/present): $43.7 billion, plus road: $446 million = $95.8 billion

Do we have enough planes? In short, no. In 2015, FedEx shipped 16.02 billion tonne-km of air freight, while the top 10 companies combined shopped 85.528 billion tonne-km. This works out to shipping our load 17600 km—so it would be possible to do it only if every air freight company could delivery their annual capacity in one day. Modern cargo aircraft range in capacity from around 39,780 kg (Boeing 757–200 freighter) to 134,200 kg (Boeing 747–8F). If we take an average payload of 80,000 kg per plane, we will need 60,750 long-haul flights, plus the same number of short-haul flights. The world has about 20,000 civilian aircraft and 20,000 military aircraft, but most of them are not long-haul—so we will need some sort of well-organized short-hop relay system.

Another bottleneck is the number of airports. The capacity of a modern airport is around one take-off every 60 seconds, which is 1440 flights/day. There are 10 civilian airports within 300 miles of the area, so we can start around 15,000 flights/day. So it will take around four days to get all of the stuff out by air. After that, regional and local airports can handle the traffic easily—the world already handles around 100,000 scheduled flights per day.

This post originally appeared on Quora. Click here to view.

A long-lost Christmas song has been discovered at Oxford, and yes, it’s about drinking. The score by George Butterworth, an English composer who died in the trenches of World War I, was uncovered at the university’s Bodleian Libraries, whose researchers believe it to be the only surviving copy.

Butterworth, who was born in 1885, was an avid collector and composer of folk music as well as an early adopter of new recording technologies. His work was relatively popular by the time he enlisted in the infantry in 1914, and according to the Bodleian Libraries, he was considered one of the most promising English composers of his time. He was killed in battle at 31 years old, and most of his compositions were lost. He had destroyed much of his music before he left for the war, thinking it wasn’t worth preserving, though after his death his surviving compositions came to be lauded as masterpieces

The three-page score for the lost Christmas song was found by Martin Holmes, a music curator at the Bodleian Libraries, in a collection of uncataloged music that made its way from the university’s music department to the university’s Weston Library. The library isn’t sure where it came from, but it might have been donated by the composer’s father to Butterworth’s friend from Oxford, Sir Hugh Allen, who later became a music professor at the school. Allen’s papers were donated to the Oxford Music Faculty Library after his death in 1946.

According to the library, the song “begins with the words ‘Crown winter with green, And give him good drink To physic his spleen…’ and ends with the lines ‘And merry be we This good Yuletide.’” In the vein of his other folk-inspired songs, “he wrote the musical setting for this poem in the style of a drinking song, for voice and piano,” the library’s press release continues. The song was probably written early in Buttterworth’s career sometime in the early 20th century. It’s not a masterpiece, but it can provide scholars with a better idea of how his compositional talents evolved.

The manuscript score is on display at the Weston Library at Oxford through this weekend, where you can also listen to a recording of the song.

 
Thanks to warm waters and an assist from La Niña, this year’s hurricane season was an active one, and coastal residents have been on edge all summer. But now the winds of winter are slowly winning the battle between the Arctic and the tropics, forcing the Atlantic Ocean’s hurricane season to finally calm down. In honor of 2016’s season, here are some things you might have missed about this year’s storms.

1. THE 2016 HURRICANE SEASON WAS THE MOST ACTIVE SINCE 2012.

 
If it seemed like we had to deal with a lot of storms this year, it’s only because the past couple of years have been relatively quiet. A “normal” hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean produces 12 named storms, six of which you’d expect to strengthen into hurricanes and three of those hurricanes would reach Category 3 intensity (115 mph) or stronger.

The 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which officially ran from June 1 through November 30, saw 15 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. The season began with an unusual hurricane in January, an early-season storm in May, and a string of storms that formed throughout the warm summer and fall months. But Hurricane Otto, which formed toward the end of November, was likely the last storm to form in the year.

2. LA NIÑA HELPED ATLANTIC STORMS THRIVE.

 
One of the major factors that allowed one storm after another to percolate in the Atlantic was the presence of mild La Niña conditions in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It seems odd that cooler-than-normal waters in another ocean would have an impact on the hurricane season across the continent, but everything is connected. La Niña—the presence of abnormally cool waters near the equator in the eastern Pacific Ocean—keeps thunderstorm activity in this part of the world to a minimum, reducing the strong winds that flow east over the Caribbean and typically tear apart tropical cyclones before they have a chance to form. The absence of these winds allow storms to build.

The past couple of hurricane seasons were stifled by the opposite phenomenon—an El Niño—which created unusually high levels of wind shear over the Atlantic. Many of the storms that formed this year also had to battle strong wind shear, but it usually let up enough for most of them to strengthen before hitting land.

3. THE SOUTHEAST TOOK A BEATING THIS YEAR.

The United States only saw a handful of landfalls over the past couple of years, but this year was different. Five of the ten storms that made landfall somewhere around the Atlantic Ocean this year hit the United States, and all of those storms came ashore either in Florida or South Carolina. There’s no particular reason that storms kept targeting the same areas this year—each storm was different and they all took advantage of different environmental factors that allowed them to hit the same spots over and over again.

Unfortunately, none of the five landfalling storms took the right track to help alleviate the historic drought that’s plaguing interior parts of the southeast. Tropical cyclones that come ashore along the northern Gulf Coast or the southern Atlantic coast are a big source of rainfall for states like Alabama and Georgia, but this year drought-stricken areas have had to go without this plentiful supply of tropical moisture.

4. BERMUDA GOT HIT HARD, TOO.

It’s not just the southeastern United States that got it bad this year. Bermuda is a tiny island—just a little smaller than Manhattan—that sits a few hundred miles off the coast of North Carolina. They’ve had some pretty close calls in the past, but it’s hard for the center of a hurricane to hit this small speck in the middle of a vast ocean.

Hard as it is, Hurricane Nicole managed to do just that this year, with the eye of this major hurricane passing directly over the island and its 65,000 residents. The entire island experienced wind gusts of more than 100 mph while the eye passed overhead. Thankfully, Bermuda is resilient and well-prepared for bad storms, so damage from this storm was relatively minimal.

Nicole wasn’t the only storm to hit Bermuda in recent years. Hurricanes Fay and Gonzalo both made landfall on the island nation during the same week in October 2014; this back-to-back blow caused extensive damage across the island. Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015 also came perilously close to the island, causing some minor damage as it passed the west of the island.

5. HURRICANE MATTHEW WAS HISTORICALLY HORRIFIC.

 
The worst storm of the year was Hurricane Matthew, a monstrous Category 5 hurricane that exploded in the Caribbean and came within miles of causing a catastrophe in the United States. Matthew was originally forecast to remain a minimal hurricane as it entered the central Caribbean Sea at the beginning of September, but the storm took advantage of calm winds, ample moisture, and record-warm ocean waters to exceed forecasts beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.

Matthew rapidly grew from a strong tropical storm with 70 mph winds to a scale-topping beast with 160 mph winds in just 24 hours, and it maintained that strength as it closed in on the Greater Antilles. The hurricane crashed into Haiti on October 5 as a strong Category 4 storm, causing unspeakable destruction to the small towns that dot the hillsides on the country’s western shores. Entire towns were leveled by Matthew’s intense winds and storm surge, and some estimates figure that more than 1000 people died as a result.

It looked like Hurricane Matthew would repeat its destruction by making landfall in Florida as a major hurricane, but the powerful core of the storm stayed just a few miles offshore as it paralleled the Florida shoreline, sparing most coastal communities from the worst effects. Matthew eventually came inland in South Carolina, where the main threat transitioned from wind to flooding. Even still, eastern parts of North Carolina were devastated by the worst flooding in recent memory after the storm dropped more than a foot of rain in some locations. The floods killed dozens of people and caused so much damage that some school districts couldn’t restart classes until nearly three weeks after the hurricane.

6. HURRICANE OTTO MADE AN UNUSUAL MOVE.

The last storm of the season was also a bit surprising in that it strengthened far beyond what forecasters initially expected. The hurricane developed from an area of disturbed weather that sat off the coast of Nicaragua for a week, then quickly spinning itself into a borderline major hurricane before making landfall near the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Most storms dissipate when they move inland, but Otto retained its hurricane strength as it moved across Nicaragua, and its eye emerged in the eastern Pacific Ocean a day later. Hurricane Otto is only the seventh storm in recorded history to move across Central America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and only the second storm to maintain its strength as it crossed land. The most recent storm to accomplish this feat was Hurricane Cesar-Douglas, 20 years earlier in 1996. Cesar-Douglas has two names because convention at the time was to rename a storm once it crossed ocean basins—it was called Cesar in the Atlantic and renamed Douglas once it moved into the Pacific. 

Humans have sent some unusual things into the Earth’s orbit and beyond. An issue of Playboy, a corned beef sandwich, and Luke Skywalker’s light saber prop have all made the journey to space, and now Ars Technica UK reports that a meat-and-potato pie has become the first to leave the planet. To mark next week’s World Pie Eating Championship in Wigan, UK, a team of scientists launched the savory pastry into the upper stratosphere on December 15.

The British specialty was baked by the local shop Ultimate Purveyors before it was carried 29 miles above the Earth’s surface via weather balloon. A team of scientists with the group SentIntoSpace organized the launch. Then, they watched the live steam of its ascent from “mission control” (a.k.a. a nearby pub) and its descent back to Earth.

On December 20, pie-eating competitors will gather in Wigan to wolf down meat pies nearly 5 inches in diameter as quickly as possible. The current champion, Martin Appleton Clare, polished one pie off in a record-setting 22.53 seconds.

Though it was primarily done for fun, the mission did serve a tenuous scientific purpose. Tony Callaghan, the owner of the pub that served as mission control, told the Manchester Evening News:

“We are aware that scientists have been experimenting with plants on the International Space Station to see if their molecular structure changes, so we are experimenting with pies to see if the structure changes with space travel and allows the pie to be eaten quicker.”

The team was also interested to see if the friction upon re-entry would act as a valid cooking method.

[h/t Ars Technica UK]

1. MAIL CARRIER SAVES CHRISTMAS

When a mail truck in Wake Forest, North Carolina, caught on fire Tuesday morning, the postal carrier leapt into action and started unloading packages from the back as the flames spread from the engine to the rest of the truck. A passerby ran to help get the packages out. The Wake Forest Fire Department responded and extinguished the fire.

“If it wasn’t for her quick thinking to pull right over and remove the parcels, it could’ve been tough. Somebody did save Christmas. You give all the credit to that postal carrier,” said Wake Forest Fire Department Chief Ed Barrett.

Many of the dozens of packages, most of which were from Amazon, were saved.

In a statement, Amazon said, “We appreciate the efforts of all those involved and are grateful that everyone is safe. We will be donating to the local fire department and thank everyone for their quick efforts on this.”

The postal carrier, who was not identified, suffered no injuries.

2. QR CODES FOR SENIOR CITIZENS

A new program is rolling out in Iruma, Japan, to help out the city’s many elderly residents. Senior citizens with dementia can get a small sticker with a QR code attached to a fingernail. The waterproof sticker lasts about two weeks. If a person with a sticker becomes lost, police can scan the code and be connected to a registry with information about the person, who will then be taken home. The service, provided free by a tech company, is another of many innovations to aid the elderly in Japan. The country is expecting 40 percent of its population to be senior citizens by 2060.

3. BUTT-DIAL LEADS TO ARREST

Two men in Danville, Kentucky, were arrested Saturday after one of them accidentally dialed 911. The emergency dispatch operator heard Robert Bourne and David Grigsby discussing places they might rob, including the local restaurant Brothers BBQ. Dispatch called Danville police chief Tony Gray, who just happened to be dining at Brothers BBQ at the time. Meanwhile, emergency services determined that the call was coming from the restaurant’s parking lot. Gray found the two men sitting in their vehicle. They were charged with disorderly conduct and having an open container of alcohol in the car.

4. WARNING ISSUED OVER CAR-LICKING MOOSE

Please be advised of a moose warning for the Chester Lake and Burstall Pass Parking Lots and Area. More info @ https://t.co/iQCKu39cMb pic.twitter.com/ew8qLWmE7N

— Alberta Parks (@Albertaparks) December 13, 2016

The government of Alberta has issued a warning to those visiting Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, west of Calgary, about moose that have been coming to parking lots to lick salt off of cars. People are advised to use their car horns to frighten the moose away, not to push the animal away from their vehicle—and they should never get between a moose and her calf.

5. NEW LONGEST NON-STOP FLIGHT

Qantas airlines has announced a new flight beginning in 2018 that will break the record for the longest commercial non-stop flight in the world. Their new non-stop service between Perth and London will take 17.5 hours to complete the trip. That’s a distance of 8989 miles. While that may sound horrific to frequent flyers, it beats taking multiple flights with layovers for those who need to go from England to Australia.

I guess it’s all better than the travel times of the 1930s. Back in 1938 a trip from London to Brisbane, Australia (the longest on offer at the time) took 11 days and had over two dozen scheduled stops.

Tickets will go on sale in April of 2017, but no price has yet been announced.

6. BANK ROBBER LEFT PLENTY OF EVIDENCE

A man who walked into a bank in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and presented a robbery note to the teller left with several thousand dollars, but police were able to catch up with him. The man had taken a cab to and from the robbery—and he left a bag with his name on it, containing $2700, in the car. He also left behind the sweatshirt he had been wearing, as identified by the teller; his wallet, which contained his ID; and discharge papers from a rehab center, a piece of which had been torn off to write the note he gave to the teller. Police arrested 25-year-old Jamal Goodwin of Philadelphia, who was found with heroin, cocaine, and about $1000 on him.

Ready or not, the holidays are here, and from now until New Year’s your ears will be filled with the glorious “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” “Silent Night,” and “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” tunes. To see how the rest of the world pa-rum-pum-pum-pums, tune into one of these global holiday carols for a toe-tapping, enjoyable change of pace.

1. “PASKO NA NAMAN” // PHILIPPINES

This popular Filipino Christmas sing-a-long, translated as “It’s Christmas once again,” shares the same sentiment we all have this time of year: How the heck are we already back here?

“It’s Christmas again
How fast time flies
Christmases past
Seem just like yesterday”

2. “PŮJDEM SPOLU DO BETLÉMA” // CZECH REPUBLIC

The Czech Republic’s holiday anthem—”Půjdem spolu do Betléma”—will have all the children up and dancing right from the beginning. The lyrics start out with a call to visit Bethlehem, before the narrator entirely shifts gears, ordering members of the band to get movin’ with their instruments.

“And you Johnny, let your pipe sound,
Dudli, tudli, dudli, da!

Start, oh, Jimmy, on your bagpipe,
Dudaj, dudaj, dudaj, da!

And you Nicol on the violin,
Hudli, tydli, hudli, da!

And you Lawrence, let your bass play,
Rumrum, rumrum, rumrum, da!”

3. “EN ETSI VALTAA LOISTOA” // FINLAND

As one of Finland’s most popular holiday songs, “En Etsi Valtaa Loistoa”—translated, “Give me no splendor, gold, or pomp”—reminds listeners that Christmas goes well beyond material desires. The song was composed by the famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius in 1904, and remains much more of a church-type hymn than lighthearted carol.

4. “AISIM MERGOS, AISIM BERNAI KALĖDA” // LITHUANIA

This Lithuanian carol will put the party back in your holidays. Translated as “Let’s go girls, let’s go guys,” this song is all about living the good life. It tells the age-old tale of strong workers, chasing dogs, drinking booze, and … drinking more booze. We’ll toast to that.

“Those of you who are quick to shew away the dogs
Those of you who are strong to carry the sacks
Those of you who are brave to ask for bread
The lassies are drinking sweet mead
The women are drinking beer
The men are drinking spirits.”

5. “BETHLEHEM’S STJÄRNA” // SWEDEN

Translated as “The Star of Bethlehem,” this popular Swedish carol is about—you guessed it—that oh-so-famous holiday star. The peaceful song paints a beautiful picture of Christmas night in Bethlehem, with nods to nature and the night sky along the way.

“Night (reigns) over the Land of Juda, and (likewise) over Zion.
At the western horizon, Orion is dying down.
The tired shepherd who sleeps; the peacefully slumbering child:
wake up to a wondrous chorus of voices,
(and) behold a gloriously bright star in the East.”

6. “LES ANGES DANS NOS CAMPAGNES” // FRANCE

We’ve all heard—and likely sung—”Angels We Have Heard On High,” but did you know this holiday playlist staple actually originated in France? There’s something mesmerizing (or shall we say glooorious) about this carol sung in French.

7. “AMEZALIWA” // EAST AFRICA

This beautiful African hymn, sung in Kiswahili, celebrates the birth of Jesus with an uplifting, traditional rhythm. While it originated in East Africa, choirs across the world perform this song around the holidays—tribal drum, kangas, and all.

8. “В лесу родилась ёлочка” // RUSSIA

“The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree” is an agnostic, popular Russian carol that explains how the forest helps its fir tree prepare for Christmas. The lyrics, focused entirely on this tree and its surrounding wilderness, will strike a particular chord with nature lovers who spend the majority of their holidays outdoors.

“The forest raised a Christmas tree,
”Twas silent and serene
In winter and in summer
It was slender and so green
…
Some sleigh bells rang throughout the woods,
The snow was crisp and clean,
A horsey brought a forester
To hew that tree so green.”

9. “O TANNENBAUM” // GERMANY

“O Tannenbaum,” which we now associate with “O Christmas Tree,” actually got its start in 1824 as a German folk song about the fir tree. As the Christmas tree tradition grew, “O Tannenbaum” became associated with the holiday season, and morphed from a lively tune into the Christmas carol Germans (and the rest of us) know and love today.

10. “MI BURRITO SABANERO” // VENEZUELA

Sure, “Feliz Navidad” may have the popular vote when it comes to Spanish-language Christmas carols, but “Mi Burrito Sabanero” gives the classic song a run for its money. While it’s not a Christmas song about a burrito (although we’d be down for that, too), “Mi Burrito Sabanero” wins for cute factor because it’s almost entirely about a donkey. Yes, a donkey—and this little donkey and its owner are on their way to Bethlehem. Can we join?

“With my little donkey I go singing,
my little donkey goes trotting
With my little donkey I go singing,
my little donkey goes trotting
If they see me, if they see me
I’m on my way to Bethlehem.”

11. “STICKY BEAK THE KIWI” // NEW ZEALAND

OK, if a donkey didn’t have enough cute factor for you, we’ll do you one better. “Sticky Beak the Kiwi” is a 1960s holiday carol highlighting how—when Santa arrives in New Zealand—this “bird from down under” will take charge of the sleigh. Oh and there’s mention of a platypus. And a kangaroo. And a wallaby. Yeah, Sticky Beak definitely takes the cake for cutest Christmas carol at the children’s holiday concert.

“Lots of toys for girls and boys load the Christmas sleigh
He will take the starlight trail along the Milky Way.
Hear the laughing children as they shout aloud with glee:
‘Sticky Beak, Sticky Beak, be sure to call on me.’

Now every little kiwi, and every kangaroo, too,
The wallaby, the weka, and the platypus and emu,
Have made themselves a Christmas tree with stars and shining bright,
So Sticky Beak will see the way to guide the sleigh tonight.”