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Look out, Mariah! The Elf on the Shelf is coming for your Christmas music crown.
Below, Billboard Family is debuting “The Elves Went Over the Mountain,” the first music video from The Elf on the Shelf preschool YouTube series Scout Elf Squad, which finds Frostina, Shiver, Snowdrop and Blizzard making their way over the snowy hills to “see what they can see.” The brand-new song, out now, is part of the upcoming 10-track Scout Elf Squad: Sing & Play Nursery Rhymes album, which arrives Nov. 21.
“We’ve seen a wonderful surge in families wanting content created for our youngest fans—some as young as 2—whose parents are eager to share the Scout Elf they grew up with as part of their own holiday traditions,” Chanda A. Bell, The Lumistella Company’s co-founder and co-CEO (and Santa’s Chief Storyteller) tells Billboard Family of the pivot to music. “As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we’re delighted to introduce 10 new songs and a new pilot season of The Elf on the Shelf Scout Elf Squad on YouTube for fans of all ages to enjoy.”
Bell co-wrote the 2005 children’s book The Elf on the Shelf with her mother, Carol Aebersold, and helped bring their family’s annual Christmas tradition to a worldwide audience. Now, to celebrate two decades of the holiday staple, The Elf on the Shelf “Santaverse” is expanding to include the YouTube series and new music. According to a description of Scout Elf Squad, which arrives Nov. 24 on YouTube, “Four Scout Elves – Frostina, Shiver, Snowdrop and Blizzard – join forces for play and adventure after Scout Elf School each day! When they share the power of teamwork, imagination and their magical skills, they create a North Pole Power-up, enabling the squad to fix, help and save the day as they play along with other North Pole characters.”
As for the new music, Bell tells Billboard Family: “Christmas and music go hand-in-hand, and we’re excited for our merry band of The Elf on the Shelf Scout Elf Squad members, featured heroically in our new preschool show, to make the season a little brighter with these 10 delightful new songs. We hope they will inspire families and bring joy during this most wonderful time of the year.”
The full track list for The Elf on the Shelf Scout Elf Squad: Sing & Play Nursery Rhymes, out Nov. 21, is below:
“The Elves Went Over the Mountain”“One, Two, Cheers to You”“Adventure Time”“Santa’s Sleigh”“Three Elf Pets”“Teamwork Makes The Dream Work”“Frost Pips Lullaby”“Frosty, Fluffy Snow Cones”“Oopsie, Yeti, Did You Burp?”“North Pole Birthday Boogie”
Trending on Billboard Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart returns for the 2025 season, with familiar favorites among the top 10 of the Nov. 1-dated list, including Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, Michael Bublé’s Christmas and Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas (at Nos. 2, 3 and 5, respectively). Leading the tally is the Christmas-meets-Halloween […]
As of sundown on Wednesday (Dec. 25), Hanukkah 2024 was in full swing — bringing with it eight straight days of family, prayers, candle-lighting and, yes, music. The canon of songs associated with the holiday is already vast and layered, from classic odes such as “Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah” and “I Have a Little Dreidel” to […]
Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner‘s daughter, Stormi Webster, joined her father to lend a helping hand at his foundation’s annual holiday charity event.
On Saturday (Dec. 21), the superstar rapper’s Cactus Jack Foundation hosted the fifth annual Winter Wonderland Park toy and food drive in Houston, where Scott grew up.
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Held at Texas Southern University, a historically Black institution, the event saw Scott, 33, and his 6-year-old daughter, Stormi — who wore an adorable red Santa hat and cozy white coat — handing out presents to families ahead of Christmas. Scott also brought along his siblings and parents to support the cause.
Stormi made a special appearance in a video montage shared by the Cactus Jack Foundation on Instagram on Monday (Dec. 23). “The Cactus Jack Foundation’s 5th Annual Winter Wonderland Toy & Food Drive served over 1,000 Houston residents on the Texas Southern University campus for the first time in honor of the Cactus Jack Waymon Webster HBCU Scholarship Program, launched in 2019,” the caption read.
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Scott teamed up with the Houston Food Bank to distribute more than 2,000 toys and bikes, People reports. The giveaway also included 200 pairs of Nike Cactus Jack sneakers, along with merchandise from the Houston Astros, Fanatics, Space Village, and more. Additionally, 1,000 bags of food were provided to local families in need.
The event, which featured a winter wonderland-themed park, also included a surprise appearance by Santa Claus, as well rapper Don Toliver and Love Island USA star Serena Page.
Earlier this year, Scott’s Cactus Jack Foundation organized an emergency relief drive in Missouri City, Texas, to support those affected by the devastation of Hurricane Beryl. In partnership with the Houston Food Bank, the foundation provided water, ice, food and other essential supplies to residents in Texas communities hit hard by the storm. The deadly storm caused severe flooding and widespread power outages, impacting more than three million Texans.
‘Tis the season to be a little petty. Kelly Clarkson shared her official album visualizer for her 2021 holiday project, When Christmas Comes Around… Again on Wednesday (Dec. 18), and the cozy fireplace display in the clip features a lineup for four stockings. Clarkson and her two children, River Rose and Remington Alexander, all have […]
The holidays are here, which means Christmas music has fully infiltrated the charts, radio and mall speakers alike. Most of that music precedes this year, from traditional classics sung by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and Brenda Lee to contemporary hits from Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson and Michael Bublé — all names that regularly appear […]
Jennifer Hudson is no stranger to covering songs and making them her own, after getting her start on American Idol and continuing through her Emmy-nominated daytime talk show. So when she started work on her first-ever holiday album, The Gift of Love, Hudson understood the assignment: She would need to Jennifer-ize some of the most beloved Christmas classics of all time.
“Any time I do a classic — which I get to do a lot — I always want to stay true to the base but then allow space for my artistry to come through, which made making this album the most fun I have ever had recording an album,” the EGOT winner tells Katie & Keith on our special Christmas episode of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below). “Whether it’s me lyrically or musically, my expression is there in some form, in my interpretation. … So it was fun to reimagine the classics, Jennifer Hudson-style. I call it ‘Jennifer-izing’ them.”
How did she choose which holiday hallmarks to tackle? “I picked what was most personal to me. Like ‘The Christmas Song,’ for instance, my grandmother used to love that song, so I recall hearing that as a little girl throughout each and every holiday of her playing that song — Nat King Cole with the satin voice — so that made me want to pay tribute to her in that way,” Hudson says. “Or ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain,’ I grew up singing that in church during the holiday season and ‘Carol of the Bells’ in high school. ‘Hallelujah,’ that’s my favorite song; that’s the heart of the album. And ‘O Holy Night’ is my favorite Christmas song.”
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She was also conscious of bringing a diversity of sounds, styles, genres and tempos to the project, because, according to Hudson: “There are different Christmases. Some years it’s a winter wonderland Christmas, it’s a big-band Christmas, it’s a North Pole Christmas with the reds and the greens and the candy canes for the kids, a ‘Jingle Bells’ type of Christmas. It can change through each year — which is why my album has a lot of variety in it, because it’s like: Is your Christmas the icicle Christmas? Is it a green Christmas? Is it a white Christmas? What type of Christmas do you want, baby?”
Hudson spoke with Katie & Keith from the set of The Jennifer Hudson Show, and she said it was her tightknit work family that was the original “inspiration towards why the time is now to do a holiday album. Our [show] theme is ‘Choose Joy.’ And on the Christmas album is the song ‘Let There Be Joy.’ So that’s what it’s all about, and that’s what I love to do. And the best gift and the best way I know to do it is through music. And it’s just a blessing to come in here every day and work with such beautiful people. And it’s like a party every day. We call it The Happy Place.”
The 15-song project also includes a half-dozen originals, all co-written by Hudson. Below, J-Hud breaks down the messages behind four of those brand-new holiday songs.
“Santa for Someone”
“My assistant inspired it because he he’s a scrooge. [Laughs] And I was like, ‘What is it about the holidays you don’t like?’ He’s like, ‘Getting gifts for everybody and trying to figure it out.’ So that’s where ‘Santa for Someone’ came from. Because we all can get frustrated looking for those gifts. Will we get it in enough time? Will we get them what they want? … I can’t think of too many men, like uncles and brothers, that are listening to ‘Jingle Bells,’ so how about I give them something to bop to throughout the holiday season? So I was trying to think of everyone, as we do during the holidays.”
“Find the Love”
“It meets the times that we’re in, and I feel like it’s a song that could be played throughout the year. … We’re in such a difficult time as a people, and it’s like, what unifies us? Music. We’re all human. We all have to go through a season no matter what — no matter if it’s the holiday season or life has seasons in itself. But that one thing that can bring us together on one accord is music, and that’s why the album is called The Gift of Love. And a song like ‘Find the Love’ is on there because it doesn’t just sit within the holiday season; it’s something you can carry throughout your life, and it can speak to you and it can speak to the times.”
“Make It to Christmas”
“‘Make It to Christmas’ is my son’s favorite song. It speaks to like, we all work all year, right? But we are waiting to get to the end of that tunnel, where the lights are red and green, to that holiday season, where we can go home at that one time of year and enjoy each other and our families.”
“Go Tell It on the Mountain”
“‘Go Tell It on the Mountain’ is for the mourners, those who may have lost. It’s kind of like a remake of that song, but from a personal perspective.”
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Also on the podcast, we’ve got chart news on how Taylor Swift spends a 17th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with The Tortured Poets Department; how Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” nets a 16th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, tying “One Sweet Day” as her song with the most weeks atop the list; and how Sabrina Carpenter’s “Fruitcake” flies into the top 10 for the first time on the Billboard 200 with the single-largest sales week in the modern era for a holiday album on vinyl. Plus, Madonna announced new music with her longtime collaborator Stuart Price coming next year, and we’ll hear from the Queen of Pop’s biggest fan, Keith, about why this is especially exciting news.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard’s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard’s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
GloRilla and Kehlani‘s “Xmas Time” has topped this week’s new music poll that features artists in various genres of music. The holiday collaboration was crowned the favorite new music release by fans in a poll published Friday (Dec. 13) on Billboard. “Xmas Time” garnered nearly 55% of the vote, edging out new music from Stray […]
‘Tis the season for new holiday hits! On the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are taking their annual sleigh ride through a half-dozen Christmas songs impacting the Billboard charts this year. For 2024, we’re taking a look at Jimmy Fallon and Jonas Brothers’ “Holiday”; Cher’s “DJ Play a Christmas Song” remix with […]
BTS‘ V and the late Bing Crosby‘s duet version of “White Christmas” has topped this week’s new music poll, which highlights releases from artists across a variety of genres.
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Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Dec. 6) on Billboard, naming the new rendition of the holiday classic their favorite new music release of the past week.
“White Christmas” secured nearly 51% of the vote, outpacing new releases from ROSÉ (rosie), TWICE (Strategy), Bad Bunny (“EL CLÚB”), Khalid and Normani (“Personal”), and more.
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In the festive collaboration, V and Crosby trade lines, harmonizing on the iconic lyrics: “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas/ With every Christmas card I write/ May your days be merry and bright/ And may all your Christmases be white.”
“I’m so grateful to have had the chance to be featured in a song with my all-time favorite jazz artist, Bing Crosby,” V previously said of the track in a statement. “I grew up listening to his song ‘It’s Been a Long, Long Time’ countless times a day, and I feel incredibly fortunate and honored to have sung along on ‘White Christmas’ with the voice of someone I consider an idol.”
“Being a huge fan of his, I sang with the utmost sincerity and admiration for him,” continued the superstar, who previously covered “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” “I hope many people enjoy it as much as I enjoyed singing it. Lastly, I wish a lovely holiday season to everyone listening to the song.”
Crosby passed away in 1977. His daughter, Mary Crosby, expressed her excitement about her father’s new posthumous collaboration, saying, “As a family, we are thrilled to have V and Dad singing together on this ultimate Christmas song. Their voices blend beautifully, capturing the holiday spirit in the best possible way.”
The Christmas classic, written by Irving Berlin in just 18 minutes, remains the best-selling song of all time, with over 50 million copies sold worldwide, according to Guinness World Records. “White Christmas” also won the Oscar for best original song in the 1942 musical Holiday Inn and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.
Trailing closely behind V and Crosby in this week’s poll is BLACKPINK’s ROSÉ, whose debut solo album, rosie, garnered almost 48% of the vote. The 12 tracks on the set include the hit single “APT.” with Bruno Mars, which has held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Global 200 for six consecutive weeks, as well as “Number One Girl.”
Check out the full results of this week’s poll below and head to Billboard‘s Friday Music Guide for more must-hear releases.
