Olivia Rodrigo has released her first Christmas song, « Take Me Home (4 Christmas) », accompanied by a festive music video that carries the track's storyline on screen. The single arrives as the race for the UK Christmas number one heats up, and it is already drawing attention for a deliberate musical nod to a much older holiday hit.
The song's lyrics see Rodrigo asking her boyfriend to meet her parents over the holidays, a premise the video follows closely. Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon appears in the clip, while Ben Marshall plays Rodrigo's boyfriend. The video gives the song a narrative shape, turning a seasonal request into a small domestic story.
Listeners quickly noticed that the track resembles The Waitresses' 1981 hit « Christmas Wrapping ». Chris Butler, who wrote that song, has confirmed the borrowing was intentional. Rodrigo contacted Butler to clear the use of his material, and his first reaction was to suspect the email was a prank. After looking into her career, he came to admire her music and publicly shared the exchange on Facebook.
Butler has since accepted an invitation to hear the new song, and he has predicted it will be a success in the United Kingdom. His willingness to back the release publicly gives the borrowing a cooperative rather than contentious footing, and it highlights how holiday standards are often revisited by newer artists.
The single was written last summer by Dan Nigro and Amy Allen. Nigro is a longtime collaborator of Rodrigo, while Allen has written for Harry Styles and Sabrina Carpenter, placing the track within a circle of established pop songwriting.
The release lands in a crowded seasonal field. Sam Fender has covered The Rolling Stones for a John Lewis advertising campaign, and CMAT and Elton John have released a countrified version of « Step Into Christmas ». Kate Nash's « Christmas Eve » tells a story set around her grandparents in Dublin. Older favourites remain strong as well: Wham's « Last Christmas » was already in the UK Spotify top 10 earlier this year, as was Mariah Carey's « All I Want for Christmas Is You ». Wham held the number one spot in 2023 and 2024, and 2026 marks ten years since George Michael's death.
Whether Rodrigo's single will reach the UK Christmas number one remains an open question. The competition is strong, with both new releases and long-established seasonal songs vying for chart position as the holiday approaches.