Christmas Tree Farm by Taylor Swift // 5 Year Anniversary Song Review + limited edition picture disc vinyl
"In my heart is a Christmas tree farm"
"Christmas Tree Farm" was inspired by Taylor Swift's experience growing up on an actual Christmas tree farm in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. As a fellow Pennsylvania girl, I always loved the way she was able to so beautifully capture the energy of this specific setting and the warmth she continues to hold from that time in her life. Growing up in that environment obviously sparked her lifelong love of Christmas and was able to channel all of those special times with her family into this song.
Alongside the release of the song in 2019 Taylor wrote, "I actually did grow up on a Christmas tree farm. In a gingerbread house, deep within the yummy gummy gumdrop forest. Where, funnily enough, this song is their national anthem." Taylor was able to encapsulate so much of the magic and whimsy of the season into this song.
The opening verse of the song starts off a slow piano ballad, just before it picks up into a cheery classic Christmas tune. She sings, "My winter nights are taken up by static, stress and holiday shopping traffic, but I close my eyes and I'm somewhere else, just like magic".
She writes from the perspective of feeling low and overwhelmed around the holidays but still holds the happy memories of her childhood and spirit of the holiday season in her heart. "In my heart is a Christmas tree farm, where the people would come to dance under sparkling lights," she continues to sing in the first verse. This song is so sweet and nostalgic, as she wishes she could close her eyes and be transported back to a simpler time in her childhood home with her family. She also sings about finding her soulmate who feels like home to her in the same way her home in Pennsylvania felt when she was young. "Just bein' in your arms takes me back to that little farm, where every wish comes true," Taylor sings in the chorus.
This song was written just a few months after Lover was released in 2019, which featured some of Taylor's sweetest and most romantic love songs ever. So much of the pure love and blissful joy that made up such a big part of that record carries through into "Christmas Tree Farm" too. It is such a positive and uplifting song, as so much of her music from that chapter of her life was.
The only official way this song was ever released on a physical format is this 12" picture disc single. It was first released exclusively for pre-order on Taylor's website in late 2020 alongside the one-year anniversary of it's release. It restocked a few times, but there was never another wide scale repress of it, making it one of the rarest pieces in my Taylor Swift record collection.
Side A of the vinyl features the standard version of the song, pressed with a cute childhood photo of Taylor outside in the snow on her Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania on the vinyl. Side B features a special live performance of "Christmas Tree Farm" at Z100's Jingle Ball in New York City, recorded on her birthday in 2019. I believe this is one of the only live performances she ever did for this song too, which makes it even more special. This side of the disc features a cross-stitched design of the song's title and her name, which is so cute and really captures the themes of the song.
In 2019, the release of "Christmas Tree Farm" came at the end of a massive year for Taylor following the release of her seventh album Lover. That album really ushered in a new era for Taylor in many ways, which has become especially clear when looking retrospectively at the past five years of her career.
As shown in a behind-the-scenes video Taylor posted about the creation of the song, she started writing it on December 1, 2019 and approached Jimmy Napes to produce it with the intention of releasing it right away. Within 48 hours, the entire song was fully completed and released days later on December 5.
Having this very quick turnaround from creation to being released is something Taylor has implemented with her music ever since. Unbeknownst at the time, Folklore was to be released only about seven months later and Evermore only a few months after that. Similarly to this song, both of those albums were also made very quickly and released right away. At this time, she removed herself from the mindset that she, or her label, or whoever else, would have to deem the perfect time to put out any music. This was the beginning of a major shift in how quickly and spontaneously she has been releasing her work ever since. Looking back at the timeline of how fast she has been moving ever since Lover was released in 2019 is nothing short of remarkable. In the past five years, she released basically ten different albums, counting her Taylor's Version re-recordings and the double Tortured Poets album. The capacity at which she is able to constantly be writing and making music is truly so inspiring to see. Her passion for what she does really shines through in all of her music, which sets her apart from so many.
Even though it was just a cute one-off holiday single, the release of "Christmas Tree Farm" was also an indicator of what was to come over the next few years and the mindset she continues to hold surrounding the pace at which she puts out her music.
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