☝️ Key Points
- The protagonist is sad and lonely because her loved one is not with her during the Christmas season.
- Her Christmas joy is clouded by her loneliness and sadness.
- She pleads for her lost love to come back at Christmas or, at the latest, by New Year's.
- Her plea suggests that her sadness and pain will end when her love returns.
- The hope of being reunited with her love and the happiness associated with it is expressed in the song's chorus.
Interpretation
The lyrics of the song "Please Come Home For Christmas" by
Alicia Keys describe the longing and sadness of the protagonist during the Christmas season because she is alone. Her loved one is not with her and it makes her sad ("My baby is gone and I have no friends"). She feels that Christmas is not the same if she is not with the person she loves ("Oh, what a Christmas to have the blues").
She urgently pleads for her love to come home ("Please, please come home for Christmas"), not only for Christmas but also for New Year's night ("If not for Christmas, then by New Year's night"). It is a direct appeal to her lost love to come back and put an end to her heartache and sadness ("There'll be no sorrow, No grief and no pain").
The chorus of the song expresses her hope that when her love comes home, she will be happy again ("And I'll be happy (Happy), Happy once again"). Overall, the song is about the desire to spend holidays with loved ones and the sadness that arises when those people are not there.