It’s hard to write a modern-day Christmas classic. The Waitresses and the Vandals managed it in decades past, but since then, the presents under the tree have been sparse. Heck, Sufjan Stevens has been working at writing one for the better part of the past ten years, with nothing to show for it but a shelfload of EPs. So it was with surprise and not a little bit of glee last year that we first encountered Justin Beiber’s “Drummer Boy,” the standout track of the Bieb’s 2011 Christmas album and quite possibly the best contemporary Christmas song ever recorded.
And now, barely 13 months after its release, the song has been given the official Christmas Classic stamp of approval, as educators around the world are including it in their holiday pageants, in what we know will be the first of many adorable elementary-school performances to come. One performance even got a show of support from the papa bear himself:
And we can’t deny: Jaydendoes kill it. But even better, for our money, is the kid on the right of the frame. Check the way he rocks the groove during the sunglasses part. Serious Big Man on Campus potential there.
