"Peppermint Winter" is a song by American synthpop act Owl City

Owl City

Owl City is an American electronica musical project by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young formed in 2007 in Owatonna, Minnesota. Young created the project while experimenting with music in his parents' basement...

. The song was released on November 22, 2010 as a promotional single

Promotional recording

A promotional recording, or promo, is an audio or video recording distributed for free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available...

, and also serves as a Christmas single. It was first made available on November 22, 2010.

Meaning

Adam Young of Owl City wrote on Last.fm

Last.fm

Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....

 that it is about his "...own participation in snowball fights and sidewalk shoveling. Sleigh rides, present-giving and receiving and of course, the ingestion of marvelous Yuletide nutrition (or lack thereof), namely sugar cookies, hot chocolate and peppermint candy canes..."

Composition

"Peppermint Winter" is a light, waltz-like song that incorporates synth beats and vocals. The beat is mainly formed by jingle bells and occasional heavy drums. Piano is often featured as well, among some orchestrations, such as wooden string instruments and some woodwinds. The song is in 3/4 time at approximately 150 beats per minute. It is written in C Major with a key change

Modulation (music)

In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...

 at the end to D Major. Adam's range in the song spans from the notes Eʒ to A5.

Critical reception

"Peppermint Winter" received mixed reviews. The Idolator blog gave the song negative review, writing in its review of the song: "Owl City's frontman Adam Young has released his own contribution to the cornucopia of Christmas pop songs flooding this season, "Peppermint Winter", and the saccharine love song to snowballs and sleigh rides gives us the same feeling we get when we eat too many candy canes in one sitting. Somebody get Owl City's prankster buddy Ke$ha

Kesha

Kesha village is a small village nestled in the mountains of Yongshun County, northwestern Hunan province, China, located at latitude 29 05' 50", longitude 109 57' 9". The name is pronounced in Standard Chinese. The official language is Manderin Chinese....

 on the remix of this track to pour some much needed Schnapps all over it." However, the Napster

Napster

Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...

blog gave the song a more positive review, writing that the song "is cut from the same cloth" as his previous song "Fireflies", and calling the song "light and sugary like the candy canes on a Christmas tree". The review continues stating that while the song "might not become a classic like "Christmas Wrapping

Christmas Wrapping

"Christmas Wrapping" is a Christmas song written by Chris Butler and recorded in 1981 by The Waitresses, featuring vocals by Patty Donahue. It was first released in 1981 on the compilation album A Christmas Record on ZE Records. The group also included the track on their 1982 EP I Could Rule the...

" from The Waitresses

The Waitresses

The Waitresses were an experimental new wave band from Akron, Ohio. The group was led by guitarist/songwriter Chris Butler with lead vocals performed by Patty Donahue.-Career:...

", "who can really say no to just one more Christmas song?"

Charts

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Chart (2011)	Peak position