Chris Butler, the songwriter behind the Waitresses' 1981 holiday favorite "Christmas Wrapping," is pushing back against social media critics who say Olivia Rodrigo's first Christmas single sounds too much like his song. The two tracks share a vibe, the 77-year-old wrote, but there is no plagiarism.
The vibe is there, but no plagiarism — and this is from the guy who wrote ‘CW.
Chris Butler, writer of "Christmas Wrapping"
Posting on Facebook after "Take Me Home (4 Christmas)" arrived late Thursday night, Butler called the song great and predicted a hit. He suggested it could even compete in the UK's annual race for the Christmas No. 1.
Butler also disclosed that Rodrigo had approached him personally about two months before the release, offering him an early listen.
An email that seemed fake
He said the message, full of praise for the Waitresses, struck him as too unlikely to be real. He had never heard of Rodrigo, so he researched her career before writing back that he would be honored to hear the song if the note was genuine.
In that reply, Butler complimented her arrangements, her demand to be recognized as a songwriter, the women in her band and her decision to retain ownership of her masters when she signed her record deal.
Rodrigo then invited Butler and a companion he identified as Beth to her Daisy Chain festival in Los Angeles, but the notice was too short. After a label representative repeatedly told him the singer wanted to meet, the pair caught her concert in Columbus and met her afterward.
The song and its lineage
Rodrigo wrote the new track with longtime collaborators Dan Nigro and Amy Allen. It centers on the nerves of meeting a partner's extended family at their home, and its video casts Saturday Night Live's Ben Marshall as her boyfriend and Cynthia Nixon as his mother.
Butler wrote "Christmas Wrapping" alone for the new wave band, and frontwoman Patty Donahue sang it; she died of lung cancer in 1996. The song spent years as a cult favorite before becoming a fixture on holiday playlists alongside bigger hits from the era such as Wham!'s "Last Christmas."
The single follows Rodrigo's "Expectations" remix with tourmate Chappell Roan, whose video featured David Byrne. It also lands while she is on the Unraveled Tour supporting her 2026 album.
Earlier this year, Rodrigo started a benefit festival, Daisy Chain Fields, which raised $20 million for groups including Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
