Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Take Me Home (4 Christmas)’ Effusively Endorsed by Writer of the Waitresses’ ‘Christmas Wrapping,’ Who Praises Her for Picking Up the ‘Vibe’ 45 Years Later

Nov 6, 2026 3:34pm PT Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Take Me Home (4 Christmas)’ Effusively Endorsed by Writer of the Waitresses’ ‘Christmas Wrapping,’ Who Praises Her for Picking Up the ‘Vibe’ 45 Years Later

By Chris Willman

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Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

ChrisWillman

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See All Add us as a Google Preferred Source Lizzie Klein (Rodrigo); Getty (Waitresses)

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Olivia Rodrigo‘s first holiday single, “Take Me Home (4 Christmas),” earned plenty of plaudits upon coming out of the gate late Thursday night — none greater than that offered by Chris Butler, the writer of the Waitresses‘ classic 1981 song “Christmas Wrapping,” who said he’d been offered a sneak peek two months ago by Rodrigo.

The new tune is a Christmas rock banger, the likes of which are rarely heard nowadays. While there is no notable compositional or lyrically similarity between “Take Me Home” and “Christmas Wrapping,” the new song has much the same loose, spry and irreverently romantic spirit about it, and some fans of Christmas music were quick to sense Rodrigo’s song being in the spiritual lineage of the Waitresses’, if nothing else. Butler stepped up to say he was happy to pass on the torch, and in fact, had done so long before anyone in the general public was aware of the track.

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