This Year

by Christina Aguilera

You'll be my New Year's day, my Valentine

I ain't gonna stop until I make you mine

You'll be my April Fool, my Mardi Gras

The music on my tounge, when I sing fa la la

You'll be my flower child, in the month of May

My sunny summer lover on my holiday

You'll be my autumn leaves, my Halloween

The winter snow and everything that's in between

This year I'm gonna take you home

This year I don't wanna be alone

This year, this Christmas, together

And the minutes they pass, and the hours the fly

This year, this Christmas, forever

And the weeks and the months go rushing by

This year we have learned how to live

How to forget, and how to forgive without fear

Just love, this Christmas, this year

You'll be my spring ahead, my fall behind

The shimmy in my hips, oh when I bump and grind

You'll be my Santa boy, all dressed in red

And ride that little reindeer all through my head

Round and round

Round and round

Here we go

This year I'm gonna take you home

This year I don't wanna be alone

This year, this Christmas, together

And the minutes they pass, and the hours the fly

This year, this Christmas, forever

And the weeks and the months go rushing by

This year we have learned how to live

How to forget and how to forgive without fear

Just love, this Christmas, this year

Day by day, I'm gonna get my way

This year I pray for you

Seasons turn, I've got a lot to learn

And I thank God for you

This year I'm gonna take you home

This year I don't wanna be alone

This year, this Christmas, together

And the minutes they pass, and the hours they fly

This year, this Christmas, forever

And the weeks and the months go rushing by

This year we have learned how to live

How to forget and to forgive without fear

Just love, this Christmas, this year

Interpretations

MyBesh.com Curated

User Interpretation

# "This Year" by Christina Aguilera: A Celebration of Love Through Time

Christina Aguilera's "This Year" presents a vibrant tapestry of desire, commitment, and seasonal romance that transcends the typical holiday song formula. Rather than simply celebrating Christmas as an isolated event, Aguilera crafts a narrative that weaves love through the entire calendar, creating a declaration of devotion that spans all seasons. The core message speaks to longing for completeness—the determination to transform a relationship from something seasonal or temporary into something lasting and permanent. The repeated refrain "This year I'm gonna take you home / This year I don't wanna be alone" reveals not just holiday loneliness but a deeper human desire for sustained connection.

The emotional landscape of "This Year" is remarkably textured, blending playful desire with profound commitment. There's an undercurrent of yearning in lines like "I ain't gonna stop until I make you mine," balanced with the joy and celebration found in seasonal references. What makes the song emotionally complex is how it balances sensuality ("The shimmy in my hips, oh when I bump and grind") with tenderness and vulnerability. The emotional journey culminates in the bridge's more contemplative tone, where the singer acknowledges personal growth: "This year we have learned how to live / How to forget, and how to forgive without fear." This transformation suggests that true love requires emotional maturity and the capacity to move beyond past hurts.

The song's most striking literary device is its extended calendar metaphor, where the beloved becomes personified as every significant date and season throughout the year. This creates a comprehensive symbolic framework where the person isn't just loved during festive moments but becomes the embodiment of time itself. When Aguilera sings "You'll be my autumn leaves, my Halloween / The winter snow and everything that's in between," she elevates the relationship beyond mere romance into something that encompasses all experiences—both the celebrated holidays and the ordinary moments "in between." This clever device suggests that true love doesn't just exist during special occasions but becomes the framework through which we experience the passage of time itself.

The song resonates on a cultural level by addressing the universal experience of holiday loneliness while simultaneously rejecting it. Many holiday songs either celebrate togetherness or lament separation, but "This Year" takes a more empowered stance—it's about actively changing one's circumstances rather than accepting them. The declaration "This year I'm gonna take you home" reflects agency and determination. Additionally, the song subtly challenges the commercialized view of relationships by expanding beyond Valentine's Day and Christmas to include less commercially exploited occasions like "spring ahead, fall behind," suggesting that authentic connection transcends consumer-driven holidays.

What makes "This Year" particularly compelling is its cyclical nature, mirroring how we experience time itself. The repetitive "Round and round" section emphasizes this circularity, while the song's structure—moving through the calendar year before returning to Christmas—creates a complete cycle. This reflects how relationships, like years, don't simply progress linearly but involve patterns, repetitions, and deepening through repeated experiences. The line "This year we have learned how to live" suggests that love is not static but a process of growth and adaptation, becoming richer as we move through life's seasons together.

The lasting impact of "This Year" comes from its universal message about transformation through love. While ostensibly a Christmas song, its true resonance lies in its promise that relationships can heal us and teach us "how to forgive without fear." The repeated closing line "Just love, this Christmas, this year" distills the song's philosophy to its essence—that love is both the journey and the destination. In a culture often focused on material aspects of holidays, Aguilera offers a different perspective: that the greatest gift is committed presence throughout all seasons. The song remains relevant beyond holiday playlists because it speaks to our perpetual desire to transform loneliness into connection, to make the ephemeral permanent, and to find someone who makes every day—holiday or otherwise—feel complete.

Posted on Jul 19, 2025 by Athena