‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ song doesn't mean what you always thought it did

Now we're just days away from the big day, Christmas songs are firmly on all of our playlists.

And when it comes to festive music, nothing quite hits like the nostalgic old favourites - I'm talking Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas is You' and Wham's 'Last Christmas'.

However, people are only just realising the true meaning behind some of the Christmas classics, we won't even talk about the creep fest that is 'Baby It's Cold Outside'.

While this is obviously not on the same level of weird, 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus' also has a meaning that most of us didn't pick up on until recently.

The tune was originally written by British songwriter Tommie Connor, before it reached number one on the US pop charts in 1953 after being taken on by 13-year-old country singer Jimmy Boyd.

It turns out 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus' has a whole unexpected meaning people had no idea about (Getty Stock Image)

Then of course, The Jackson 5 recorded their iconic cover, which is the most famous version that gets played every year.

But was we say, there's been some confusion over what the lyrics to the popular bop actually mean.

So the song goes: "Wow, Mommy's kissing Santa Claus / I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus / Underneath the mistletoe last night / She didn't see me creep / Down the stairs to have a peep."

It continues: "She thought that I was tucked up / In my bedroom, fast asleep / Then I saw Mommy tickle Santa Claus / Underneath his beard so snowy white / Oh, what a laugh it would have been / If Daddy had only seen /Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night."

The lyrics even reference how the child the song's perspective is from, is going to 'tell his dad' what he saw.

So, most of us assumed it was a slightly strange song about cheating, where the youngster saw his mother cheating on his father with actual Santa Claus - or at least a man that resembled him.

Now though, people are pointing out that the Santa Claus in question is simply dad dressed up and there was actually no adultery whatsoever.

For some, this may have been obvious all along, but there's a large group of people who actually never knew this was the true meaning.

One person wrote on Twitter: "Aa a kid I didn’t understand the subtext of I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus at all. I thought mommy was cheating."

To which a second replied: "So the point of the song is that the dad is Santa???? right? mom is not Santa’s mistress right."

And a third penned: "Wow I never thought about it like that I was in the same boat with you I really thought she was cheating."

Someone else questioned: "That literally doesn't make sense!!! how could dad be Santa?"

And another admitted: "I still didn’t rly understand that she wasn’t cheating until this tweet…"