Sophia Michaels
Taylor Swift released a surprise holiday song, “Christmas Tree Farm,” on Dec. 6, 2019, and fans think the accompanying music video featuring home movies from her childhood gave one major hint about her next album.
Swift, who released her latest album, Lover, in Aug. 2019, teased the new single in an Instagram video she posted on Dec. 5, 2019, just hours before “Christmas Tree Farm” debuted. In the clip, 29-year-old Swift cheekily asked her cats Olivia, Benjamin, and Meredith if she should release the song.
“When in doubt, ask the itty bitty pretty kitty committee. When they shun you with silence, ambivalence, and judgmental brush offs… just put the song out anyway. NEW XMAS SONG AND VIDEO (made from home videos 👨👩👧👦) OUT TONIGHT #ChristmasTreeFarm 🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲” Swift captioned the post featuring herself in a cozy, winter sweater (totally on-theme).
Fans: time stamp hints at next album
When Swift dropped “Christmas Tree Farm” at midnight on Dec. 6, 2019, fans were quick to dissect every second of the 3-minute-and-44-second music video frame by frame. Home videos of Swift and her family spliced together made for a heartwarming scene. Swift at various ages during her childhood, is seen opening Christmas gifts and playing in the snow.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN3rDTAdM2o?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]
Aside from the adorable shots of Swift spinning around on a swing and unwrapping a guitar are time stamps in the corner of each home video. One, in particular, gave fans pause. It came at the 2:41 mark in the video showing snow on the ground, little Christmas trees, and horses.
But what fans noticed is that the time stamp on this particular part of the video, Nov. 23, 1989, came before Swift existed. Her birthdate is Dec. 13, 1989. According to Cosmopolitan, fans think the time stamp holds meaning.
Here’s what one fan tweeted about the peculiar date on the time stamp:
“Uhm… guys
Look at the date. November 23, 1989. Taylor wasn’t born yet. 8 days until the end of the month and then 13 days later she was born…
8… 13
TS8 is coming #ChristmasTreeFarm @taylorswift13 @taylornation13.”
Will Aug. 13, 2020, be the day the “You Need To Calm Down” singer releases her next studio album? Maybe. While the time stamp might mean Swift simply used some home video footage from before her time, there’s a possibility — maybe a strong one — the date holds significance and is Swift’s way of hinting at things to come. Needless to say, we’ll be keeping a close watch on her social media accounts more now than ever before.
Swift’s used hidden messages for years
Swift has a long track record of putting hidden messages in her music videos and lyrics. With her latest album, the 10-time Grammy Award-winner revealed Easter eggs hidden within her music video for her song, ME!” featuring Panic! At The Disco’s Brendon Urie.
In a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly, she discussed using her clothes and jewelry as a way to hide Easter eggs about her songs.
“This is one of my favorite ways to do this because you wear something that foreshadows something else, and people don’t usually find out this one immediately. But they know you’re probably sending a message, [and] they’ll figure it out in time. Lots of examples of this exist over the history of my career,” Swift said.
She’s been giving fans clues ever since her self-titled first album debuted back in 2006. Since then she’s taken Easter eggs to a whole new level with Swift saying one song of hers, in particular, takes the cake.
“I think the most Easter egg-y video of my entire career thus far is “Look What You Made Me Do.” Literally, the whole video is just an Easter egg. There are like thousands of Easter eggs. There are some that people still haven’t found,” she said. “It will be decades before people find them all.”
While we think about the Easter eggs we might’ve missed, we’re going to play “Christmas Tree Farm” on repeat and wait to see what happens on Aug. 13, 2020.
Written by: CheatSheet
