A normal earworm has a lifecycle. A growth phase, utter ubiquity, and then relative obscurity.
Christmas earworms are in your face for one month of the year, every year, whether you want it or not (in north america anyway). If I think about “In the Meantime” once every couple years, it’s a pleasant memory. If it got played in the malls nonstop for one month every year, I’d be sick to death of it
