It’s very easy: So long as you don’t hear “The Little Drummer Boy,” you’re a contender. As soon as you hear it on the radio, on TV, in a store, wherever, you’re out. Then you record your loss on the official reporting form.
Worried about what movies or TV shows might be hiding some stealth LDB, just waiting for you to stumble upon your doom? You should be. So we’ve put together a handy list.
(Special note: You cannot be done in by anyone tricking you into hearing the dreaded tune or otherwise hitting you with it on purpose. Such exposure doesn’t count.)
What’s the time frame? The game begins the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) at 12:01 am and continues until midnight, Dec. 23. If you haven’t been puh-rum-pum-pum-pummed, you win. For this year, anyway.
Please note: We did not create the concept of avoiding the song “The Little Drummer Boy” over the holiday season. We run this version of the game. Other versions predate this one. The original can be found here. Whichever version or versions you choose to play, we hope you enjoy it.
Little Drummer Boy Challenge 
Taken out (my husband and i) at the gift shop at Natural History Museums…we were hoping to find postcards. No postcards, but Toby Keith was singing LDB. 😦
Sorry for your loss, k. But here’s a handy link to the form (https://bit.ly/ldbcform) for easy reporting if you haven’t had a chance to fill it out yet.
Question. A family member is a professional singer. If he’s required or asked to sing it , does it count as “out”.
Unfortunately, yes—as long as the person asking isn’t doing it solely to take him out of the game.
He will be out this weekend then. I told him to request his last supper for Friday night. RIP
I reported myself as out when I caught myself singing it, but some people have questioned that. What’s the official stance?
It’s any version you hear, so that did indeed take you out. If it makes you feel any better, though, that’s exactly how I did myself in on Day One last year.
Work debate: if someone creates an LDB-free playlist, but puts LDB on it and readily visible within the list of songs on the playlist, is they playlist creator out for sabotage or is the person who plays the list out because they have a duty to verify that it is, in-fact LDB-Free?
Are you out if you sing LDB in sign language or witness it being sung in sign language and recognize it as such?
For the first question, it depends on whether you can determine if the person did it on purpose or not. If they didn’t, and you can’t prove they did, then they’re still in due to an honest mistake, and the listener is out.
If they cackle at their evil deed, they’re out, and the listener survives.
Sign language would take you out, even though you didn’t hear it because that’s a close-as-possible singing of the song.
Driving home from a choral concert. They didn’t sing LDB, so I’m feeling lucky. Turn on the internet radio. Bad move. Doom, sung by some duo called “for KING & COUNTRY,” capitalized that way just to make them extra annoying.
I guess I was kind of asking for it. Oh well.
Sorry for your loss, Pete. That’s the thing about The Boy: all too often, it’s not just one punch; he throws combos, and it’s the forgotten arm that gets you.
Condolences.
ack! Why didn’t I check here first before watching “the beast in me” episode 7??? I lost, son of a b!Tch 😣
Sorry, Emily—condolences to you and yours.
My daughter reported having to sing it with a kid she’s tutoring because he has to learn it for school…in Spain. I thought she was safe there but no dice.
As you say, that one counts, John. ‘Tis a cruel game we play.
We’d made it through our kiddo’s holiday concert safely for the past 3 years, but this year it was an absolute *massacre*. Huge auditorium, no survivors.
I did have a question, though – on The Office Ladies podcast (ep 271), Angela talks about the song and that on The Office, Dwight supported her while she was singing it, “even doing the drums.” She didn’t *sing* the drums, but she did vocalize the non-melodic drumline you often hear at the start of the song before the tune begins. That feels a bit on the line, but … the beginning of the song is the song, no? I was probably dead before the concert began.
As a general rule, it’s the notes that do you in, Stephanie. So just speaking a drum part wouldn’t be lethal. That said, of course, there are always exceptions. But this doesn’t sound like one.