It was written and produced by Gaga, Martin Kierszenbaum, and Space Cowboy, who also provides guest vocals.

Due to digital downloads, "Christmas Tree" reached number 79 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart in January 2009.

[4][5] Kierszenbaum recommended a collaboration between them after hearing Space Cowboy's single "My Egyptian Lover",[3][4] released in January 2007 and featuring vocalist Nadia Oh.

[2][7] The pair worked together in Los Angeles to create "Christmas Tree" and "Starstruck", a song from revised editions of Lady Gaga's then-current album The Fame.

[3][7] Space Cowboy commented of working with Lady Gaga: We figured out that we shared pretty much the same experiences; we'd been doing similar things on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

[8] In an analysis by Stelios Phili of the Washington Square News, Phili jokes that the meaning of the song is closer to the original version of "Deck the Halls", a Welsh folk song called "Nos Galan" (Welsh for "New Year's Eve") traditionally sung at New Year's Eve,[10][11] than the English Christmas version.

[8] The Christmas song contains dance-pop and synthpop music[12][13] with synthesizers and a "pounding, grind-worthy beat".

Alex Rawls of OffBeat gave a positive review as part of the "25 Days of Free" offer from Amazon.com.

[19] Estrella Adeyeri, the music editor of Nouse, gave the song a positive review, complimenting its "synth beats and numerous yuletide innuendos".

[14] A reviewer from gay.com described the song as "merry" and a "naughty choice", praising its "dark decadence".

[31] Katie Hasty and Melinda Newman of HitFix gave the song a very negative review, calling it "stupendously stupid and awful" and the "most terrible Christmas song ever in the whole wide world ever", criticising its obvious sexual metaphors.

Christmas 4, John Lucas of The Georgia Straight described the song as a "filthy electro banger" and "so blatantly about [sex] that you have to wonder how in the hell it got past the usually vigilant Now!

4, J Matthew Cobb of HiFi Magazine called "Christmas Tree" part of a "good list" of new material and described it as "naughty, but nice".

[45] In December 2010, it was also ranked at number 23 on the "Hot 100 Holiday Christmas Songs" by Billboard,[45] based on sales and airplay over the winter period as calculated by Nielsen SoundScan and Nielson BDS.