Trainor wrote the song with Philip Bailey, Eddie Benjamin, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, and its producer, Mike Sabath.

Music critics were positive about "Holidays" and compared it to Earth, Wind & Fire's signature sound, specifically their 1978 single "September".

[2] Trainor wrote "Holidays" with Earth, Wind & Fire members Philip Bailey, Verdine White, and Ralph Johnson, along with Eddie Benjamin, and its producer, Mike Sabath.

[5] In an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show,[6] she announced that the soon-to-be-filmed music video for her Earth, Wind & Fire collaboration would be the first one shot during her pregnancy.

Instruments used in the song are guitar (performed by Benjamin and Morris O'Connor), percussion (Bailey and Johnson), bass (White), trumpet (Hurd), drums (John Paris), trumpet (Rashawn Ross and Will Artope), alto (Gary Bias), tenor saxophones (Bias), trombone (Reginald Young), and horns (Ray Brown).

[6][12] The song's musical style has been described as old-school and funky by the Associated Press's Mark Kennedy,[13] and it demonstrates the links between "'70s R&B/pop and current-day pop" according to Allan Sculley of The Spokesman-Review.

[14] Writing for Idolator, Mike Wass stated that the production advanced a few decades compared to the A Very Trainor Christmas track "My Kind of Present".

"[16] Parade's Lauren Ash believed that the song successfully captured "the holiday spirit across decades" and was a good way for listeners to get into a joyous mood.

Trainor performs the song with Earth, Wind & Fire, dressed in shiny jackets, on a stage decorated with enormous ornaments, disco balls, toy troops, and dancers wearing matching red bows.

She wore a sparkling bodysuit with a large green bow while reprising the song with Earth, Wind & Fire for NBC's Christmas in Rockefeller Center special, which aired on December 2, 2020.