Camila Cabello vs ‘Quismois’: the holiday meme that refuses to retire

WEB DESK: Some holiday moments sparkle briefly and disappear with the tinsel. Others dig in, rent-free, and resurface every December like clockwork. Case in point: Camila Cabello’s now-legendary White House Christmas performance, where a single syllable turned “Christmas” into the immortal “quismois”.

The moment dates back to 2021, when Cabello performed I’ll Be Home for Christmas during the White House’s Spirit of the Season celebration, broadcast on PBS. The setting was stately, the vibes were festive and then came that pronunciation. TikTok did the rest. The clip was looped, memed, remixed, and canonised as holiday folklore within hours.

Three years on, the joke is still jingling loudly.

Camila Knows — And She’s Leaning In

This week, Cabello proved once again that she’s fully in on the joke. In a holiday TikTok posted just before Christmas, she sat in front of a glowing tree and mouthed along to a sound full of laughter, deadpanning: “No, no, but it’s not funny at the end of the day, is it? It’s serious.”

Her caption? “December is a triggering time for me.”

Fans lost it- again. The comments section quickly turned into a shrine to “quismois”, with followers declaring it “iconic”, admitting they now say it unironically, and even calling Cabello the “Mother of Quismois”.

From Viral Slip to Pop Culture Lore

What makes this moment endure isn’t the mispronunciation itself it’s Cabello’s response to it. Instead of dodging the meme, she embraced it early. In 2022, she posted a self-parody video where she played both herself and a fictional vocal coach, repeatedly attempting (and failing) to pronounce “Christmas” correctly before giving up entirely.

Around the same time, she released her own cover of I’ll Be Home for Christmas on streaming platforms, fully aware that listeners would be waiting for that word. The result? A song that felt both nostalgic and mischievous — a wink to the internet wrapped in holiday cheer.

The Holiday Meme Hall of Fame

At this point, “quismois” has joined the elite ranks of seasonal internet jokes, right up there with “It’s Gonna Be May”. Like Justin Timberlake before her, Cabello has learned that some memes simply cannot be escaped. They resurface annually, fueled by nostalgia, repetition, and collective joy.

And honestly? It works. Fans aren’t mocking they’re celebrating. What started as a tiny slip has become a shared pop culture tradition that returns every December with zero warning and maximum enthusiasm.

Long Live the Ghost of Quismois Past

Camila Cabello’s career continues to evolve she released her fourth solo album C,XOXO in 2024 and has teased new music after a brief digital detox. But no matter where her sound goes next, one thing is certain: every holiday season, the ghost of quismois will float gently back into our feeds.

Some holiday ghosts are spooky. Some are annoying. This one? Pure festive joy mispronounced, meme-approved, and here to stay