It helps that more and more artists have been releasing their own seasonal packages. “If you put out a holiday album, it’s money in your stocking every year thereafter,” Trust says. Usually those albums feature holiday standards, from “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” idealized by BruceSpringsteen’s rocking version, to “Silent Night” to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” While there are seemingly countless such odes, some have richer stories behind them than others. Here are 15 of the most dramatic. —Jim Farber and Neil Pond
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love
One of the season’s most beloved songs bombed on impact for a tragic reason. The kickoff single from the later-to-be classic album A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector had the unfortunate fate to be released on the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In deference to the tragedy, both the single—voiced by girl group mainstay Darlene Love—and the album were temporarily pulled from stores. Even when they reappeared, they left no mark until 1972, when the full album started to gain traction through a reissue. The song itself didn’t click until the 1980s, thanks entirely to late-night TV host DavidLetterman. Starting in ’86, Love began performing the song on his show around the holiday, kicking off a tradition that lasted Christmas 2014, five months before Letterman’s retirement the next May. In 2015, Love found a new place to belt the classic each year, on The View. That gave the song its all-time chart peak, breaking into Billboard’s Top 20 this past January.
“Christmas Time Is Here” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio
The first Peanuts-related TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, which made its debut in 1965, has earned as much love for its music as for its characters and script. But initially, the cool jazz hipster VinceGuaraldi seemed an unlikely choice to compose the score for what was ostensibly a children’s show. The rich result, however, helped the show resonate as deeply with adults. “Christmas Time Is Here,” which matched Guaraldi’s plaintive piano to a chorus of singing kids, is both aching and gorgeously smart, much like the strip itself. The piece began as an instrumental but the show’s producer, LeeMendelson, thought it worked better with words, so he wrote some himself. Guaraldi, who died of a heart attack at age 47 in 1976, wound up composing the scores for 15 Peanuts specials. Ironically, the songs’ lyricist, Mendelson, died on Christmas Day in 2019.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey
Nearly every song that’s considered a holiday classic was written at least 40 years ago. In 1994, however, Carey cooked up a piece that stands with the best of them. It helped that it borrowed the “Wall of Sound” production and bouncy tunefulness of producer Phil Spector’s by-then established seasonal standards. Carey underscored the connection by dolling herself up as a bouffant-topped Ronette in a video for the song. Still, she was initially reluctant to record a holiday ode. The head of her record company, TommyMottola, who was at the time her husband, wrote in his memoir, Hitmaker, that she felt such a nostalgic gesture would hurt her status with hip-hop fans. “What are you trying to do, turn me into ConnieFrancis?” he quoted her as saying. In her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the singer revealed that her holiday experiences growing up were far from merry, given her troubled family. She wrote the song as a corrective. “It was from my early fantasies of family and friendship,” she noted. “This song came from a childlike space.”
“White Christmas” by Bing Crosby
Not only is “White Christmas” the biggest-selling holiday track of all time, it’s estimated by Guinness World Records to be the biggest-selling song ever. With estimated sales of more than 50 million, it beat out the No. 2 song (Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997,” his tribute to Princess Diana) by some 17 million copies. IrvingBerlin wrote the classic and Bing Crosby sang it in the 1942 movie Holiday Inn. The song’s initial resonance owed much to the longing felt by American military fighters who were spending their first holiday away from home while serving in the Pacific in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. Ironically, 33 years later, the song marked the end of the Vietnam War after it was played by the American Radio Service to signal troops to make their final evacuation.
“Hard Candy Christmas” by Dolly Parton
Dolly didn’t write “Hard Candy Christmas,” but as a child she lived its lyrics. “For Christmas, we didn’t have money for presents,” she said on the Oprah Winfrey Show. “But Mom and Daddy always got us a box of hard candy.” Initially, Parton sang the song, written by CarolHall, for the movie TheBest Little Whorehouse in Texas. She and the other women in the brothel perform it when their business gets shut down and each ponders their next move. There’s sadness in the song, but also hope. “I’m barely getting through,” the women sing. “But I won’t let sorrow bring me way down.” Parton later released a solo version of the song that made the country Top 10. In the years since, the song has been covered by artists from CyndiLauper to RuPaul, who included it on an album cheekily titled Ho Ho Ho.
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland
A last-minute change in the lyrics to this gem likely saved it from obscurity. When lyricist HughMartin first presented the piece to Judy Garland to perform in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis, she balked at lines that would have had her cruelly telling her character’s 7-year-old sister that this Christmas “may be your last” and “Faithful friends who were dear to us / Will be near to us no more.” Her objection convinced Martin to change the couplet to “Faithful friends who are dear to us / Gather near to us once more,” among other rewrites. Even so, the song has a melancholy edge, appropriate for a movie in which a family has to leave their longtime home. Nearly 60 years later, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, JamesTaylor released a version that restored the original lyrics. He thought them appropriate to the country’s wounded mood at the time.
“Feliz Navidad” by José Feliciano
Bridging two cultures gave José Feliciano one of the most beautiful hits of his career. For his 1970 release, he sang the verses in English and the chorus in Spanish—filling out the title phrase with “próspero año y felicidad”—or “a prosperous year and happiness.” “If I had left in Spanish only, then I knew the English stations might not play it,” he told Billboard. “So I decided to write an English lyric.” Fifty years later, this cross-cultural hit made a deeper impact than ever, hitting its all-time peak on the Billboard chart at No. 6.
“The Chanukah Song“ by Adam Sandler
Lots of Jewish kids feel left out at Christmas. So it’s a wonder that it took until 1994 for someone to score a significant hit with a Hanukkah salute. Ironically, many of the best-known holiday songs were penned by Jewish writers, including three that appear on this list (“White Christmas,” “The Christmas Song” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”). In addition, many of the best-selling Christmas albums of all time were recorded by Jewish artists, including Kenny G, NeilDiamond and BarbraStreisand. Still, it took a comic to score a Top 10 Hanukkah song. Adam Sandler debuted his witty piece in 1994 on Saturday Night Live, stuffing it with names of celebrities who are either fully Jewish (DavidLeeRoth), part Jewish (PaulNewman) or not at all Jewish (O.J. Simpson). Over the years, Sandler has released other versions, the second featuring allusions to such stars as DustinHoffman and the Beastie Boys; the third offering celebs including Debra Messing and Harry Houdini. In 2009, Neil Diamond covered the song for his album A Cherry, Cherry Christmas.
“The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” by Nat King Cole
It makes poetic sense that the warmest holiday song ever written was written during a scorching summer. Amid a July heatwave in 1945, songwriter RobertWells decided to “stay cool by thinking cool,” according to the singer MelTormé, his writing partner on the piece. With Wells leading the way, the pair took just 40 minutes to write what became the most performed cold-season song of all time, according to the publishing company BMI. Tormé wasn’t the first singer to perform it. The Nat King Cole Trio had the initial crack. In fact, Cole wound up cutting four separate versions, the last of which (in 1961) became the one most fans cherish.
“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee
The youngest person ever to score a hit holiday classic was Brenda Lee, who was just 13 at the time. The 1958 song was penned by JohnnyMarks, who had already written such seasonal standards as “A Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” When Marks approached Lee to sing his piece, she told Nashville’s Tennessean newspaper, “I had not had a lot of success in records. But for some reason he heard me and wanted me to do it.” The single didn’t soar until after Lee broke through in 1960 with No. 1 hits like “I’m Sorry.” Once it connected, it held its allure, breaking into Billboard’s Top 10 as recently as 2019.
“Father Christmas” by The Kinks
On the surface, Ray Davies’ holiday single seems like just a nice slice of black humor. To counter the usual dreamy view of the season, his plot centered on a mall Santa (or a Father Christmas figure in Davies’ native U.K.) who gets mugged by a bunch of kids who prefer cold hard cash to a toy. But below the dark wit, the song has a lot to say about class. The muggers are poor kids who have good reason to sneeringly tell Santa to “give all the toys to the little rich boys.” “I could see the faces of my parents when Christmas came around,” Ray’s brother Dave Davies later said. “They had to struggle to make ends meet.” Released in 1977, the song became a cult classic covered by many, including the hard-rock hair-metal band Warrant on a hair-metal Christmas tribute album titled, yes, We Wish You a Hairy Christmas.
“River” by Joni Mitchell
This compelling holiday classic might as well have been titled “Have Yourself a Lousy Little Christmas.” Set on the cusp of the holiday, the lyric captures Joni’s guilt and anguish over her choice to reject a great romantic partner to keep her freedom. She penned the piece in 1970 about GrahamNash, who she’d been living with in the Laurel Canyon abode that inspired his song “Our House.” For the music, Joni borrowed bits of “Jingle Bells,” weaving it into an original melody as ravishing as it is wrenching. Ultimately, the song captures the special ache one can feel when experiencing pain amid a season made for joy.
“This Christmas” by Donny Hathaway
While this 1970 song has been embraced by a broad range of listeners, in its early days it had special resonance within the Black community. “A lot of Black people would say Christmas doesn’t start until we play ‘This Christmas,’” the song’s lyricist, NadineMcKinnor, told the New York Post. McKinnor was working in a Chicago post office when she wrote the lyrics in 1967, inspired by the rush of holiday-themed magazine covers pouring through the office. Though she had never collaborated with a major musician before, she wound up meeting Hathaway through her boyfriend, who was doing design work for the star. Impressed by her words, Hathaway fleshed out the music. Though the record didn’t connect at first, following the singer’s death in 1979 the singing group the Whispers created “A Song for Donny,” which used music from “This Christmas,” increasing its reach. Over the years, artists from ArethaFranklin to PattiLabelle have covered the song. It even inspired a 2007 movie under that title starring IdrisElba and ReginaKing.
“Christmas Rappin’” by Kurtis Blow
Oddly enough, the holiday season played a major part in hip-hop history. The first rap song issued by a major label was this tinsel-happy classic from New York rhyme-master Kurtis Blow, issued in December 1979. Mercury Records released it as a test to see if Blow had the stuff to earn a full album contract. Not only did the joyous “Christmas Rappin’” connect with more than 400,000 fans, its follow-up, “The Breaks,” became the first rap song to go gold, helping Blow become the first rapper to land a major label album deal.
“Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues With Kirsty MacColl
No one expects a holiday song to be a plot-heavy period piece starring two addicts who argue constantly and curse up a storm. Then again, neither would you expect such a piece to end up as funny, moving and, ultimately, warm as this gem, created by Ireland’s The Pogues. Perhaps it’s that unexpected combination that made this 1987 recording the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in the U.K. as well as a radio staple stateside. Inspired by its inebriated characters (voiced by Pogues frontman ShaneMacGowan and folk-rocker Kirsty MacColl), their friend ElvisCostello first suggested they call it “Christmas Eve in the Drunk Tank.” Instead, McGowan named it after a 1973 novel by J.P. Donleavy. He told Melody Maker magazine the song’s wild imagery came to him while experiencing delirium during a bout of double pneumonia. The sometimes-alarming lyrics, which include a gay slur, have caused multiple bans on radio. But McGowan defended the harsh language to the Irish Independent, saying, “Not all characters in songs and stories are angels.” Regardless, the characters here are clearly gripping enough to have returned the song onto the British charts every year since its release.
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Johnny Marks
Probably the only Christmas song that began in the corporate towers of a giant retail conglomerate, “Rudolph” sprang to life in 1939 after Robert L. May, an ad copywriter for Montgomery Ward, was asked by his boss to churn out a storybook for the chain to sell at Christmas. May’s tale about a misfit reindeer who guides Santa’s sleigh sold millions as a children’s book before being set to music by his brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks. It was turned into an international smash by singing cowboy star Gene Autry in 1949, and later a perennial Christmas TV special and a feature-length movie. Autry went on to record numerous other Christmas songs, including another all-time classic, “Here Comes Santa Claus,” which he co-wrote.
“God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”
A misplaced typesetter’s comma somewhere along the way in this carol’s early life led many people, even to this day, to think of it as “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen.” But the word “rest” meant much the same as “keep,” and the song was a boisterous exhortation of love and brotherhood with a blessing that “God keep you merry.” Its authorship is unknown, but it probably dates from England and the 1600s, where it was presumably sung on the streets by strolling, serenading carolers during the Christmas season. (In Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, the happy sound of a caroler—singing “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”—infuriates Ebenezer Scrooge.) The song’s unusual, minor-key arrangement makes it somewhat unique among traditional Christmas tunes.
“What Child Is This?” by William Chatterton Dix
William Chatterton Dix, an insurance company executive by trade, wrote this soft and sweet ode to the baby Jesus sometime in the late 1800s. It was one of the first Christmas songs to depict the traditional Nativity scene in detail—the gifts of the “wise men,” the shepherds, even the ox and ass. Dix set his song to the tune of “Greensleeves,” a traditional melody so ancient it’s mentioned in two of Shakespeare’s plays.
“The First Noel”
One of the most ancient of Christmas carols, this song married words from the 1600s with a much older melody dating perhaps as far back as the 13th century. It’s been traced to France, but no one knows who wrote either the words or the music. Early English versions of the original French lyrics transcribed the word “noel” phonetically as “nowell,” which was fancifully thought to be a contraction of what the angels might have spoken to calm the shepherds: “Now all is well.” But actually, the French “noel” referred interchangeably to both “Christmas” and “carol,” and may have even been a variation of an older Latin word, “natalis,” which means “birthday.”
“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” by Eddie Cantor
Pop star Eddie Cantor unveiled this new tune on his radio program in 1934, but didn’t want to record it—he thought it was too juvenile. His wife loved it, however, and convinced him to give it a try. It became a smash hit after Cantor performed it later that year at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, at the climactic moment as Santa was making his entrance into Macy’s department store. Written by Haven Gillespie, a Kentuckian transplanted to New York, and Brooklyn’s Fred Coots, a songwriter for Cantor’s radio show, it’s also been a hit for Bing Crosby, Perry Como, the Four Seasons, the Jackson Five and Bruce Springsteen.
“Silent Night” by
Perhaps the most beloved of all Christmas carols, the tender “Silent Night” was written by a priest and hastily arranged by a church organist who had to improvise on guitar because the organ bellows had rusted and couldn’t be played. The priest, Joseph Mohr, had written the words previously and the organist, Franz Guber, mapped out the melody shortly before its first performance on Christmas Eve 1818 in an Austrian village. It went on to become a worldwide standard. On a Christmas Eve during World War I, fighting was temporarily suspended along several fronts in Europe while soldiers on both sides turned on their radios to hear a broadcast of an internationally famous Austrian opera star performing the song. Her name was Ernestine Schumann Heinke, and she had two sons—one of them fighting for the Allies, and the other on the side of the Germans. For a few tranquil minutes during the world’s first “great war,” this song’s powerful, hopeful message of “heavenly peace” rang dramatically true.
“We Three Kings of Orient Are”
This stately, richly detailed carol was penned around 1857 by Pittsburgh native John Henry Hopkins Jr., who worked as a newspaper reporter, attended law school, edited a religious magazine and designed stained-glass windows before finally becoming ordained as a deacon—at the ripe old age of 72. Its narrative structure, depicting the three wise men bringing gifts to the Christ child, gives it a reverent, scriptural feel. But the wise men barely made it into the Bible—they are mentioned only in one account of Jesus’ birth (in Matthew). In the years before this song was written, the wise men—most likely astrologers from Persia—came to be described as “kings,” a significant symbolic shift that denoted even royal rulers humbling themselves in the presence of the infant Son of God.
“Away in a Manger”
Often misattributed to Protestant reformer Martin Luther, this gentle, lullaby-like song actually was written in 1855 by an unknown Pennsylvanian, who likely drew inspiration from an old German folk tune. A byline in an 1887 songbook gave credit (perhaps mistakenly or possibly deliberately, to hype sales) to Luther, who actually did write the words for many hymns and other songs—but not this one.
“White Christmas”
Unquestionably America’s most popular Christmas song, this warm, sentimental classic is also the most commercially successful in history. Bing Crosby’s rendition alone sold more than 31 million copies. Written by Broadway and show-tune composer Irving Berlin for the 1942 movie Holiday Inn, starring Crosby and Fred Astaire, it won the Academy Award that year for the best original song. When Hollywood remade the film in color in 1954, the title of the movie was changed—to White Christmas, of course. “Jingle Bells” This festive, well-known Christmas song didn’t actually begin as a Christmas song at all. It was written by James Pierpoint for his father’s Sunday school class in Boston for children to perform as part of a Thanksgiving service in 1857. It’s not surprising, then, that it doesn’t contain a single reference to Christmas, the Nativity or any of the icons typically associated with the holiday. Yet, with its jaunty melody, colorful sleigh-ride imagery and join-in, sing-a-long chorus, it has been a musical staple of holiday programs for nearly 150 years and is possibly one of the best-known songs in the world. Next, Christmas Songs: The Story Behind More Classics
