Secret Stories Behind Famous Christmas Songs

The best-loved Christmas songs typically use strong imagery to capture the holiday spirit. So it's surprising to know that the first few lines of the original version of "White Christmas" describe Christmas in Beverly Hills, or that a warm and fuzzy song like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" was actually quite depressing in its early version.

Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas" in 1940 with opening lines that have long been overlooked. Berlin's original lyrics originally started with: "The sun is shining, the grass is green, the orange and palm trees sway. There's never been such a day in Beverly Hills, L.A." Berlin realized that the lines didn't go with the image of a White Christmas, and the words were removed from the official lyrics to the song.

Another interesting fact about "White Christmas" is that it didn't originally appear in the 1954 movie "White Christmas." The song was actually first used in the 1942 movie "Holiday Inn," though Bing Crosby sang the Christmas tune in both movies.

"White Christmas" wasn't the only song to have its roots in southern California. "The Christmas Song" was actually written in the 1944 during a scorching summer. The song is more easily recognizable by its first line, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." Mel Torme, the popular singer and pianist, saw some scribbled notes from a friend about Christmas imagery, and was said to have written the song in less than an hour. Since then it has become the most recorded Christmas song ever, and is listed by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) to have been recorded by more than 250 different performers and groups.

During World War II, there were a number of Christmas songs that had a similar theme of longing for home at Christmas. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" was sung by Judy Garland in the 1944 film "Meet Me in St. Louis," but it's far from being a happy song. In its early version, the lyric was "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, it may be your last." According to a 2002 article in Entertainment Weekly, Judy Garland protested that the song was too depressing, and the composer Hugh Martin changed the lyric to "...let your heart be light." Also, the words "faithful friends who were dear to us will be near to us no more" was changed to "will be near to us once more."

Though the department store chain Montgomery Ward went out of business several years ago, it has an enduring legacy with the Christmas song "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer." Each Christmas, the store released a promotional coloring book for children, and Rudolph was a coloring book character between 1939 and 1946. Rudolph wouldn't become immortalized in song until 1949, when Gene Autry recorded the version that is still a Christmas favorite today.

Autry was known as the "singing cowboy," and according to a 1990 article in the Chicago Tribune, he wasn't too thrilled about "Rudolph" becoming his most famous legacy. Still, it didn't keep him from recording "Frosty The Snowman" in 1950. Even then, it took some convincing; the songwriters gave the song to him as part of a two-song package that included "Here Comes Peter Cottontail," giving the singing cowboy an Easter hit as well.

Sources:

"The Best Selling Record of All," The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 11, 2009
"There's Something About Merry," Entertainment Weekly, Jan. 8, 2007
Rankings of Most-Recorded Songs, ASCAP
"The Man Who Created Rudolph," Chicago Tribune, Dec. 13, 1990