Christmas is now synonymous with many tunes and carols that hit the airwaves and can be heard in shopping malls all throughout the end of the year. But did you know about the interesting stories behind some of the most popular Christmas tunes?
The Mummyfique team members pick our favourite Christmas tunes to share with everyone, and have come up with a festive Christmas playlist that we think will really get you in the festive mood. Hit the play button to listen to a special mix of these tunes, which is perfect for playing in the background during your Christmas gatherings. Read on to learn more about the featured songs and how they came about.
Winter Wonderland
One of the feel good songs of the festive winter season, the lyricist of the popular song never got to see the world enjoy this song. The lyrics were written in the 1930s by a 34-year-old Richard Smith, who was suffering from tuberculosis. Unable to venture out into the snow himself and only able to observe other young children frolicking in the snow, he wrote a poem about what it must be like to enjoy the winter weather and showed it to his friend and musician Felix Bernard. Sadly, he passed away just a year after the song was published.
White Christmas
The song was actually written about experiencing Christmas in Beverly Hills, a place where like Singapore, nary a snowflake can be found. How do we know this? There’s an earlier verse to the song that song writer Bing Crosby left out in the version he debuted that describes the grass being green and palm trees swaying even on Christmas Eve in Beverly Hills, LA.
It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
The song was originally written in 1963 for The Andy Williams Christmas Album, the personality behind then popular variety show, The Andy Williams Show. The song was a resounding success and appeared in all seven of the Christmas albums that he released after that.
I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus
The original singer of this song, Jimmy Boyd, was just 13-years-old when he recorded the song. That’s a bit young, but it makes sense if you think about it as the song wouldn’t really work with an older person singing it. The record was also condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in Boston initially, on the grounds that it mixed kissing with Christmas.
All I Want For Christmas Is You
One of the more recent Christmas hits, it was written by Mariah Carey with her long term songwriting partner, Walter Afanasieff for a Christmas album in 1994. The original recording featured Afanasieff on all the instruments other than the background vocals.
O Holy Night
This traditional Christmas anthem was birthed in France by poet Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, with music by Jewish classical musician Adolphe Charles Adams. The song gained popularity at Catholic mass, until they discovered that a Jew had co-written the song. American writer John Sullivan Dwight discovered the song and translated it into English, where it gained massive popularity with the English speaking world. The song was also the first ever song to be broadcasted via radio waves.
Want to learn more interesting Christmas facts? Click here to read about fun facts to do with Santa Claus.
