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The Odd Origins Behind Some of America’s Favorite Christmas Songs 

Photo by S&B Vonlanthen via Unsplash

The Odd Origins Behind Some of America’s Favorite Christmas Songs 

By Movieguide® Contributor 

Many Christmas songs’ meanings might seem obvious because of their lyrics, but even some of the songs we hear over and over again have misunderstood meanings and odd origins.  

House Beautiful gathered a list of nine Christmas songs with unusual beginnings.  

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” 

The original lyrics of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” aren’t quite as optimistic as the song we all know.  

The lyrics to the hopeful yet mournful carol ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ were penned by Hugh Martin for a scene in the 1944 movie musical MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS,” Mental Floss reported.Judy Garland sings the bittersweet song to her little sister, trying to cheer her up as both lament their family’s move away from their hometown. But Garland and director Vincente Minnelli weren’t happy with Martin’s early, much more maudlin drafts.” 

Some of the original somber-toned lyrics are: “Faithful friends who were dear to us/ Will be near to us no more…” They were changed to “Faithful friends who are dear to us / Gather near to us once more.”

Movieguide® previously reported on the origin of “Silent Night”:  

A broken organ might have had a hand in spreading “Silent Night”’s fame past its Austrian origins. The lyrics were penned by Father Joseph Mohr in 1818. As legend has it, he was inspired to write the lyrics after visiting a family one night and seeing a mother with a baby. Later that evening, he wrote a poem about the Christ Child on the night of His birth.    

His friend Franz Gruber would put the lyrics to music on his guitar and play the song for the Christmas Eve service at the church in the small village of Oberndorf.    

According to Gruber, when an organ mender later came to fix the church’s organ, he had Gruber test out the newly repaired instrument and played “Silent Night” for him. The hymn stuck with the organ mender, and he taught the song to the children in his village. Its popularity would eventually grow across Europe. 

“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” 

Bing Crosby’s classic “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was written for WWII soldiers who longed to be home with family. But it turned out to be too sentimental for British soldiers, whom the BBC wanted to keep tough in wartime.  

The BBC said at the time, “We have recently adopted a policy of excluding sickly sentimentality which, particularly when sung by certain vocalists, can become nauseating and not at all in keeping with what we feel to be the need of the public in this country.” 

“Winter Wonderland” 

Written by Dick Smith, a man who suffered from terminal tuberculosis, “Winter Wonderland’s” lyrics are a lot more cheery than its beginnings.  

“In his book ‘Stories Behind the Greatest Hits of Christmas,’ author Ace Collins notes that Smith spent most of his time “in bed, with no hope for a cure. He seemed to be waiting to die.” He traveled to Scranton, PA’s West Mountain Sanitarium for treatment, where one day, he looked out of his window to see children playing in the snow. This lovely sight inspired him to write the poem that would become the later-beloved Christmas song,” House Beautiful observed.

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” 

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is a song of hope after deep loss.  

“This carol was written by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day 1863, while he was still mourning his wife’s death (she died in a home fire in 1861) and grieving the injury of his son in the Civil War,” House Beautiful reported. “However, hearing the church bells ring out that day changed his mood to one of hope, inspiring him to write the poem that would become the much-loved song.” 

“Good King Wenceslas” 

As the song implies, King Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, was known to be good, kind and charitable. The song tells of his good deeds toward peasants on Saint Stephen’s Day.  

However, the duke met an unfortunate end. As he went to attend Mass one day, he was murdered by his brother, Boleslav the Cruel, at the church’s entrance, per Brittanica.  

“Do You Hear What I Hear” 

“Do you Hear What I Hear” (1962) might seem like it’s all about the birth of Christ, but the “Said the night wind to the little lamb…” song actually carries a hidden note of apprehension.  

“So you might have thought that this was just your basic Christmas song that covered the story behind the momentous day. You’re partially right, but also wrong: This song was written in response to the dread writers Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker felt during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis,” House Beautiful said. “Suddenly, the lyric, ‘A star, a star, dancing in the night with a tail as big as a kite,’ takes on a very different meaning.” 

“I Saw Three Ships” 

Some of the lyrics of “I Saw Three Ships” read: 

And what was in those ships all three,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day?
And what was in those ships all three,
On Christmas Day in the morning?

The Virgin Mary and Christ were there,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
The Virgin Mary and Christ were there,
On Christmas Day in the morning. 

These lyrics are often believed to be about the “three” wise men (though the Bible doesn’t mention a number) who visited Jesus after his birth.  

“A glance at a map (and land-locked Bethlehem) proves this false,” House Beautiful reported. “Instead, this carol is thought to be a song about the three ships carrying the bones of the Magi to Cologne, Germany, in the 12th century.” 

“Here We Go a-Wassailing”

“Here We Go a-Wassailling” might seem like a jolly Christmas carol, but the truth isn’t so cheery. Its true meaning is something like “Bring us some figgy pudding / We won’t leave until we get some” in the carol “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” but a little more course. 

The practice of wassailing is essentially caroling. But wassailing young men in the Middle Ages would sing carols for the wealthy and threaten them if they weren’t given alcohol afterward.  

“Coventry Carol” 

The solemn song “Coventry Carol” doesn’t celebrate Christmas but mourns all of the other baby boys that Herod killed in his quest to find Jesus.  

“This carol was sung during a medieval play, ‘The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors,’ which was performed on the feast of Corpus Christi. ‘Coventry Carol’ is sung during the part in the play depicting King Herod’s massacre of the innocents, as mothers mourn the slaughter of their infants,” House Beautiful reported.

The mournful lyrics read: 

Lully, lulla, 
thou little tiny child, 
by by, lully lullay. 

O sisters too, 
how may we do 
for to preserve this day 
this poor youngling, 
for whom we do sing 
by by, lully lullay? 

Herod the king, 
in his raging, 
charged he hath this day 
his men of might, 
in his own sight, 
all young children to slay. 

That woe is me, 
poor child for thee! 
and ever morn and day, 
for thy parting 
neither say nor sing 
by by, lully lullay! 


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