When she died in 1980, Katherine Davis left the royalties from her compositions, including “The Little Drummer Boy,” to the music program at Wellesley’s College of Music. The royalties have financed scores of scholarships for students who would not otherwise be able to attend the private college.

Ernest Tubb, known as the Texas Troubadour, had the first hit version of “Blue Christmas” in 1949. It went to #1 on the country charts and became the genre’s first Christmas hit.

Within a week of its 1952 release, the Archdiocese of Boston condemned “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” as immoral. Other groups from both Catholic and Protestant churches followed suit. Missing the point that the man in the lyrics was actually the singer's father dressed up like Santa, people wrote articles and gave speeches deriding the song for casting Santa Claus as a man who fooled around. Hundreds argued that the song was sending a horrible message to America’s innocent children. The record label flew the singer, 8-year-old Jimmy Boyd, then met with the head of the Catholic church in Boston. The boy explained the song to the church leaders, who took a second look at the song and removed its objections to it. In the process, millions of peopled tuned in to hear what all the fuss was about! The song quickly jumped to #1 on the charts and stayed there for two weeks. Three million copies were sold the first year.

“Silver Bells” was originally titled “Tinkle Bell” until the wife of one of the songwriters reminded them of the double-meaning of the title! She was concerned that people would think more of bathrooms than of Christmas, so they changed it to “Silver Bells.”

According to the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” has been performed and recorded by a wider array of musical artists than any other piece in the history of Western music. Since it charted on popular radio playlists only once, this is pretty amazing!

Nat “King” Cole was chosen by the song’s composers to do the original recording of “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting By An Open Fire)” in 1946. However, the color of Cole’s skin limited the way Capitol Records could market him and the recording. Many radio stations, especially in the midwest and south, refused to play Cole’s music once they discovered that he was a black man. However, the song became a hit as thousands of white Americans purchased the record. The success of that one record opened the door for other black artists to put their own spins on holiday classics.

Judy Garland almost didn’t record “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” because she was horrified by some of the lyrics and insisted that they be changed. The offending verse was “Have yourself a Merry Christmas / it may be your last / next year we will be living in the past.” It was during WWII and Garland refused to sing about loved ones who might not return from the war.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Bing Crosby version of “White Christmas” is the best-selling single of all time with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. Crosby took less than 20 minutes to record the song.

“Carol of the Bells” was named to honor a story that claimed that the moment Christ was born, every bell in the world chimed.

“Carol of the Bells” was written in the Ukraine and was first performed at Kiev University in 1916. Its original title was “Shchedryk,” which means “The Generous One,” and choirs performed it almost as a round by having singers start at different times, making the song sound much more complex than it was.

Within twenty-four hours of its radio debut, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” had sold more than 30,000 records and a hundred thousand copies of the sheet music.

“Jingle Bells” was originally titled “One Horse Open Sleigh” and was written in 1850 by James Pierpont, the son of a pastor in Massachusetts. It was first performed by a children’s choir at his church’s annual Thanksgiving service in front of a packed house. There were so many requests for another performance of the song that it was performed during the services on Christmas weekend and became one of the most popular Christmas songs ever.

“Silent Night” was the first holiday recording to become a national hit and is the most-performed Christmas song in history. Both of the composers of the song, Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber, died penniless, aware only that their carol was gaining popularity as part of the holiday season in Austria and Germany.

Cartoonist Thomas Nast created our image of Santa as a jolly, bearded fellow dressed in red. He also created the donkey and elephant as the political symbols for the Democratic and Republican parties.

Clement C. Moore was a professor of divinity in New York City. He wrote “The Night Before Christmas” for his children in 1822. It was published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel on December 23,1823.

The oldest Christmas carol is thought to be “The Boar’s Head Carol,” which was part of a collection in England in 1521 and which might have been the first printed music in England.

Mistletoe is said to bring happiness, safety, and good fortune unless it touches the ground.

Gene Autry got the idea for “Here Comes Santa Claus” while riding a horse in a holiday parade.

Handel’s “Messiah” was actually composed as a fund-raiser for prisoners in Dublin, Ireland.

Santa must visit about 842 million houses on Christmas Eve! He has to travel at 4,796,250 miles per hour to do this!

Some interesting Christmas superstitions:
—It’s bad luck to let your evergreen decorations fall or to throw them away. You should burn them or feed them to your cow.
—If you eat a raw egg before anything else on Christmas morning, you will be able to carry heavy weights.
—If you refuse mincemeat pie at Christmas dinner, you will have bad luck for a year.
—Eating an apple at midnight on Christmas Eve will bring good health for a year.
—In Greece, people burn their old shoes during the Christmas season to prevent misfortune in the coming year.

"Good King Wenceslas" was a real person. He ruled over Bohemia from 928-935 AD, and was loved by his subjects for his goodness and kindness.

To remember the American hostages being held in Iran, the White House Christmas Tree remained dark in 1979. A relative of one of the hostages persuaded President Jimmy Carter to light the tree on Christmas Eve in 1980, allowing one second for each of the 417 hostages - a total of six minutes and 57 seconds.

The story of Mistletoe in the Christmas tradition is from Norse mythology. Balder was the best-loved of all the gods, and one night he had a dream of impending danger. When he told his mother, Frigga, about the dream, she promised to protect him. Frigga went throughout the world asking and receiving a promise from everything, even the rocks and trees, that they would not harm Balder. When this was known, it became a sport to throw deadly objects at Balder since they would always fall short or turn aside because of their promise. Everyone was happy about Balder’s safety except Loki, who was jealous. Loki found out from Frigga that there was one very insignificant plant the she had overlooked when getting the promises - the mistletoe. Taking a sharp sprig of mistletoe, Loki went to Holder, Balder’s blind brother, and asked why he didn’t join in the game of throwing objects harmlessly at Balder. Holder said that he was blind and had nothing to throw. Loki gave him the mistletoe and guided his hand. The dart went straight to Balder’s heart, and he fell dead. Frigga blessed the plant, making it a symbol of love, and promised to bestow a kiss on all who passed beneath it.

The original Christmas trees were lit with candles - obviously a real fire danger. Buckets of water were kept around the room to put out the fires that started much too easily. Substituting electric lights first occurred to Ralph Morris, an employee of New England Telephone in 1895. The actual strings of lights were already being manufactured for use in telephone switchboards and Morris was the first to put them on his Christmas tree. Strings of lights were an immediate commercial success and allowed many firefighters to finish their dinners!


To the best of my knowledge, the music trivia and "factoids" within Pianotes are true, but I can’t guarantee it.