The Origins of Famous Christmas Songs

Christmas is coming, the atmosphere of the special year-end holiday season begins to spread through the streets, shops, supermarkets. Familiar Christmas songs are playing again and do you know their origin?

You've sung them while sipping hot cocoa, snuggling around the fire, or stomping through piles of snow. You've heard them played at shopping malls, churches, and holiday parties. You know all the words by heart. But do you know how some of the world's most famous Christmas tunes were written?

The Origins of Famous Christmas Songs

• “Silent Night”
• “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
• “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
• “Deck the Halls”
• “Good King Wenceslas”

“Silent Night”

The legend behind one of the world’s most popular Christmas carols plays out like a Christmas miracle of sorts. The story goes that Father Joseph Mohr of Oberndorf, Austria, was determined to have music at his Christmas Eve service, even though the organ at his beloved St. Nicholas Church was broken. So he wrote a poem and asked his friend Franz Gruber to compose music for it without the need for an organ. The truth, however, is a little less dramatic.

In 1816, the Catholic priest wrote the poem “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!” while working at a pilgrimage church in Mariapfarr, Austria. When he moved to St. Nicholas two years later, he asked Gruber to help him write guitar music for the poem, which the two performed—backed by a choir—on Christmas Eve 1818. “Silent Night” was translated into English more than 40 years later by Episcopal priest John Freeman Young, who is responsible for the version that Americans favor.

“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”

Composed by James “Haven” Gillespie, this cheerful tune was first performed on American singer Eddie Cantor’s radio show in 1934. But for all its cheerfulness, its inspiration came from a place of sadness. In his book Stories Behind the Greatest Hits of Christmas, Ace Collins explains that Gillespie was a vaudeville performer turned songwriter who had fallen on hard times, both financially and personally. Gillespie got the call to write a Christmas tune for Cantor shortly after learning of his brother’s death.

He initially turned down the job, feeling too sad to consider writing a cheerful holiday song. But a subway ride that brought back childhood memories with his brother and his mother's warning that Santa was watching them changed his mind. He wrote the lyrics in 15 minutes, then called in songwriter John Coots to compose the music, and it became a huge hit within 24 hours of its release.

“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

The earliest version of this hymn was a poem written in 1739 by Charles Wesley, brother of John Wesley, founder of Methodism. However, the original opening line that appeared in his Hymns and Sacred Poems was “Hark how all the welkin rings,” using a rarely used term for heaven. The English preacher and contemporary of Wesley, George Whitefield, edited the opening line into the one we know today.

In this early version, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" was sung to several different tunes, including "New Britain." The more upbeat tempo of the current song comes from the German composer Felix Mendelssohn. More than 100 years after it was written, the English composer William H. Cummings paired the hymn with Mendelssohn's cantata Fetgesang. While this was a well-received variation, it was a development that may not have been appreciated by either Wesley or Mendelssohn: the former believed the hymn was best sung slowly, while the latter was a strictly secular composer.

“Deck the Halls”

This cheerful tune originated in 16th-century Wales, where the melody and most of the lyrics were taken from the New Year's Eve song "Nos Galan." Lines like "Oh! how soft my fair one's bosom/ Fa la la la la la la la la la," were adapted into Christmas greetings like "Deck the halls with boughs of holly/ Fa la la la la la la la la la." This musical change was made by Scottish folk songwriter Thomas Oliphant, who built his reputation on old melodies with new lyrics. In 1862, his "Deck the Hall" was published in Welsh Melodies, Volume 2. He later became a famous translator of songs as well as a lyricist to the court of Queen Victoria.

But Oliphant's version is not the one most commonly sung today. Now known as "Deck the Halls," lines like “Fill the meadcup, drain the barrel,” have been swapped for “Don we now our gay apparel.” This variation became popular from reprinted sheet music in 1877 and 1881.

“Good King Wenceslas”

This unconventional but beloved hymn dates back to 1853, when English hymn writer John Mason Neale first wrote the lyrics. Set to the tune of the 14th-century hymn “The Time Is Near For Flowering,” “Good King Wenceslas” focuses on the journey of a good-natured man who sets out in terrible weather on the post-Christmas holiday of St. Stephen’s Day to help his needy neighbors.

The “king” in question was a real man, Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, who reigned from 924 to 935, when he was assassinated by his own brother, Boleslav the Cruel. Unlike his dubiously named brother, Wenceslaus was revered by his subjects. His great acts of charity led to his being declared king after his death and eventually being canonized. He is now the patron saint of the Czech Republic.