146 Fun Facts About Christmas Carols History

Silent Night was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 in a village church near which Austrian city?

Oberndorf, where Silent Night was first sung at St Nicholas church in 1818, lies about 17 km north of Salzburg; the flood-damaged church was later replaced by the Silent Night Chapel.

In Good King Wenceslas, whom does the king trudge through the snow to help?

The king spots a poor peasant gathering winter fuel and sets out with flesh, wine and pine logs; his page keeps going by treading in the king's footprints.

Who wrote the words to Silent Night, two years before it was set to music?

Joseph Mohr, a young assistant priest, wrote the six-verse poem in 1816; a manuscript in his own hand, found in 1995, is the earliest known copy of the carol.

Silent Night's tune was long credited to famous composers such as Haydn, Mozart and whom?

With the original manuscript lost, the melody was variously credited to Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven; the real composer was Franz Xaver Gruber, a village schoolmaster and organist.

In 2011 Silent Night was declared an intangible cultural heritage by which organisation?

The Austrian Commission for UNESCO added Silent Night to its national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in March 2011, honouring the carol first sung at Oberndorf in 1818.

John Freeman Young, who wrote the standard English Silent Night in 1859, was a priest in which city?

John Freeman Young was an Episcopal priest at Trinity Church in New York when he published his three-verse English Silent Night in 1859; he later became Bishop of Florida.

Placide Cappeau reportedly composed the poem behind O Holy Night in 1847 while travelling how?

Legend says Placide Cappeau, a Roquemaure wine merchant, drafted Minuit, chrétiens in a stagecoach on the road to Paris after his parish priest asked him for a Christmas poem.

Which composer of the ballet Giselle set O Holy Night to music within days?

Adolphe Adam, composer of the 1841 ballet Giselle, set Cappeau's poem in a few days in 1847; the result, Cantique de Noël, was first sung at Midnight Mass in Roquemaure.

John Sullivan Dwight, writer of the 1855 English O Holy Night, was drawn to it as what?

Dwight, a Boston music critic and abolitionist, rendered the verse 'Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother', which struck a chord in the antislavery North.

Wesley's original 1739 opening line for Hark! The Herald Angels Sing mentioned the 'welkin', meaning what?

George Whitefield rewrote the couplet into the version sung today; Wesley had wanted the words sung to his Easter tune.

Mendelssohn wrote the tune now used for Hark! The Herald Angels Sing to celebrate the 400th anniversary of what?

William Hayman Cummings, organist at Waltham Abbey, fitted Wesley's words to the Festgesang in 1855.

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is name-checked in which 1843 novella?

In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge chases off a boy who sings 'God rest you merry, gentlemen' at his keyhole; George Eliot's Silas Marner also quotes the carol.

John Francis Wade's 1751 manuscript at Stonyhurst College preserves which Christmas hymn?

Adeste Fideles, sung in English as O Come, All Ye Faithful, survives in Wade's 1751 manuscript at Stonyhurst College; authorship has also been claimed for John Reading and King John IV of Portugal.

Which priest's 1841 translation became the English carol 'O Come All Ye Faithful'?

Frederick Oakeley, then an Anglican at London's Margaret Chapel, made the translation in 1841 and became a Roman Catholic in 1845; his opening 'Ye faithful, approach ye' was revised to 'O come, all ye faithful' in 1852.

The real Wenceslas of Good King Wenceslas was a tenth-century duke of which land?

Saint Wenceslaus I ruled as Duke of Bohemia from about 921 until his murder in 935 and became the Czech patron saint; the carol's 'good king' is a later promotion.

Good King Wenceslas is set to a 13th-century tune originally about which season?

The tune is Tempus adest floridum, 'the time of flowers is here', a 13th-century spring song that J. M. Neale paired with his new Wenceslas words in 1853.

The First Nowell is a traditional English carol most likely from which county?

It reached a wide audience through an 1833 antiquarian collection, Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern.

The melody of Deck the Halls comes from Nos Galan, a traditional carol from which country?

Nos Galan means New Year's Eve; the English words were added by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant in 1862.

We Three Kings (1857) is described as the first widely popular Christmas carol written in which country?

John Henry Hopkins Jr. wrote We Three Kings for a seminary Christmas pageant, giving each of the three kings a solo verse; it is counted the first widely popular Christmas carol written in America.

Phillips Brooks wrote O Little Town of Bethlehem after visiting Bethlehem itself in which year?

Brooks rode from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 1865; three years later, in 1868, his organist Lewis Redner wrote the tune 'St. Louis' overnight for a Sunday-school service.

Which composer collected 'Forest Green', the British tune for O Little Town of Bethlehem?

Americans sing it to Redner's 'St. Louis' instead; the same composer took down the Sussex Carol from a singer near Horsham.

Edmund Sears, who wrote It Came Upon the Midnight Clear in 1849, was a pastor of which denomination?

Edmund Hamilton Sears was a Unitarian pastor in Wayland, Massachusetts, when he wrote the five verses in 1849; US congregations sing Richard Storrs Willis's 1850 tune 'Carol', British ones Arthur Sullivan's 'Noel'.

Angels We Have Heard on High is an English version of a traditional carol from which country?

Les Anges dans nos campagnes was paraphrased by James Chadwick; the tune is called 'Gloria'.

In the Bleak Midwinter began as a poem by which Victorian poet, published in Scribner's Monthly in 1872?

Its two famous settings are by the composer of The Planets and by Harold Darke; Darke's was voted the best carol of all in a 2008 poll of choirmasters.

Which composer of The Planets wrote the congregational tune 'Cranham' for In the Bleak Midwinter?

It appeared in the 1906 English Hymnal; Darke's 1909 anthem is the version choirs prefer.

The Coventry Carol, a lullaby sung by mothers, refers to which biblical event?

The mothers of Bethlehem sing 'Lully, lullay' to babies doomed by Herod's Massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 2); the carol's closing major chord is a textbook Picardy third.

Cecil Frances Alexander's 1848 hymnbook, with Once in Royal David's City, was aimed at whom?

Alexander's Hymns for Little Children (1848) taught the Creed to the young, this hymn illustrating 'born of the Virgin Mary'; Henry Gauntlett's tune Irby followed in 1849.

At King's College Cambridge, who sings the first verse of Once in Royal David's City on Christmas Eve?

A solo boy chorister sings the first verse unaccompanied; by tradition the director of music chooses him only seconds before the service begins, so no boy has time to get nervous.

Away in a Manger was long wrongly attributed to which German religious reformer?

It is now thought to be wholly American, with settings by James Ramsey Murray (1887) and William J. Kirkpatrick (1895).

Joy to the World was written in 1719 by which English hymn-writer as a paraphrase of Psalm 98?

Isaac Watts published the text in 1719, paraphrasing Psalm 98's 'make a joyful noise unto the Lord'; the tune Antioch is Lowell Mason's 1848 arrangement of a melody credited to Handel.

Which folk-song collector took down the standard version of The Holly and the Ivy in Chipping Campden in 1909?

Cecil Sharp noted the words and tune from Mary Clayton of Chipping Campden in January 1909 and printed them in his English Folk-Carols (1911), the version now sung everywhere.

Jingle Bells was first performed in September 1857 at Ordway Hall in Boston by what kind of entertainer?

Blackface minstrel performer Johnny Pell sang it at Ordway Hall that September; the piece was one of many sleighing songs of the day and became a Christmas staple only decades later.

When Jingle Bells was copyrighted, James Lord Pierpont was an organist in which Southern city?

Pierpont was organist at a church in Savannah, Georgia, where his brother was minister, when he copyrighted the song; a historical marker in the city claims it as the song's birthplace.

The lost 1889 Jingle Bells, thought to be the first Christmas record, was on what format?

Banjoist Will Lyle recorded it on an Edison wax cylinder in 1889, a recording now lost; the earliest surviving version is the Edison Male Quartette's 1898 cylinder 'Sleigh Ride Party'.

Carol of the Bells is based on Shchedryk, a Ukrainian song originally associated with which celebration?

Mykola Leontovych built it on a four-note folk motif; the pre-Christian new year was marked by the return of the swallows.

Shchedryk had its US premiere in October 1922 at which New York venue?

Oleksander Koshetz's Ukrainian National Chorus sang Shchedryk at Carnegie Hall on 5 October 1922; Peter Wilhousky, an NBC arranger, wrote the bell-themed English words in 1936.

The tune of Ding Dong Merrily on High first appeared in a 16th-century French book as what kind of piece?

Thoinot Arbeau's 1589 dance manual Orchésographie printed the tune as a dance, the 'Branle de l'Official'; George Ratcliffe Woodward, a keen bell-ringer, wrote the words in 1924.

What Child Is This? sets William Chatterton Dix's 1865 words to which traditional English tune?

Dix's words, drawn from his poem The Manger Throne, were set to the Elizabethan tune Greensleeves in an 1871 carol collection; the carol is now more popular in the United States than in Britain.

Which Austrian vocal group made the first recording of The Little Drummer Boy in 1951?

The Trapp Family Singers made the first recording in 1951 for Decca, under Katherine K. Davis's original title; the song only became a hit seven years later.

Do You Hear What I Hear? was written in October 1962 as a plea for peace during which Cold War standoff?

Noël Regney wrote the words and his wife Gloria Shayne the music in October 1962, as the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded; Bing Crosby's 1963 recording sold over a million copies.

Which composer and choral arranger wrote Mary's Boy Child, a 1956 hit for Harry Belafonte and later Boney M.?

Jester Hairston, a Hollywood choral arranger and actor, wrote Mary's Boy Child in 1956 for Harry Belafonte, whose recording topped the UK chart in 1957; Boney M.'s 1978 disco medley was a UK Christmas number one.

The Wexford Carol is a traditional carol from which country?

The carol is from Enniscorthy, County Wexford, in Ireland's south-east, and is also called the Enniscorthy Carol; it was transcribed by William Grattan Flood, organist at Enniscorthy cathedral.

Which pioneering English printer published The Boar's Head Carol in a 1521 collection?

Wynkyn de Worde, Caxton's former assistant, printed it in his Christmasse Carolles of 1521, the earliest printed carol collection; the carol is sung at The Queen's College, Oxford, at its boar's head feast.

The first Nine Lessons and Carols service was held on Christmas Eve 1880 at which English cathedral?

Bishop Edward White Benson held the first service in Truro's temporary wooden cathedral on Christmas Eve 1880, partly to draw local revellers out of the pubs and into church.

In which year did King's College, Cambridge hold its first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols?

Eric Milner-White, the new dean, introduced the festival on Christmas Eve 1918, weeks after the Armistice; radio broadcasts of the service began in 1928 and television coverage in 1954.

In dulci jubilo is a medieval 'macaronic' carol, meaning its text mixes German with which language?

J. M. Neale's English version is Good Christian Men, Rejoice, and Bach's chorale prelude on the tune is a traditional Christmas postlude.

Gaudete and the Good King Wenceslas tune come from Piae Cantiones, a 1582 songbook compiled in which country?

Jacobus Finno, headmaster of the cathedral school at Turku in Finland (then under Swedish rule), compiled the collection; it was printed at Greifswald in 1582 and rediscovered by J. M. Neale in 1853.

Vernacular Christmas songs spread through 13th-century Italy under which saint's influence?

Francis of Assisi, who staged the first Nativity crib at Greccio in 1223, encouraged songs in the people's own tongue; a tradition of vernacular Christmas songs grew in Italy and spread across Europe.

The earliest known English carols were written down in 1426 by John Awdlay, a chaplain from which county?

John Awdlay (Audelay), a blind chaplain at Haughmond Abbey in Shropshire, listed twenty-five 'caroles of Cristemas' in his 1426 manuscript, songs probably sung by wassailers going house to house.

During which period in England were carols sung only privately, at semi-clandestine services?

The Victorian revival, driven by antiquarian collectors, brought many old carols back into print.

Whose 1833 collection Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern preserved The First Noel and I Saw Three Ships?

William Sandys, a London solicitor and antiquary, printed The First Noel, I Saw Three Ships, Hark the Herald and God Rest You Merry in his 1833 Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern.

Which organisation, under Charles Fry, began playing carols in public with a brass band in 1878?

Charles Fry and his three sons formed the Salvation Army's first brass band at Salisbury in 1878, and the Army's carolling bands became a fixture of British Christmases.

Orchard-visiting wassailers in the West Country sing to the trees to promote a good harvest of what?

House-visiting wassailing on Twelfth Night, with a shared bowl of hot spiced ale or cider, is the ancestor of door-to-door carolling.

The best-known tune for The Twelve Days of Christmas is a 1909 arrangement by which English composer?

Baritone Frederic Austin published his arrangement in 1909, adding the drawn-out 'five gold rings'; the words had first appeared in the children's book Mirth Without Mischief around 1780.

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming first appeared in print in 1599 in which German city?

Es ist ein Ros entsprungen was first printed in a Catholic hymnal, the so-called Speyer Gesangbuch, published at Cologne in 1599; Michael Praetorius's 1609 harmonisation is the one everyone sings.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel paraphrases which plainchants sung at Vespers just before Christmas?

The O Antiphons — O Sapientia, O Adonai and the rest — are sung before the Magnificat at Vespers from 17 to 23 December; the hymn paraphrasing them was first printed in 1710 and Englished by Neale in 1851.

The German carol O Tannenbaum is known in English by what title?

O Christmas Tree is the usual English title; the tune was a folk song about a faithful fir, and the 1824 words by Ernst Anschütz later came to celebrate the decorated Christmas tree.

Good King Wenceslas looks out on the Feast of Stephen, which falls on what date?

St Stephen's Day, the feast of the first Christian martyr, falls on 26 December in the Western church; Neale's 1853 carol sets the king's charitable errand on that day, also known as Boxing Day.

Franz Xaver Gruber spent his final decades as choirmaster in which Austrian town?

Gruber moved to Hallein in 1835 as choirmaster and organist of the parish church, stayed until his death in 1863 and is buried there; his former home is now a Silent Night museum.

The poem Stille Nacht was written in 1816 at a pilgrim church in which Austrian village?

Mariapfarr, in the Lungau region, is the pilgrimage parish where the poem's author served as assistant priest in 1816; a manuscript in his own hand, found in 1995, settled the date.

Which travelling family of folk singers gave Silent Night its first US performance, in New York in 1839?

An organ builder named Karl Mauracher carried the song to the Zillertal, where singing families picked it up.

At the first performance of Silent Night in 1818, which instrument did Joseph Mohr play?

Mohr played guitar and sang tenor at the Christmas Eve 1818 Mass while Gruber, who had composed the melody to Mohr's request that day, sang bass; the choir joined for the refrain.

Before becoming a schoolteacher and composing Silent Night, Franz Xaver Gruber worked in which trade?

Franz Xaver Gruber, born at Hochburg-Ach in Upper Austria in 1787, worked at his father's loom as a linen weaver until he was allowed to train as a schoolteacher.

Whose dissonant 1978 violin-and-piano arrangement of Stille Nacht caused a scandal in Austria?

Alfred Schnittke wrote his sour, detuned Stille Nacht in 1978 as a Christmas greeting for violinist Gidon Kremer; Austrian audiences took its dissonance as an insult to their national carol.

Under what title was Jingle Bells first copyrighted in September 1857?

Pierpont registered it as 'The One Horse Open Sleigh' with Oliver Ditson of Boston; the 1859 reissue retitled it 'Jingle Bells, or The One Horse Open Sleigh'.

A plaque in which Massachusetts town claims to mark the birthplace of Jingle Bells?

Medford's plaque at 19 High Street says Pierpont wrote the song at the Simpson Tavern in 1850; researcher Kyna Hamill argues it was more likely written in Boston shortly before he moved south.

In 1965, which spacecraft's astronauts played Jingle Bells on a smuggled harmonica and bells?

Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford aboard Gemini 6 reported a 'UFO' in polar orbit on 16 December 1965, then played Jingle Bells on a smuggled Hohner harmonica and sleigh bells, now at the Smithsonian.

Which bandleader's 1941 big-band Jingle Bells reached No. 5 on the Billboard pop chart?

Glenn Miller's December 1941 recording, with vocals by Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Ernie Caceres and the Modernaires, peaked at No. 5; Benny Goodman's swing version had reached No. 18 in 1935.

White Christmas was written by Irving Berlin for which 1942 musical film?

Bing Crosby sang it to Marjorie Reynolds in Holiday Inn (1942), and the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song; the 1954 film White Christmas reused it.

Roughly how many copies has Bing Crosby's White Christmas single sold, a world record?

Guinness World Records lists Bing Crosby's White Christmas as the best-selling single ever, with estimated sales of 50 million copies; all versions of the song together top 100 million.

Bing Crosby first performed White Christmas in public on Christmas Day 1941 on which radio show?

Crosby sang it on his NBC radio programme The Kraft Music Hall on 25 December 1941, eighteen days after Pearl Harbor; the Decca studio recording followed on 29 May 1942, taking 18 minutes.

Why did Bing Crosby re-record White Christmas in March 1947?

The 1947 version, heard most on radio today, can be told apart by flutes and celesta at the opening.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was originally created in 1939 as an assignment for which company?

Copywriter Robert L. May wrote the story for Montgomery Ward, which gave away 2.4 million copies of the booklet to shoppers in 1939; his brother-in-law later turned it into the song.

Who recorded the original 1949 hit version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Autry first rejected the song as a B-side, but his wife talked him into recording it.

The 1949 hit recording of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer holds what distinction in US chart history?

It also remains the only chart-topper to fall completely off the chart immediately after hitting No. 1.

Whose 1958 record Run Rudolph Run is a rock-and-roll sequel to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Chuck Berry recorded Run Rudolph Run for Chess Records in 1958, driving it with the same riff as Johnny B. Goode; Keith Richards cut a version in 1978 as his first solo single.

Which studio made the black-and-white Frosty the Snowman short long aired by Chicago's WGN-TV?

UPA, the studio behind Mr. Magoo and Gerald McBoing-Boing, made the three-minute black-and-white short; Chicago's WGN-TV has screened it each December alongside Suzy Snowflake and Hardrock, Coco and Joe.

Which comedian narrated and sang in the 1969 Rankin/Bass TV special Frosty the Snowman?

Jimmy Durante narrated the special and sang the title song in his gravelly style; the animation was done by Japan's Mushi Production, with Jackie Vernon voicing Frosty.

Which New York village holds an annual parade dedicated to Frosty the Snowman?

Armonk, in Westchester County, claims lyricist Steve Nelson had the village in mind, and celebrates with an annual Frosty Day parade and tree lighting; the lyrics never mention Christmas.

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town became a hit after which entertainer sang it on his radio show in November 1934?

Eddie Cantor sang it on his Chase and Sanborn radio show in November 1934; within 24 hours orders came in for 500,000 copies of the sheet music and more than 30,000 records.

Bruce Springsteen's famous live Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town was recorded in 1975 at what kind of venue?

The recording comes from a 12 December 1975 concert at C. W. Post College on Long Island; it surfaced on the 1981 children's compilation In Harmony 2 and became the B-side of My Hometown in 1985.

The chorus refrain borrowed by Springsteen, the Jackson 5 and Mariah Carey comes from whose 1963 recording?

The Crystals cut it for Phil Spector's 1963 album A Christmas Gift for You; their call-and-response coda was copied by the Jackson 5, by Springsteen in 1975 and by Mariah Carey in 1994.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was introduced by Judy Garland in which 1944 MGM musical?

In Meet Me in St. Louis, Garland's Esther sings it on Christmas Eve to console her little sister Tootie, played by Margaret O'Brien, as the family faces a move away from St. Louis.

Which singer asked Hugh Martin in 1957 to 'jolly up' a line of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?

Frank Sinatra, recording A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra in 1957, asked Hugh Martin to replace 'until then we'll have to muddle through somehow' with 'hang a shining star upon the highest bough'.

Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote Let It Snow! in July 1945 under what conditions?

Cahn and Styne wrote the song in Hollywood during a July 1945 heatwave, imagining cooler weather; the lyrics never once mention Christmas.

Who made the first recording of Let It Snow! in autumn 1945, taking it to No. 1?

Vaughn Monroe's RCA Victor recording, released in November 1945, topped Billboard's best-sellers chart for five weeks early in 1946, ahead of a rival version by Woody Herman.

Lyricist Richard Smith wrote Winter Wonderland in 1934 while being treated for which illness?

Richard B. Smith wrote the words in 1934 while being treated for tuberculosis at the West Mountain Sanitarium in Scranton, inspired by the snow-covered Central Park of his hometown, Honesdale; he died of the disease in 1935.

In the 1947 children's rewrite of Winter Wonderland, Parson Brown was replaced by what figure?

The 1947 children's lyric swaps the parson for 'a circus clown' that the kids build in the meadow, turning a romantic winter stroll into a song about playing in the snow.

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) was co-written in 1945 by Robert Wells and which jazz singer?

Mel Tormé recalled finding Wells's scribbled lines on a blazing July day in 1945 and finishing the song together in about 45 minutes; Nat King Cole recorded it first, in 1946.

Which of Nat King Cole's four recordings of The Christmas Song is generally regarded as definitive?

The 1961 recording joined the National Recording Registry in 2022; the 1946 original is in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride was premiered in May 1948 by which orchestra?

Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops gave the first performance in May 1948 and recorded it for RCA Victor in 1949; Anderson had begun the piece during a hot July in 1946.

Near the end of Sleigh Ride, which instrument imitates a horse whinnying?

A trumpet's smeared glissando imitates a horse whinnying in the final bars, while a percussionist supplies the clip-clop on temple blocks and the whip crack on a slapstick.

Who was commissioned by Mills Music in 1950 to add lyrics to Sleigh Ride?

Mitchell Parish, who had also put words to Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust, wrote the Sleigh Ride lyric in 1950; it never mentions Christmas or any other holiday.

Under what title did Katherine Kennicott Davis originally write The Little Drummer Boy in 1941?

Davis wrote Carol of the Drum in 1941 as a piece for girls' choir, its 'pa rum pum pum pum' imitating the drum; the drummer at the manger has no basis in the Gospels.

Whose 1958 chorale recording turned The Little Drummer Boy into a perennial Christmas chart hit?

Harry Simeone's chorale recorded it for 20th Century Fox Records in 1958, closely copying a Jack Halloran Singers arrangement of 1957; the record returned to the US charts every Christmas through 1962.

Bing Crosby's 1977 duet medley of The Little Drummer Boy was sung with which rock star?

David Bowie taped the medley with Crosby on 11 September 1977 for the TV special Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, a month before Crosby died; Bowie's counter-melody Peace on Earth was written on the spot.

José Feliciano wrote and first recorded Feliz Navidad in which year?

José Feliciano wrote it in 1970, homesick for Puerto Rico while recording in a studio; the song appeared on his 1970 album of the same name and pairs a Spanish greeting with one English line.

Besides acoustic guitar, which Puerto Rican instrument does José Feliciano play on Feliz Navidad?

Feliciano plays the cuatro, a small ten-string instrument of Puerto Rico, alongside his acoustic six-string on the original recording; the song reached the Billboard Hot 100's top ten in 2020.

Blue Christmas, later an Elvis Presley staple, was first recorded in 1948 by which country singer?

Western singer and actor Doye O'Dell cut the first version in 1948; Ernest Tubb's 1949 cover then topped Billboard's country jukebox chart, and Elvis's 1957 take made it a standard.

Which vocal group backed Elvis Presley on his 1957 recording of Blue Christmas?

The Jordanaires, Elvis's regular gospel-quartet backers, sang on the September 1957 session for Elvis' Christmas Album, joined by soprano Millie Kirkham, whose high wail became the record's signature.

How old was Brenda Lee when she recorded Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree in 1958?

Brenda Lee was 13 when she cut the song in Nashville in October 1958 with producer Owen Bradley; her voice was so mature that listeners assumed she was an adult.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree topped the Billboard Hot 100 how many years after its release?

Released in 1958, the song reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated 9 December 2023, 65 years later, the longest climb to the top in the chart's history at that time.

Bobby Helms claimed the Beal-Boothe song Decca handed him in 1957 was originally titled what?

Helms said the demo was called 'Jingle Bell Hop'; he and session musician Hank Garland claimed they rewrote the melody and lyrics and added a bridge, but Beal and Boothe kept sole writing credit.

Silver Bells debuted in which 1951 Bob Hope film?

Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell sang it as street-corner Santas in The Lemon Drop Kid; Livingston and Evans had called it 'Tinkle Bells' until Livingston's wife pointed out the double meaning.

Which composer of The Music Man wrote It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas in 1951?

Meredith Willson wrote it in 1951, six years before The Music Man; Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters made the first recording that September, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia claims its streets and Grand Hotel inspired the lyric.

Gene Autry got the idea for Here Comes Santa Claus after riding his horse in a 1946 parade in which city?

Autry rode his horse Champion in the 1946 Santa Claus Lane Parade in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and heard children shouting 'Here comes Santa Claus!' as the sleigh followed; he had the song ready for Christmas 1947.

Which broadcaster banned I'll Be Home for Christmas in WWII, fearing it would sap troop morale?

The BBC barred the song from its airwaves, judging that Bing Crosby's wistful 'if only in my dreams' could lower British troops' morale; US forces made it the most-requested number at Christmas USO shows.

In the 1964 TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Burl Ives sang A Holly Jolly Christmas as which character?

Burl Ives voiced Sam the Snowman, the banjo-strumming narrator of the Rankin/Bass stop-motion special, and his recording of A Holly Jolly Christmas became a perennial seasonal hit.

The first known Christmas hymns, such as Veni redemptor gentium, are traced to 4th-century Rome and which archbishop?

Ambrose of Milan wrote Veni redemptor gentium ('Come, Redeemer of the nations') in the late 4th century, an austere hymn asserting the Incarnation against Arianism; it was later translated into German and English.

Henry Bramley co-edited the 1871 revival book Christmas Carols, New and Old with which composer?

John Stainer, organist of Magdalen College and later St Paul's Cathedral, arranged the tunes for Bramley's 1871 collection, which fixed favourites such as See, Amid the Winter's Snow in popular memory.

Carols for Choirs, the bestselling OUP series first published in 1961, was edited by Reginald Jacques and whom?

David Willcocks, then organist of King's College, Cambridge, edited the first Carols for Choirs with Reginald Jacques in 1961; John Rutter joined him for the second volume in 1970.

The word 'wassail' comes from a salutation in which language, meaning 'be in good health'?

Wassail derives from the Old Norse greeting 'ves heill', 'be in good health'; the toast-and-reply formula 'wassail … drinkhail' grew up among the Danish settlers of England and is recorded in the 12th century.

On which date is the house-visiting wassail traditionally held?

The house-visiting wassail falls on Twelfth Night, 5 January, the eve of Epiphany; orchard wassailers in the West Country often keep 'Old Twelvey Night', 17 January, the date under the pre-1752 calendar.

In which Shakespeare play does the king 'take his rouse' and 'keep wassail'?

In Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 4, Hamlet tells Horatio that Claudius 'takes his rouse, keeps wassail', using the word for drunken revelry rather than a toast; by about 1300 it had already meant the spiced ale.

Carols by Candlelight, the outdoor singalong tradition, was popularised in 1938 in which city?

Radio announcer Norman Banks of Melbourne station 3KZ staged the first Carols by Candlelight in the city's Alexandra Gardens on Christmas Eve 1938, after seeing a lone woman singing to a carol by candlelight.

Since 1959, Australia's oldest Carols by Candlelight has been held at which permanent venue?

The event moved in 1959 to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, an open-air venue in Kings Domain that opened that year; the first gathering in Alexandra Gardens in 1938 had drawn around 10,000 people.

Cornish miners in Moonta, South Australia, sang carols on Christmas Eve with candles stuck to what?

Moonta's miners fixed tallow 'fat-jack' candles to their hats with wet clay and sang carols through the streets on Christmas Eve, a custom the copper-mining town dates to the 1860s.

Benjamin Britten composed A Ceremony of Carols in 1942 while doing what?

Britten composed A Ceremony of Carols in March and April 1942 aboard the Swedish cargo ship Axel Johnson while sailing from the US to England, setting mostly medieval English texts.

Which instrument accompanies the choir in Britten's A Ceremony of Carols?

A harp solo Interlude based on the Gregorian chant Hodie Christus natus est helps unify the eleven movements.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio, written for the 1734 season, is divided into how many parts?

The Christmas Oratorio has six parts, one cantata for each feast day from Christmas Day through Epiphany, much of it reworked from Bach's earlier secular cantatas.

After Bach's lifetime, the next complete public performance of the Christmas Oratorio was in which year?

The Berlin Sing-Akademie under Eduard Grell gave the first complete performance since Bach's death on 17 December 1857, more than a century after the 1734-35 premiere.

Go Tell It on the Mountain was first published by John Wesley Work Jr., a collector of songs sung by which group?

John Wesley Work Jr. taught at Fisk University in Nashville and directed the Fisk Jubilee Singers, whose spirituals he collected; he first printed Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1907.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is based on an 1863 poem by which American poet?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem Christmas Bells on 25 December 1863, weeks after his son Charles was badly wounded fighting for the Union in Virginia.

Which Rudolph songwriter composed the 1956 melody for I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day recorded by Bing Crosby?

Johnny Marks, writer of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, set the poem in 1956; Bing Crosby recorded it that year and reportedly quipped that Marks had 'finally got a decent lyricist'.

The Huron Carol, Canada's oldest Christmas song, was written around 1642 by which Jesuit missionary?

Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, wrote Jesous Ahatonhia in the Wendat language around 1642, to the French folk tune Une Jeune Pucelle.

In the English Huron Carol, what do the 'chiefs from afar' bring instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh?

In Jesse Edgar Middleton's 1926 English lyrics the chiefs bring fox and beaver pelts ('gifts of fox and beaver pelt') to the child born in a 'lodge of broken bark'.

Which Poet Laureate is credited with the words of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks, published in 1700?

Nahum Tate, Poet Laureate from 1692, wrote the words, first printed in the 1700 Supplement to the New Version by Tate and Nicholas Brady; for decades it was the only Christmas hymn the Church of England authorised.

The standard British tune for While Shepherds Watched, Winchester Old, first appeared in a 1592 book of what?

Winchester Old was printed in Thomas Este's 1592 The Whole Booke of Psalmes, a book of metrical psalms; the tune was adapted from Christopher Tye's 1553 setting of the Acts of the Apostles.

The Coventry Carol was originally sung in a mystery play staged by which Coventry guilds?

The carol belongs to the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, one of Coventry's mystery plays; Robert Croo's text of the play is dated 14 March 1534.

Robert Croo's original 1534 Coventry Carol manuscript was destroyed in an 1879 library fire in which city?

Thomas Sharp's careful 1817 and 1825 transcriptions are now the only source for the text and music.

Who composed 'Humility', the 1871 tune for See Amid the Winter's Snow?

John Goss, organist of St Paul's Cathedral, composed the tune Humility in 1871 for Edward Caswall's words See Amid the Winter's Snow.

The Cherry Tree Carol is unusual in being both a Christmas carol and one of what collection of traditional songs?

The Cherry Tree Carol is number 54 in Francis James Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, the Child Ballads; Joan Baez recorded it on her 1961 album Joan Baez, Vol. 2.

Do They Know It's Christmas? was written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and which Ultravox frontman?

Midge Ure, Ultravox's frontman, wrote the music and produced the track; Band Aid recorded it in one day at Sarm West Studios on 25 November 1984 and it sold a million copies in its first week.

Wham!'s Last Christmas first reached UK number one on what date, 36 years after release?

Last Christmas finally topped the UK singles chart on New Year's Day 2021, 36 years after release; until then it had been the best-selling UK single never to reach number one.

Mariah Carey co-wrote and co-produced All I Want for Christmas Is You with which collaborator?

Walter Afanasieff co-wrote and co-produced the song with Mariah Carey; it was the lead single from her 1994 album Merry Christmas and first topped the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2019.

Which singer duets with Shane MacGowan on the Pogues' Fairytale of New York?

Kirsty MacColl, whose husband Steve Lillywhite produced the track, sings the duet; it peaked at number two, held off the 1987 UK Christmas number one by the Pet Shop Boys' Always on My Mind.

Wonderful Christmastime was recorded during sessions for which 1980 solo album by a former Beatle?

Paul McCartney taped it alone in summer 1979 during the McCartney II sessions, playing every part himself; the video with Wings was shot at the Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex.

Which vocal group is credited alongside the Plastic Ono Band on Happy Xmas (War Is Over)?

Children of the Harlem Community Choir sang the 'War is over, if you want it' refrain at the Record Plant session in October 1971; the phrase echoes Lennon and Ono's 1969 billboard campaign.

The chorus melody of Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody came from a discarded 1967 song by Noddy Holder called what?

Holder's unused 1967 song Buy Me a Rocking Chair supplied the chorus melody; Jim Lea wrote the verse melody in the shower, and the single beat Wizzard to the 1973 Christmas number one.

Why did Wizzard re-record I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday with a new school choir in 1981?

The 1973 master tapes were lost, so Roy Wood re-recorded the song in 1981 with children from Kempsey Primary School in Worcestershire in place of the original Stockland Green School choir.

Cliff Richard's 1988 hit Mistletoe and Wine was originally written for a musical based on which fairy tale?

The song came from Scraps, a musical based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, where it was sung ironically; Cliff Richard altered the lyrics to give it a religious theme.

Which UK broadcaster announces the Christmas number one single each year?

BBC Radio 1's Official Chart show reveals the Christmas number one, compiled by the Official Charts Company; the race became a national event in 1973 when Slade and Wizzard competed for the top.

Whose Merry Christmas Everyone was the UK Christmas number one single of 1985?

Shakin' Stevens recorded Merry Christmas Everyone in 1984 but held it back a year so as not to compete with Band Aid; it topped the UK chart at Christmas 1985.

The familiar words of O Tannenbaum were written in 1824 by Ernst Anschütz, a teacher and organist in which city?

Ernst Anschütz, a Leipzig schoolteacher and organist, added two Christmas verses in 1824 to August Zarnack's 1820 first verse, which is why the German text mentions Christmas only from verse two.

Which Victorian designer and poet wrote the words of Masters in This Hall around 1860 to an old French dance tune?

William Morris wrote the words around 1860 for his friend the architect Edmund Sedding, who had the tune, Marin Marais's sailors' march from the 1706 opera Alcyone, from the organist of Chartres Cathedral.

The Spanish Renaissance carol Riu Riu Chiu is known from a single 1556 songbook preserved at which university?

The only known copy of the 1556 Cancionero de Upsala, printed in Venice, survives in Uppsala University Library in Sweden; the Monkees sang Riu Riu Chiu on their 1967 Christmas episode.