1. Wexford Carol (12th Century)
An old Irish carol from County Wexford.

2. White Christmas (1940) Irving Berlin
Berlin wasn’t sure if he had hit the mark with this tune, but after he played it for Bing Crosby, Bing declared it a winner. An understatement, as his recording of White Christmas was recognized as the best-selling single in any music category for more than 50 years.

3. Silent Night (Stille Nacht) (1818) Joseph Mohr - Franz Gruber
On Christmas Eve day in 1818, in a tiny Austrian village, the local Priest, Joseph Mohr, wrote a poem for the service. The church organ was broken, so the organist, Franz Gruber, created a simple tune for Mohr’s words, to be performed by a tenor, a bass and two guitars. That night at the midnight service Silent Night was heard for the first time.

4. Winter Wonderland (1934) Dick Smith - Felix Bernard
This tune was an immediate hit for Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, and later for Perry Como and The Andrews Sisters, that established the bubbly tune as a Yuletide favorite.

5. Oh, Come Little Children (Ihr Kinderlein Kommet) (1850) von Schmid - Schulz
The most endearing and enduring of the German carols for children.

6. I’ll Be Home For Christmas (1943) Kim Gannon - Walter Kent
In 1943 the world was at war, and many thousands of American men and women in the service would be spending Christmas far from home. As a special gift to them and their families came this tender ballad, recorded by Bing Crosby

7. A La Nanita Nana
A traditional Spanish carol.

8. Silver Bells (1950) Ray Evans - Jay Livingston
When asked to write a Christmas song for the movie The Lemon Drop Kid, Evans and Livingston set out to do something different. "It's practically the only song about Christmas in a big city, with department store lights, window displays, shoppers and all the rest,” said Ray Evans.

9. The Christmas Song (1946) Mel Torme - Robert Wells
Torme visited his friend and fellow musician, Robert Wells, on a blistering hot California day. To cool himself off, Wells had started writing a poem about winter. Torme suggested that they turn it into a song, which they did that afternoon.

10. O Holy Night (Cantique de Noel ) (1847) Cappeau - Adolphe Adam, J.S. Dwight
At the request of his local French church, Cappeau wrote a Christmas poem that was set to music by his friend and composer, Adolphe Adam. Church leaders denounced the song upon learning that Cappeau had turned away from his faith and joined the Socialist movement, and that Adam was a Jew. Perhaps due to its relentless popularity, after two decades, the church once again embraced Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night), easily the world’s most beloved Christmas solo.

11. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (1863) H.W. Longfellow - J. Baptiste Calkin
Longfellow wrote this poem while America was in the midst of its bloody Civil War, on Christmas Eve, 1863, six months after the Battle of Gettysburg where over 40,000 soldiers lost their lives. His faith in the power of God and man to join and transcend the horrors of war gave birth to his words, inspired by hearing the ringing out of the Christmas bells. Nine years later, it was set to music by Calkin, an English organist and composer.

12. Jingle Bells (1857) J.S. Pierpont
Jingle Bells memorializes the 'Cutter' drag races in Boston, where spiffed out sleighs would race between Medford and Malden Squares, and the drivers would try to pick up the local “chickies.”

13. I Wonder as I Wander (1933) John Jacob Niles
Music folklorist J. J. Niles based this folk tune on a fragment of a song he heard sung during the Depression by a disheveled, poor young girl, Annie Morgan, at a revival in North Carolina.

14. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (1944) Ralph Blane - Hugh Martin
Martin and Blane wrote this song as a war time (WWII) composition, reflecting the severe trials of the time and hopes for a brighter future. When it was used in the 1944 movie, Meet Me in St. Louis, some of the lyrics were changed to reflect the more upbeat mood of the period in which the movie was set, 1903 St. Louis. The original words are used on this recording.

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Thank you, Jim, for shaping these Christmas classics into a beautiful and inspiring new package. Happy Holidays to you, always. Thanks John, Dave and Tim, for joining me again at Westwood. You’re the best at the hardest musical performance work there is.