ANOTHER MUSICAL MUSING–1 December 2023: “Some Old and Not So Old Santa Songs for Today”

It’s December already. So, let me be the first to plant some of those Christmassy earworms in your heads. My (dubious?) gift to you!

Way, way back in the early 1940s I was more aware of Santa Claus than the Nativity around this time of year.  Hey!  I was only three or four years old, too young even for Sunday School.  Anyway, these days when I open up the big red storage box marked “Christmas,” I still reach for and unwrap “my Santa” first. 

This is a papier mache figure of the rotund gent himself that my mother bought in our local dime store back in 1942.  It’s been in my family ever since and the first bit of holiday décor I set out each year.  Ah, tradition!

As to music from those early days, I remember in grade school (public not parochial) my class singing traditional holiday songs and carols around our classroom Christmas tree just before lunch hour. 

There was also the excitement of drawing names for our annual class gift exchange—a twenty-five cent limit! A Comet model airplane kit (ah!) for a boy . . .

or a dime store bottle of Blue Waltz perfume (ugh!) for a girl.

In Junior High we would have the annual Christmas pageant with boys in bathrobes with dish towels tied to their heads as “shepherds” and “kings” and girls in white dresses with shiny wings and halos. 

The best singer did the “angel solo” and it didn’t matter to anyone that she was Jewish.  For that matter, so was Jesus.  Those were the days.

Anyway, some of my favorite songs were from the 1800s such as “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” and “Up on the House Top.” Others were from the Tin Pan Alley days like “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” All of these were “Santa” songs that appealed to we wee ones. And then there were those novelty songs from the 1950s plus one or two that touched on more grown-up themes.

Let’s start with the oldies.

There are differences of opinion about the origins of “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.” Suffice it to say that it was first published as a poem in the 1860s and subsequently set to music.  It was first published as a song in 1874 in “School Chimes, A New School Music Book” intended for use in grade schools.

Tap or click on the triangle in the next image to give a listen to this jolly oldie with some great guitar picking by Chet Atkins.

The song “Up on the House Top” has similar roots.  In fact, it is considered as the second oldest secular Christmas song after “Jingle Bells” and the first holiday song to feature Santa Claus!  Who knew? 

It was considered at the time a “follow-up” to the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” better known as “The Night Before Christmas.” 

The song was first published in 1857 in the magazine “Our Song Birds.”   

These two songs show up on just about every popular Christmas singalong out there.  Here is a rendition with the original lyrics.  Tap or click on the triangle in the next image or link to hear this one with some nice old-time banjo accompaniment.

Moving on to something a bit more “modern,” “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” was first recorded in 1934 by banjoist Harry Reser and his band. No Santa suit here but Reser did dress one of his bands in Eskimo costumes. Close enough! 

This song became an instant hit with more than 30,000 records sold within twenty-four hours, to say nothing of a half million copies of sheet music.  Not bad for a simple Santa ditty!

Tap or click on the triangle in the next image to hear Reser and his band with Eddie Cantor doing the vocals—some nice scenes of Christmas past also!

And, of course we have an instrumental version.  Click or tap on the next image or link to hear a delightful mandolin/banjolele version.

Let’s take a look at one more earworm “Santa song,” one published a bit later than the one’s we’ve taken a look at and one we didn’t sing around my grade school Christmas tree. No need to listen to this one. We all know how the story played out!

But, here’s another a tad too torchy for a schoolroom singalong!

Click or tap on the triangle in the next image to hear and see Eartha in action!

So, we have delved into the realm of Santa Songs from the G-rated to the, well, not quite X-rated. We’ll be hearing them all over and Over and OVER again for the next few weeks every time we go into a store or turn on the radio. Just remember, you got your Santa earworms here first!

You’re welcome! 

We can still remember those simpler times when thoughts of Santa’s visit and visions of songs and sugar plums danced in our young, young heads. 

Yes, gentle readers, the spirit of Santa is still out there no matter what we call it or how we celebrate–the spirit of the season will be in our hearts.

So, stay safe, stay warm, stay festive, and STAY TUNED! Are those sleigh bells I’m hearing?

Note: I don’t usually add a personal photo to my “Musical Musings” but, as we are getting to the end of the forty or so of these blog postings that I have sent out to friends and neighbors this year (whew!), I’m compelled to close with a pic from a couple of years ago. 

And, remember, some sort of Santa is within us no matter what our age!