Here Comes Santa Claus & White Christmas

Christmas Carols Explained, #21 and #22

Mea culpa. By the time I got to writing last night, it was late, so I coupled these for today.

“Here Comes Santa Claus” is another mid-century hit from Gene Autry and Oakley Haldeman, published shortly after the end of the war (1947). As the story goes, Autry rode in the Hollywood Christmas Parade in 1946 and he heard children shout “Here comes Santa Claus!” as the floats proceeded. The lyrics are plain and straightforward, the song is really more about its beat and catchiness, which have contributed to its longevity. While it’s secular on its face, it has strong religious undertones, making it a good blend of the popular and the Christian elements of the holiday.

“White Christmas” came out in 1942, shortly after the U.S. entered World War 2. In fact, it was composed and recorded in 1941 for that year’s Christmas, and ended up airing for the first time while Pearl Harbor was still fresh on everyone’s mind. People were understandably nostalgic for more peaceful days, in the same way that anyone flying in late 2001 wished for a better airport experience.

Irving Berlin, a Jewish composer, wrote the song, which is why it focuses more on that nostalgia than on the religious components of Christmas. The audience still identified very easily with the sentiment, and it’s been a seasonal feature ever since. In 1954 the movie White Christmas was released, starring Bing Crosby as a veteran soldier who wanted to help a retired general to have a fulfilling retirement. Crosby himself didn’t serve in the War—he was already in his late 30s when Pearl Harbor happened, married, and had kids.

Instead Crosby focused on the war effort at home, and was a bit of a booster over the radio, lending his personality to the public support side of things. He was 51 when White Christmas was made, and naturally reprised his role as a popular personality in the musical, alongside Danny Kaye. Kaye, who was 8 years younger than Crosby, was also an established entertainer and thus got a soft exemption from the draft, contributing his talents instead to USO shows and public morale.