Christians who want to keep Christ in Christmas,
Christians who put up Navity Sets,
Christians who go Christmas Caroling singing Joy to the World and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
along with the rest of society come Christmas time,
also watch It’s a Wonderful Life,
some version of A Christmas Carol,
Smile and Cry as the Grinch’s heart increases in size
get ready to spy and see if reindeer know how to fly,
and sing about that reindeer with the very shinny nose that is going down in history like Columbus
while wishing and hoping for a White Christmas.
Unless you live in Hawaii where you wish others “Mele Kalikimaka.
Those who could care less about religion hear the gospel read by Linus if they watch A Charlie Brown Christmas,
hear The Little Drummer Boy alongside Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
hear the very devout Christmas song Do You Hear What I Hear as they watch Gremlins
and hear Bob Cratchit say this about his son Tiny Tim…
“Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”
Bart Simpson reminds us that
“Christmas is the time of year when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.”
The religious person can’t escape secular Christmas, and the non-religious person can’t escape the true meaning of Christmas. In our modern age of Christmas this is the reality. One particular song in this list I’ve crafted and shared combines the two traditions quite nicely.
It’s interesting to think that a lot of the very Christmas movies and songs that we all watch and hear didn’t come out all that long ago.
And now I’m going to take a quick look at some of those Christmas themed highlighted items and some of those not-so themed Christmas items that were both released Just in Time for the Christmas Season, sometimes months before the Christmas seasons started, starting a
100 Christmases Ago
1925
Santa Claus comes to theaters.
It was a fantasy actually filmed in Alaska. According to IMDB it tells the story of two children sneak out of their bedroom on the night of December 24, so that they can ask ‘Santa Claus’ where he lives and what he does the rest of the year.
96 Christmases Ago
1929
April 20, 1929 – The great comedy due Ollie and Stanley are two Christmas Tree sales reps who get into one of their usual mutual-destruction fights with a disgruntled homeowner. This film was deemed culturally significant and entered into the National Film Registry in 1992. It is also in the Public Domain for everyone to enjoy.
Later that year
Just in time for Christmas
December 16, 1929 – The The Manxman directed by Alfred Hitchcock is released.
88 Christmases Ago
1937
December 21,1937 – Walt Disney‘s debut feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length cartoon to be made in America, in Technicolor, and in sound, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. The film opens nationwide on February 4, 1938, and is a massive box office success, briefly holding the record as the highest-grossing sound film of all time. Snow White is the movie that the Gremlins watch in the movie Gremlins (1984) which takes place at Christmas time.
In Gremlins you can hear the 1969 version of the 1962 song Do You Hear What I Hear? by Johnny Mathis from his album (1969 Give Me Your Love for Christmas
On this same date Dr. Seuss‘s first book for children, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, is published by Vanguard Press.
20 Years Later
Dr. Seuss‘s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is published just in time for Christmas first in American women’s fashion magazine Redbook on October 12, 1957 and then on November 24, 1957 (renewed in 1985)
The Cat in the Hat is also published that year. 9 years later Boris Karloff voices the Grinch in a TV special that aired in the United States on CBS on December 18, 1966.
3 Months Earlier
Prior to December 21
September 21, 1937 – Parents could give the readers in their lives a new copy of J. R. R. Tolkien‘s juvenile fantasy novel The Hobbit, or There and Back Again which was published in England by George Allen & Unwin on the recommendation of young Rayner Unwin.
64 Years later just in time for Christmas on December 19, 2001 the first The Lord of the Rings, film The Fellowship of the Ring opens in theaters. It’s rival fantasy series, Harry Potter, launched its series on November 16, 2001.
The ghosts of Christmas past, present and future are not the only ghosts of Christmas. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy star in Lonesome Ghosts which premiered in theaters on December 24, 1937.
86 Christmases Ago
1939
Rudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by May and published by Montgomery Ward, the department store.
Rudolph made his first screen appearance in 1948, in a cartoon short produced by Max Fleischer for the Jam Handy Corporation that was more faithful to May’s original story than Marks’ song, which had not yet been written. It was reissued in 1951 with the song added.
May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, adapted the story of Rudolph into a song. Gene Autry‘s recording of the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop singles chart the week of Christmas 1949. Autry’s recording sold 2.5 million copies the first year, eventually selling a total of 25 million, and it remained the second best-selling record of all time until the 1980s.
About a decade later in 1958 Chuck Berry released Run Rudolph Run.
Perhaps the most well-known version of all the Rudolph adaptations is the New York-based Rankin/Bass Productions‘ Christmas television special from 1964.
83 Christmases Ago
1942
January 1942 –Christmas on Ganymede a short story by Isaac Asimov is published in Startling Stories, January 1942 and later collected in Christmas on Ganymede and other stories.
July 30, 1942 -“White Christmas“ is a song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. Written by Irving Berlin for the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn, the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards. Introduced by Bing Crosby, it topped the Billboard chart for 11 weeks and returned to the number one position again in December 1943 and 1944. His version would return to the top 40 a dozen times in subsequent years.
Since its release, “White Christmas” has been covered by many artists. Crosby’s version is the world’s best-selling single (in terms of sales of physical media), with estimated sales in excess of 50 million physical copies worldwide.[3] When the figures for other versions of the song are added to Crosby’s, sales of the song exceed 100 million.[4][5][6] It also remains one of the best-selling singles in the United States with estimated physical copies sold between 10 and 12 million as of 1963.
82 Christmases Ago
1943
The Blessed Mother appears in cinemas on Christmas day December 25, 1943, in the first Golden Globe Best Picture, Director and Actress winner and also the Best Academy Award for best actress and the 3rd grossing movie of 1943 The Song of Bernadette, directed by Henry King, starring Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford and horror icon Vincent Price.
It is based on the New York Times best selling 1941 novel of the same name by Franz Werfel. This is on the 10th anniversary year of the canonization of St. Bernadette Soubirous who saw visions of the Virgin Mary back in 1858. The story was also turned into a Broadway play, which opened at the Belasco Theatre in March 1946 and was adapted for radio as well.
The song The Village of St. Bernadette sung by Andy Williams entered the Billboard Hot 100 in the issue of the magazine dated December 14, 1959, and stayed on the chart for 13 weeks, peaking at number seven.
A Century Earlier
December 17, 1843 – Publication of Charles Dickens‘ novella A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Chapman & Hall is made at his expense. It introduces the character Ebenezer Scrooge. Released on December 19, the first printing sells out by Christmas Eve.
79 Christmases Ago
1946
November 1946 – The Christmas Song a Single by The King Cole Trio is released.
December 20, 1946 – Frank Capra‘s It’s a Wonderful Life, featuring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, and Thomas Mitchell opens in New York.
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946): 15 Weird Facts You Didn’t Know -Remember When
78 Christmases Ago
1947
June 11, 1947 –Miracle on 34th Street, starring Edmund Gwenn, John Payne, Maureen O’Hara opens way before Christmas. The story takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas in New York City, and focuses on the effect of a department store Santa Claus who claims to be the real Santa.
October 6, 1947 -When my wife was younger she used to think that Santa Claus worked for God. This is probably a good way of keeping the religious aspect of Christmas alive while still having fun with the Santa Myth. Here Comes Santa Claus performed by Gene Autry released on this date, blends secular Christmas with religious sensibilities. Autry’s lyrics combined two veins of the Christmas tradition, the mythology of Santa Claus and the Christian origin of the holiday (most explicitly in its mention of the nativity promise of “peace on Earth” to those who “follow the light“). He also menti0ns that Santa Claus knows we’re all God’s children and So let’s give thanks to the Lord above and Hang your stockings and say your prayers.
Secular Christmas can’t be shaken but neither can the true meaning of Christ as the real reason for Christmas.
75 Christmases Ago
1950
January 1950 – Stars Over Santa Claus a short story by William Morrison is published in Startling Stories, January 1950 and later collected in Christmas Stars. Read it here. STA_1950_01.pdf. Christmas Stars includes many Sci-Fi Christmas stories including Miracle (1991) novelette by Connie Willis collected in Miracle and Other Christmas Stories (1999) and later in A Lot Like Christmas (2017)
October 16, 1950 – October 16 – C. S. Lewis‘s children’s portal allegorical fantasy novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, illustrated by Pauline Baynes, is published by Geoffrey Bles in London, first of the seven-book The Chronicles of Narnia. This first book includes a scene where the main children protagonists encounter Father Christmas in Narnia where it is “always winter but never Christmas.
2 weeks earlier on October 2 – The daily comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, makes its debut in nine United States newspapers.
The first Peanuts Christmas Comic on December 25,1950
Galaxy Science Fiction magazine launches in the United States in October. It will go on to give Sci-Fi readers some Christmas stories like Not a Creature Was Stirring, by Dean Evans the following year in 1951.
December 16, 1950 – Rabbit of Seville opens in theaters and features Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. The nonstop slapstick humor in the short is paced musically around the overture to Italian composer Gioachino Rossini‘s 1816 opera buffa The Barber of Seville. In 1994, Rabbit of Seville ranked number 12 in a list of “The 50 Greatest Cartoons” released in North America during the 20th century, a ranking compiled from votes cast by 1,000 artists, producers, directors, voice actors, and other professionals in the field of animation.
December 30, 1950 – “Christmas in Killarney” by Dennis Day with The Mellowmen and Henri René and his orch.peeks at #10 on the Billboard holiday charts.
73 Christmases Ago
1952
The Gift (1952) a short story by Ray Bradbury first appeared in the December 1952 issue of ‘Esquire’. It was later collected in the short story anthology A Medicine for Melancholy. Read at Imagative Conservative. Learn more about it at A Ray Bradbury Christmas!
A family sets out on its first space journey on Christmas Eve. The boy is thrilled by the adventure, but his parents worry about how to celebrate the holiday in the emptiness of space—especially after customs has confiscated the present they had prepared. Now the father must find a creative way to keep the magic of Christmas alive for his son, proving that the Christmas spirit can shine anywhere, even among the stars. – Ray Bradbury: The Gift | Lecturia
The Album Christmas Day in the Morning by the folk singer Burl Ives. Subtitled Yuletide Folk Songs, this album includes seven traditional Christmas carols, from the well-known “What Child Is This?” to the little-known “Down in Yon Forest” and “The Seven Joys of Mary.” “Jesous Ahatonia” is better known as the “Huron Carol.” Ives released it as a single under the title “Indian Christmas Carol”.
November 21, 1952 – Pluto’s Christmas Tree was the 125th short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the second for that year. While the chipmunks are usually antagonists of Donald Duck, they have pestered Pluto before, in Private Pluto (1943), Squatter’s Rights (1946) and Food for Feudin’ (1950).
It is one of the few Disney shorts directed by Jack Hannah not to star Donald Duck, although Donald does make a cameo at the end.
Dec 14, 1952 – “The Colgate Comedy Hour” with Abbott & Costello retitled the Abbot & Costello Christmas Show.
December 22, 1952 – (UK) – The Holly and the Ivy, starring Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson – An Irish clergyman whose neglect of his grown offspring, in his zeal to tend to his parishioners, comes to the surface at a Christmas family gathering.
December 24, 1952
72 Christmases Ago
1953
November 11, 1953 – I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas written by John Rox and performed by 10-year-old Gayla Peevey in 1953. The song peaked at number 24 on Billboard magazine’s pop chart in December 1953.
December 1953
December 25,1953 – Canvas Back Duck starring Donald Duck, his nephews, and Pete.
68 Christmases Ago
1957
October 15, 1957 – Elvis’ Christmas Album – Elvis Presley According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Elvis’ Christmas Album along with its reissues has shipped at least 17 million copies in the United States. It is the first Presley title to attain Diamond certification by the RIAA, and is also the best-selling Christmas album of all time in the United States. With total sales of more than 20 million copies worldwide, it remains the world’s best-selling Christmas album and one of the best-selling albums of all time. It includes Elvis’s Christmas hit “Blue Christmas“.
November 18, 1957 – Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the digital track of Helms’s original Decca recording was ninth on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles in SoundScan history in 2016 with 780,000 downloads. As of December 2019, it has sold 891,000 copies in the United States
67 Christmases Ago
1958
January 1958 – The New Father Christmas is a short story by Brian W. Aldiss that appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1958 alongside Ministering Angels (1955) a short story by C. S. Lewis and The Christmas Present a short story by Gordon R. Dickson. Read it here at Internet Archive
November 17, 1958 – The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) written and recorded by Ross Bagdasarian (under the stage name of David Seville). Bagdasarian sang the Christmas carol, varying the tape speeds to produce high-pitched “chipmunk” voices, with the vocals credited to Alvin and the Chipmunks, Seville’s cartoon virtual band and later media franchise. The song was nominated for Record of the Year in the 1st Annual Grammy Awards, where it also won three awards.
November 24, 1958 – “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee when she was just 13.
By the song’s 50th anniversary in 2008, Lee’s original version had sold over 15 million copies around the world with the 4th most digital downloads sold of any Christmas single.
In 2019, Lee’s recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
In November 2023, Lee released a music video for the song, and in December, the song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking Lee’s third number-one single and making Lee the oldest artist ever to top the Hot 100 at age 78, later breaking the record once again one week later at the age of 79.
The song also set the record for the longest period of time between an original release and its topping the Hot 100 (65 years), as well as the longest time between number-one singles by an artist: 63 years, one month and two weeks. -Wikipedia
December 19, 1958 – The Little Drummer Boy a Single by Harry Simeone Chorale is released. In the lyrics, the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the Nativity of Jesus. Without a gift for the Infant, the little drummer boy played his drum with approval from Jesus’s mother, Mary, recalling, “I played my best for him” and “He smiled at me”.
Also on this date- From All of Us to All of You airs as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology series as an animated television Christmas special. The show has been shown infrequently in the United States in recent years. However, in Sweden, the program has been shown every Christmas Eve since 1960. Ratings show that around 40% of all Swedes watch it on Christmas Eve, the record (in 1997) being just over half the population.
62 Christmases Ago
1963
November 1963 –A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector is released. It is an album with many popular versions of Christmas songs still played on the radio today. The songs include White Christmas“, “Marshmallow World“, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)“and “Winter Wonderland” by Darlene Love, Sleigh Ride,” Frosty the Snowman” and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” by The Ronettes, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Parade of the Wooden Soldiers by The Crystals. Here Comes Santa Claus“, “The Bells of St. Mary’s by Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans and some incomplete version of “Silent Night” by everyone.
December 9, 1963 – Little Saint Nick Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the Christmas song applies hot-rod themes to Santa Claus and his sleigh. The single peaked at number 3 on Billboard magazine’s special seasonal weekly Christmas Singles chart.[2] Its B-side was an a cappella version of “The Lord’s Prayer“. In November 1964, an alternate mix of “Little Saint Nick” appeared as the opening track on The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album.
December 25, 1963 (United States) –The Sword in the Stone is released in theaters. It is the 18th full length Disney animated film the final animated film from Walt Disney Productions to be released in Walt Disney’s lifetime. It is based on the 1938 novel by T. H. White.
61 Christmases Ago
1964
November 14, 1964 – Santa Claus Conquers the Martians directed by Nicholas Webster. John Call stars as Santa Claus, ten-year-old Pia Zadora as Girmar the Martian girl, and Doris Rich as Mrs. Claus.
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. It featured in episodes of Canned Film Festival in 1986, Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1991, and Elvira’s Movie Macabre.
60 Christmases Ago
1965
December 9, 1965 – A Charlie Brown Christmas premieres on CBS. After the comic strip’s debut in 1950, Peanuts had become a worldwide phenomenon by the mid-1960s. The special was commissioned and sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company, and was written over a period of several weeks, and produced on a small budget in six months. In casting the characters, the producers took an unconventional route, hiring child actors. The program’s soundtrack was similarly unorthodox, featuring a jazz score by pianist Vince Guaraldi.
A Charlie Brown Christmas received high ratings and acclaim from critics. It received an Emmy and a Peabody Award, and became an annual presentation in the United States, airing on broadcast television during the Christmas season for 56 years before becoming exclusively available on Apple TV+ streaming service. Its success paved the way for a series of Peanuts television specials and films. Its jazz soundtrack achieved commercial success, selling five million copies in the US.[3] Live theatrical versions of A Charlie Brown Christmas have been staged. -Wikipedia
2 Years Later in 1967
“Snoopy’s Christmas” by The Royal Guardsmen appears on the album Snoopy and His Friends. The song references the 1914 “Christmas truce” of World War I which was initiated not by German and British commanders, but by the soldiers themselves
59 Christmases Ago
1966
October 1966 – In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash (1966) by Jean Shepherd is published.
A best-seller at the time of its publication, it is considered Shepherd’s most important published work. The work inspired several films in the Parker Family Saga, including A Christmas Story (1983) and My Summer Story (1994). Shepherd is the narrator in both films.
November 19, 1966 – If Every Day Was Like Christmas by Elvis Presley is released.
December 12, 1966 – Just in time for Christmas, A Man for All Seasons, directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles – winner of 6 Academy Awards and 5 BAFTAs is released in theaters.
Note: Some Info taken from Wikipedia
55 Christmases Ago
November 9, 1970 – “Feliz Navidad” by Puerto Rican singer-songwriter José Feliciano.
December 13, 1970 – Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town –From the makers of Rudolph comes another Rankin/Bass Production narrated by Fred Astaire and stars the voices of Mickey Rooney
52 Christmases Ago
1973
Step into Christmas by Elton John is released.
51 Christmases Ago
1974
December 10, 1974 – The Year Without a Santa Claus (/ABC) The story is based on Phyllis McGinley‘s 1956 book. It is narrated by Shirley Booth (her final acting credit before her retirement from acting) and stars the voices of Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn and George S. Irving.
50 Christmases Ago
1975
December 5, 1975 – “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” by the Four Seasons.
December 20, 1975 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (re-release)
You can find more complete list of Christmas Movies and Songs that came out in the last 50 years and others I didn’t cover here by reading these blog posts…
Christmas Tunes And Hymns Before 1925 | A Timeline Of Christmas Songs In The 19th Century Till 1924.
Christmas Tunes And Hymns In The Last 100 Years | A Look At The Last Century Of Christmas Music
List of best-selling Christmas singles in the United States – Wikipedia
List of popular Christmas singles in the United States – Wikipedia
A great Christmas film for every year, from 1925 to now | BFI
List of Christmas films – Wikipedia
List of United States Christmas television specials – Wikipedia
List of United States Christmas television episodes – Wikipedia
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