Penned Holiday Songs and a Bit of History

December 16, 2024

By Karen Bliss

“Jingle Bells,” “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” and “Frosty the Snowman,” we know every word, even if we aren’t aware of who wrote them. For the record, it was James Lord Pierpont (1850); John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie (1934); and Walter “Jack” Rollins and Steve Nelson (1950), respectively.

The origin of the Christmas song dates back to the 4th century and a man by the name of St. Hilary of Poitiers, a bishop — and, it turns out, a composer. He wrote a Latin hymn called

 “Jesus refulsit omnium” (“Jesus illuminates all”). The history is rather spotty after that.

In the 1650s “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” was penned and almost 100 years later, in 1739, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” then in the 1800s, it was a Christmas song bonanza. We get many of our traditional Christmas songs and carols from this Victorian era, then secular standards emerged primarily in the 1900s.

In Canada, the earliest known original Christmas song dates back to the 17th century, written in the language of the Huron/Wendat people, and today it is not without controversy. 1942’s “Huron Carol” (or “Twas in the Moon of Wintertime”) is by a French Jesuit missionary, Jean de Brébeuf, living in Quebec. It was originally titled “Jesous Ahatonhia” (“Jesus, he is born”) and set to the melody of a French folk song called “Une Juene Pucelle” (“A Young Maid”). So…to recap, he wrote a song about Jesus in an Indigenous language he had learned in order to teach fellow missionaries and colonists. The hymn is still sung in Canadian churches and versions have been recorded by Burl Ives (1952), Bruce Cockburn, Crash Test Dummies, The Tenors and Sarah McLachlan.

On a jollier note, there have been hundreds of Christmas and secular seasonal songs written by Canadians since. We would say that there comes a time in the career of all professional recording artists that they write or record at least one holiday song, and often a whole album. Here are a week’s worth of songs written by some Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees:

Song for A Winter’s Night 

by Gordon Lightfoot

The late Gordon Lightfoot, inducted into the CSHF in 2003, wrote this beautiful love song of loneliness and longing apparently while on tour in the summertime; he was missing his then-wife. It appears on his 1967 album, The Way I Feel, and another version was cut for his 1975 hits compilation Gord’s Gold. In one on-stage introduction to the song, he said, “It’s about winter and things like that, sitting up all night, drinking, and terrible things like that.” “The lamp is burnin’ low upon my table top / The snow is softly falling / The air is still in the silence of my room / I hear your voice softly calling,” it begins.

Another Year Has Gone By 

Performed by Celine Dion

Written by Bryan Adams / Eliot Kennedy

The ballad, found on Celine Dion’s first English-language Christmas album, 1998’s These Are Special Times, was co-written by 2022 CSHF-er Bryan Adams and Britain’s Eliot Kennedy. The lyrics of long-time love reflect on a lifetime of support. The tense implies, perhaps, that the person is still alive but maybe has dementia. “We’re still holding it together.   It only comes down to you and I / I know that you can still remember things we said right from the start,” she sings. “Another year has gone by / And I’m still the one by your side / After everything that’s gone by / There’s still no one saying goodbye.”

Christmas Time 

Performed by Bryan Adams

Written by Bryan Adams / Jim Vallance

This Bryan Adams song has become a Christmas classic. He recorded it in 1986 and only released a music video for it in 2019.  Drumming up excitement for Christmas, it begins with the line, “We waited all through the year for the day to appear” and then lyrically straddles two mindsets — “the joy in the children’s eyes / The way that the old folks smile” and then the bigger picture of hoping for a better world: “Makes no difference if you’re black or white ’cause we can sing together in harmony / I know it’s not too late The world would be a better place If we can keep the spirit more than one day in the year.”

Grown-Up Christmas List

Performed by Amy Grant

Written by David Foster / Linda Thompson-Jenner

In this song written by 2022 Canadian Songwriter Hall of Famer David Foster and American songwriter Linda Thompson-Jenner, the song addresses is a letter to Santa from a former child. “Do you remember me? I sat upon your knee / I wrote to you with childhood fantasies,” it asks. “Well, I’m all grown up now and still need help somehow. I’m not a child but my heart still can dream, so here’s my lifelong wish — my grown-up Christmas List, not for myself but for a world in need.” Some of the items she wants? There’s a bunch of “ands”: “No more lives torn apart and wars would never start and time would heal all hearts and everyone would have a friend and right would always win and love would never end.”

Wintersong 

by Sarah McLachlan

The title track from Sarah McLachlan’s first Christmas album has been interpreted as a song about a spouse or partner who has died (“I see your star up there”). The 2024 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee wrote the piano ballad in 2006. It’s a beautiful piece of work that holds up as a standalone poem:

The lake is frozen over 
Trees are white with snow 
And all around reminders of you 
Are everywhere I go 

It’s late and morning’s in no hurry 
But sleep won’t set me free 
I lie awake and try to recall 
How your body felt beside me 
The silence gets too hard to handle 
And the night too long 

This is how I see you 
In the snow on Christmas morning 
Love and happiness surround you 
You throw your arms up to the sky 
I keep this moment by and by 
Oh I miss you now, my love 
Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas,  
Merry Christmas, my love 

Sense the joy fills the air 
And I daydream and I stare 
Up at the tree and I see 
Your star up there 

This is how I see you 
In the snow on Christmas morning 
Love and happiness surround you 
You throw your arms up to the sky 
I keep this moment by and by 

River 

by Joni Mitchell

Two years ago, 2007 CSHF inductee Joni Mitchell put out a music video for her 1971 Christmas song, “River,” named by Rolling Stone as one of the top 500 songs of all time. Found on her landmark album, Blue, it is the second most covered song from her catalogue. Written on piano, the lyric of regret and self-criticism is said to have been inspired by her relationship with musician Graham Nash and her difficulty moving on. She wants to just escape. “Oh, I wish I had a river / I could skate away on.” We don’t find out why until a bit later. She thinks she has driven him away. “I’m so hard to handle / I’m selfish and I’m sad / I made my baby say goodbye.” Well, that’s a downer.

Christmas Must Be Tonight 

by The Band

Written by 2011 Hall of Famer Robbie Robertson, The Band’s characteristically rootsy song is filled with uncharacteristic religious references. It focuses on the tale of Jesus’ birth and its importance: “Come down to the manger, see the little stranger wrapped in swaddling clothes, the prince of peace.” Later, it marvels “How a little baby boy bring the people so much joy / Son of a carpenter / Mary carried the light / This must be Christmas / Must be tonight.” The song was originally recorded in 1975 but wasn’t released (it is a bonus track on the 2001 reissue of Northern Lights – Southern Cross), then recut for the 1977 album Islands. A decade later, Robertson recorded it again, twice, one version is in the 1988 film Scrooged and the other on 1995’s Wind, Fire and Snow – Songs For The Holiday Season.