Brad's Music Room

Balsam wreaths and visions of sugarplums had barely faded in the first weeks of 1939. But thoughts inside the Chicago headquarters of retail giant Montgomery Ward had already turned to the next Christmas. The retailer had traditionally purchased and distributed coloring books to children as a holiday promotion. However, the advertising department decided it would be cheaper and more effective to develop its own Christmas-themed book in-house.

The assignment fell to Robert May, a copywriter with a knack for turning a limerick at the company’s holiday party. The adman, however, had difficulty summoning up holiday cheer, and not just because of the date on the calendar. The United States was still trying to shake the decade-long Great Depression. In addition the rumblings of war grew once again Europe. May’s wife was suffering with cancer and the medical bills had thrown the family into debt. Sure, he was pursuing his passion to write. But churning out mail order catalog copy about men’s shirts instead of penning the Great American Novel was not what he had envisioned himself doing at age 33 with a degree from Dartmouth College.

Rudolph’s Early Days

Given the assignment to develop an animal story, May thought a reindeer was a natural for the leading role. His 4-year-old daughter, Barbara, loved the reindeer every time she visited the zoo). As he peered out at the thick fog that had drifted off Lake Michigan, May came up with the idea of a misfit reindeer. One ostracized because of his luminescent nose who used his physical abnormality to guide Santa’s sleigh and save Christmas. Seeking an alliterative name, May scribbled possibilities on a scrap of paper. Rollo, Reginald, Rodney and Romeo were among the choices—before circling his favorite. Rudolph.

As May worked on “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” through the summer, his wife’s health worsened. She passed away in July 1939. Now a widower and single father, May refused his boss’s offer to give the assignment to someone else. “I needed Rudolph now more than ever,” he later wrote. Burying his grief, May finished the story in August.

The 89 rhyming couplets in “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” borrow from Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” right from the story’s opening line: “Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the hills/The reindeer were playing…enjoying the spills.” Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling” also inspired the storyline as did May’s own childhood when he endured taunts from schoolmates for being small and shy. “Rudolph and I were something alike,” the copywriter told Guideposts magazine in January 1975. “As a child I’d always been the smallest in the class. Frail, poorly coordinated, I was never asked to join the school teams.”

In 1949, songwriter Johnny Marks, who happened to be May’s brother-in-law, set Rudolph’s story to music. After Bing Crosby reportedly turned down the chance, singing cowboy Gene Autry recorded the song, which sold 2 million copies in the first year and remains one of the best-selling tunes of all time.

Source: Rudolph the red nosed reindeer turns 75

Recently Christmas songs are often introduced in theater, television, film, or other entertainment media. Popular Christmas songs tend to be specifically about Christmas or have a wintertime theme. They are typically not overtly religious. The most popular set of these titles have been composed and performed from the 1930s onward. Heard over airwaves, on the Internet, in shopping centers and elevators, even on the street during the Christmas season. “Jingle Bells,” “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,” and “Up on the House Top,” however, date from the mid-19th century.

The largest portion of these songs in some way describes or is reminiscent of Christmas traditions. In other words how Western Christian countries tend to celebrate the holiday. For example, with caroling, mistletoe, exchanging of presents, a Christmas tree, feasting, jingle bells, etc. Celebratory or sentimental, and nostalgic in tone, they hearken back to simpler times with memorable holiday practices. In essence, expressing the desire either to be with someone or at home for Christmas.

Many titles help define the mythical aspects of modern Christmas celebration. For example, Santa Claus bringing presents, coming down the chimney, being pulled by reindeer, etc. New mythical characters are created, defined, and popularised by these songs. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman” were both introduced by Gene Autry a year apart (1949 and 1950 respectively).

 Though overtly religious, and authored (at least partly) by a writer of many church hymns, no drumming child appears in any biblical account of the Christian nativity scene—this character was introduced to the tradition by Katherine K. Davis in her “The Little Drummer Boy” (written in 1941, with a popular version being released in 1958).

More recent, copyrighted carols about the Nativity include “I Wonder as I Wander” (1933), “Mary’s Boy Child” (1956), “Little Drummer Boy” (1941), “Do You Hear What I Hear?” (1962), and “Mary, Did You Know?” (1984).

Source: Christmas music – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today, I have two examples of artists who don’t take the Christmas holiday too seriously.

First, from my home state of Texas, comes a song that has become a regular part of my holiday listening experience.

“Merry Christmas from the Family” is a holiday song written by alternative country artist Robert Earl Keen. It has become extremely popular among the fans within his cult following. The song was first recorded for Keen’s 1994 album, Gringo Honeymoon. A live version also appears on his 1996, No. 2 Live Dinner.  The popularity of the song led Keen to write a sequel song, “Happy Holidays Y’all,” for his 1998 album Walking Distance, and to publish a book, Merry Christmas from the Family, in 2001. The original song, the book, and the sequel all center around the same cast of characters in Keen’s humorous vision of a Texas style Christmas. Merry Christmas from the Family – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! is a Grammy Award-winning Christmas special that debuted on Comedy Central on November 23, 2008.

The plot is that Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report, while heading to the film studio to shoot his Christmas special with Elvis Costello, becomes trapped in a cabin in “bear country” (upstate New York or Vermont) when he hears a bear prowling outside. A number of his friends stop by the cabin to sing Christmas songs with him as Stephen tries to find ways to escape the cabin and make his Christmas as special as possible, ending by revealing that the titular “greatest gift of all” is the DVD release of the special.

via A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.