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Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols, may employ lyrics about the nativity of Jesus Christ, traditions such as gift-giving and merrymaking, cultural figures such as Santa Claus, or other topics. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or have been adopted into the canon for other reasons.
John David Marks was an American songwriter. He specialized in Christmas songs and wrote many holiday standards, including "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", "A Holly Jolly Christmas", "Silver and Gold", and "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".
Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usually done in stop motion animation. Rankin/Bass's stop-motion productions are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called Animagic.
"The Little Drummer Boy" is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Austrian Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale; the Simeone version was re-released successfully for several years, and the song has been recorded many times since. 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". Despite the song's popularity, the story of the drummer boy is not biblically accurate.
Christmas themes have long been an inspiration to artists and writers. A prominent aspect of Christian media, the topic first appeared in literature and in music. Filmmakers have picked up on this wealth of material, with both adaptations of Christmas novels, in the forms of Christmas films, Santa Claus films, and Christmas television specials.
"Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a song written in October 1962, with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne. The pair, married at the time, wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Regney had been invited by a record producer to write a Christmas song, but he was hesitant due to the commercialism of Christmas. It has sold tens of millions of copies and has been covered by hundreds of artists.
"The Bells of St. Mary's" is a 1917 popular song. The music was written by A. Emmett Adams, the lyrics by Douglas Furber, following a visit to St. Mary's Church, Southampton, England. It was published by the London company Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew.
"Happy Holiday" is a popular song composed by Irving Berlin in 1942 and published the following year.
Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas is an American annual seasonal event of Christmas programming broadcast during the month of December by the U.S. cable network Freeform. The event was first held in 1996, and has been an annual fixture of the channel through its various incarnations, including The Family Channel, Fox Family, ABC Family, and Freeform. The brand covers airings of classic holiday specials as well as new Christmas-themed television movies each year; generally few of the network's original series air during the time period, outside of Christmas-themed episodes. In 2006, the lineup has also included airings of general, family films that Freeform holds rights to, which included the Harry Potter films until January 2017, and other Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures films. In 2007, the block was extended to November with a Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas block. 25 Days of Christmas programming often attracts major surges in viewership for Freeform, with higher-profile film airings often attracting 3–4 million viewers or more.
Elmo's Christmas Countdown is a 2007 television Christmas film, featuring the characters from Sesame Street. It was first aired on December 23, 2007, on ABC and starred Ben Stiller.
This is a filmography for the American singer and actor Bing Crosby.
Billboard Greatest Christmas Hits is a set of two Christmas-themed compilation albums released by Rhino Records in 1989, each featuring ten popular Christmas recordings from 1935 to 1983, many of which charted on the Billboard record charts. Both volumes were certified Gold by the RIAA in the U.S., with the second volume being certified Platinum.
"Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation" is a special Christmas-themed episode of the animated television series Phineas and Ferb. The episode was originally broadcast on Disney XD on December 6, 2009. The special's narrative, set prior to the events of the series, follows protagonists Phineas and Ferb decorating their city for the arrival of Santa Claus. But when the evil mad scientist Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz uses a machine to ruin the holiday, Phineas and Ferb must find a way to fix it and save Christmas. The episode serves as the 37th broadcast episode of the second season, as well as the 84th broadcast episode overall.
Perry Como was an American singer, radio and television performer whose career covered more than fifty years. He is probably best known for his television shows and specials over a period of almost thirty years. Como came to television in 1948 when his radio show was selected by NBC for experimental television broadcasts. His television programs were seen in more than a dozen countries, making Como a familiar presence outside of the United States and Canada.
Christmas Greetings is a studio album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby released in 1949 featuring popular Christmas songs.
A Christmas Sing with Bing was a series of transcribed radio hours hosted by Bing Crosby and broadcast on Christmas Eve for eight years from 1955 to 1962. The first edition of the program was released as an LP by Decca Records in 1956. Insurance Company of North America was the broadcast sponsor.
Billboard magazine only charted Christmas singles and albums along with the other popular non-holiday records until the 1958 holiday season when they published their first section that surveys only Christmas music.
The Merry Christmas to All! Tour was a mini-concert tour by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey. The concert series consisted of four arena shows and marked Carey's return to touring following the COVID-19 pandemic. Carey's two shows at Madison Square Garden were later adapted into a television special, titled Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to All!, which aired on CBS and became the most watched program of its night, drawing in a total of 3.8 million viewers and a 0.4 demo rating.
References
- ↑ "Ocean Spray special features Manilow music". UPI . November 10, 2008. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
- ↑ "WEDNESDAY 8:30 p.m. ABC, 'The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold.' Art..." UPI . December 19, 1981. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
