Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas

by Ace Collins

  We three kings of Orient are

  Bearing gifts we traverse afar,

  Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

  Following yonder star.

  Chorus:

  O star of wonder, star of light,

  Star with royal beauty bright,

  Westward leading, still proceeding,

  Guide us to thy perfect light.

  Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain

  Gold I bring to crown Him again,

  King forever, ceasing never,

  Over us all to reign.

  Chorus

  Frankincense to offer have I;

  Incense owns a Deity nigh;

  Prayer and praising, voices raising,

  Worshiping God on high.

  Chorus

  Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume

  Breathes a life of gathering gloom;

  Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,

  Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

  Chorus

  Glorious now behold Him arise;

  King and God and sacrifice;

  Alleluia, Alleluia,

  Sounds through the earth and skies.

  Chorus

  Having decided on his gift, Hopkins sat down at his desk with a single goal in mind: to write a moving tribute to the legendary visitors from the East described in the gospel of Matthew. To accomplish this mission, the writer imagined what it might have been like to be one of the wise men. A seminary graduate, he was aware that little was known about the travelers, so he combined the biblical record of the trip with the legends passed down over almost two thousand years.

  Though largely a work of the imagination, the song that was produced as Hopkins’s gift to his nephews and nieces was instructive and worshipful. The cadence of his melody fully captured the image of a trip across the desert and plains on camels. The carol had an oriental, Middle Eastern feel to it and its rhythm reflected the beat of a march or the sway of a camel’s gait.

  Hopkins’s words dramatically embraced the rich fabric of the trip, the gifts, and the birth of a Savior. Using simple, but inspired lyrics, the writer initially described the quest to find the king. Though the first verse contains only four short lines, they speak of a trip that was long and difficult: “bearing gifts we traverse afar.” The chorus, with its powerful view of a “star of wonder, star of light” guiding the wise men onward, provided the inspiration the men needed to not give up during the arduous and perilous journey.

  The second verse begins the tale of a “king forever ceasing never” born in Bethlehem. Hopkins’s wise men realized that this king has not been born to rule a short time but for eternity. The composer therefore reveals that the three men were as wise as they were strong and courageous.

  In the last part of the second verse and the following two stanzas, the gifts presented by the wise men are fully covered. Each gift is identified and the meaning of the gift told with almost biblical eloquence. The gold is the crown that the king would forever wear. The frankincense is there to help worship the Son of God. The myrrh is the bitter perfume that would mask death but then blossom forth in a life unending.

  In the song’s final verse, Hopkins assures the youngest members of his family that the three wise kings knew that the Christ child would die for our sins and then be born again. In the last stanza, the writer reveals that to these three kings the journey was truly divine, worth every effort, and the most glorious moment of their lives. It not only defined their lives and purpose, it made them an important part of the most amazing story ever told.

  Hopkins’s “We Three Kings of Orient Are” was published in the writer’s own songbook, Carols, Hymns, and Songs. At the turn of the next century, when many churches decided that carols should be included in hymnals, this musical work, which defined the reason for the celebration of Epiphany, became one of America’s most popular Christmas songs.

  John Henry Hopkins Jr. never married or had a family of his own. Yet because he loved children, he’d be pleased to know that his most famous Christmas song is one of the most beloved children’s carols in the world. He probably wouldn’t even mind that on many occasions the lyrics to “We Three Kings of Orient Are” have been rewritten in several humorous ways. What he would surely want every child to know is that Christmas gifts began not in a department store or a catalog but on the twelfth day of the first Christmas, when three men from the East brought gifts to the baby Jesus. Though many have now forgotten the celebration of Epiphany, John Henry Hopkins Jr.’s “We Three Kings of Orient Are” will never allow us to forget what the wise men brought to celebrate the birthday of the King of kings.

  30

  WHAT CHILD IS THIS?

  What Child Is This?” one of the most moving and beautiful Victorian carols, can trace its history back farther than the days of the infamous Henry VIII. Though the song was registered to a Richard Jones in 1580, legend has it that the notorious King Henry might have even written the original lyrics himself as he courted Anne Boleyn. The song’s association with King Henry was forever tied to “Greensleeves” when William Shakespeare used it in his play The Merry Wives of Windsor.

  The haunting melody, often associated with guitar or harpsichord solos, most likely predates Henry VIII by hundreds of years. As an ancient English folk song, there have been more than twenty different known lyrics associated with it throughout history and many more might have been lost. First published in 1652, the melody became even more popular than the lyrics associated with Henry VIII.

  For much of its early life, the tune known as “Greensleeves” was associated with pubs as a popular drinking song. Although God is mentioned in a closing verse of the best-known lyrics, nothing about the song closely resembled a religious piece; it was simply one of the era’s most popular folk songs. By the nineteenth century “Greensleeves” was almost as beloved as “God Save the Queen.” Even without its association with Christmas and “What Child Is This,” “Greensleeves” would probably still be a well-known tune in England today. Yet it was with different lyrics that the world fully embraced the British tune.

  William Chatterton Dix was assuredly not thinking about “Greensleeves” when he sat down with pen and paper to record his thoughts of Christmas in 1865. Dix was an insurance man by trade, but a poet at heart. Serious about his writing, he studied other poets, read classic literature, and spent a great deal of time in college working on his creative craft. The Englishman was even named after Chatterton, one of England’s greatest poets. Dix’s father, who insisted that William be christened with the scribe’s name, had once written a biography of the poet and encouraged his son to follow in the footsteps of his hero.

  Born in Somerset, England, in 1837, during a time when few adventurous folks migrated more than fifty miles from their place of birth, Dix found himself manager of a marine insurance company in Glasgow, Scotland, by the time he was twenty-five. Though in charge of some of his company’s most important accounts and eventually the head of a growing family, Dix still found time to write. Many correctly accused him of pursuing poetry as his passion and his job as a sideline venture.

  Dix’s writing embraced a wide range of thoughts and subjects. It lacked much focus, however, until tragedy struck. A near-fatal illness robbed him of his strength and confined the man to bed for many months. As he lay near death, he often reflected on his faith. Reading his Bible and studying the works of respected theologians, Dix reaffirmed his belief in not only Christ as Savior but in the power of God to move in his own life. Not long after regaining his strength, an inspired Dix produced some of the greatest hymns ever written by an English layman. Songs by Dix such as “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus!” and “As with Gladness, Men of Old,” are still being sung all around the world today.

  What child is this, who, laid to rest,

  On Mary’s lap is sleeping?

  Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,

  While shepherds watch are keeping?

  This, this is Christ the
King,

  Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:

  Haste, haste to bring him laud,

  The babe, the son of Mary.

  Why lies he in such mean estate

  Where ox and ass are feeding?

  Good Christian, fear: for sinners here

  The silent Word is pleading.

  Hail, Hail, the Word made flesh,

  The babe, the son of Mary

  So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh,

  Come, peasant, king, to own him.

  The King of kings salvation brings,

  Let loving hearts enthrone him.

  Joy, Joy for Christ is born

  The babe, the son of Mary.

  In the era while Dix was writing hymns and raising a family, Christmas was not the commercial celebration it is today. Neither was it a season where many openly celebrated the birth of Christ. Conservative Christian churches forbade gift-giving, decorating, or even acknowledging the day. These Puritan groups feared that if set aside as a special day, Christmas would become a day of pagan rituals more than a very serious time of worship. Other churches held services but were also intent on the day being reserved for only a time of worship. In this context it was unusual for Dix to feel moved to write about Christ’s birth, since many hymn writers of the period ignored Christmas altogether.

  There is no record of why Dix decided to write of the first Christmas, nor did he share with his friends and family how the poem he penned was written quickly in a single session. Yet the writer’s Christmas work, entitled “The Manger Throne,” quickly emerged as his most memorable effort.

  The song’s powerful words presented a unique view of the birth of Christ. While the baby was the focal point of the song, the viewpoint of the writer seemed to be that of an almost confused observer. In a stroke of brilliance, Dix imagined visitors to the humble manger wondering who the child was that lay before them. Employing this special perspective, the author wove a story of the child’s birth, life, death, and resurrection. Each verse also answered with a triumphant declaration of the infant’s divine nature.

  Dix published “The Manger Throne” in England just as the U.S. Civil War was ending. Perhaps because of the fragile state of America’s collective spirit, bruised and torn by four years of fighting, “The Manger Throne” was quickly imported from Britain to the United States and became a well-known Christmas poem in both the North and the South. Yet while it was used in church services and printed in magazines and newspapers, it wasn’t until an unknown Englishman coupled Dix’s lyrics with the melody “Greensleeves” that the carol became immensely popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Unlike many others who penned lyrics to now-famous holiday classics, Dix, who died in 1898, lived long enough to see “The Manger Throne” become the much beloved Christmas carol “What Child Is This?”

  Though Dix’s inspired words are now recognized as some of the most concise yet powerful ever used in a hymn, it is in reality the old English tune “Greensleeves,” with the advent of radio and recording, that allowed “What Child Is This?” to continue to grow in popularity. Once the unique melody is heard, “Greensleeves” is seldom forgotten. Soulfully touching and beautiful when sung a cappella or accompanied by a lone guitar, it is also awe-inspiring and soaring when arranged for a cathedral choir or an orchestra. Perhaps that is why William Dix’s song remains as one of the most beloved and remembered of all Christmas carols.

  31

  WHITE CHRISTMAS

  Perhaps no single voice signals the beginning of the Christmas season like that of Bing Crosby. By the same token, no modern secular Christmas song means as much to so many as does “White Christmas.” Many believe that Christmas just isn’t Christmas until they have heard Crosby sing “White Christmas.” In a very sincere and simple manner, this carol seems to say more with fewer words than anything ever written about holidays in America.

  Bing Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1901. Thirty years later Crosby, who had been working as an entertainer since he left home as a teen, landed a CBS radio contract and began recording for the Brunswick label. His first number one hit, “Out of Nowhere,” from the film Dude Ranch, initiated an unparalleled string of best-selling singles and launched a film career that spanned decades. With record sales of more than three hundred million, Crosby remains today one of the top vocal acts of all time. When his record sales are combined with his success on radio, television, and in movies, it can be argued that Bing was the most important single entertainer in the history of show business.

  Crosby was raised in a Christian environment and was a religious man. Not only did he know most of the familiar Christmas carols by heart, he had been singing them since his youth. In the midst of the Great Depression, Bing, by then recording for Decca, went into the studios determined to put a facet of his faith on wax. Singing with the Guardsmen Quartet, Crosby’s “Silent Night, Holy Night” surprised everyone, topping out at number seven on the hit parade charts. Over the course of the next few years, the single sold more than ten million copies. The Christmas hit was Bing’s seventy-ninth charting single; it became the most successful record of his early years, working its way back into the top ten again in 1938. For his fans, it was also the first concrete step in forever linking the singer to the holidays.

  Crosby’s continued musical and movie successes proved a gold mine to the singer, his record label, and Paramount Pictures. This success also meant that the world’s very best songwriters were beating a path to Bing’s door. One of those who would come to pen a lot of Crosby hits was a man named Irving Berlin.

  If Crosby was the nation’s premier singer, then Berlin was his composing counterpart. Other tunesmiths might have been more sophisticated or even more talented, but no one had their finger on the nation’s pulse like Berlin. He knew what Americans wanted; he sensed their dreams and their fears. And most remarkably, he was able to turn this knowledge into marvelous stories in song.

  Born as Israel Baline in Mohilev, Russia, Berlin spent his youth in New York City. In 1911, while working as a waiter and pitching tunes on the famed Tin Pan Alley, Irving wrote “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” Thanks to that song, Berlin suddenly found himself, at the age of twenty-three, in the spotlight. With talent, drive, and ambition, he stayed in the public’s eye for the next eight decades. The writer’s list of hits fills pages, but if he had only penned “Blue Skies,” “God Bless America,” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” he would still be remembered today as an entertainment giant. His legendary status was sealed in 1941 when he was asked to score a motion picture that starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.

  The film, Holiday Inn, was typical of Hollywood musical formula—a hero wanting to live a dream faces failure time and time again, and while searching for success, he falls in and out of love. The plot had been used on countless occasions in movies and Broadway, but this film’s hook was unique in that the musical score and story line tied it to the holidays.

  Facing the task of writing about the day Americans loved to celebrate, Berlin’s genius became evident again. He drew on his own experience and observations, a formula that seemed to work for him every time. As always, he composed easy-to-remember lyrics and melodies that went straight to the heart. Yet he was having a problem with one song in the movie; as a Jew, writing something for Christmas demanded insight he didn’t feel he had. But Berlin didn’t beg off or turn the job over to someone else. With marked determination, he continued to toil over his assignment.

  As Berlin worked on his Christmas song, he considered what he did know of the holidays. As a New Yorker, when he thought of the season, he pictured snow and Santa. Yet as he spent many holiday seasons working in Los Angeles, he was well aware that for many, what made the atmosphere of Christmas special was more of a nostalgic dream than a reality; across America, everyone wanted that perfect white day when “treetops glisten” and children anxiously await Santa’s arrival. Everyone knew that the only Southern California location whe
re it was ever going to snow was on a Hollywood sound stage. Using this premise as an anchor, he wrote what was to become the pivotal song for Holiday Inn—the song that would make the movie a classic.

  When he finished his work, Berlin was not sold on the effort; he even thought about tearing the piece up and starting over. But before he did, the disappointed writer took the time to sing it to Crosby. Bing loved it and convinced Berlin not to change anything about the tune he called “White Christmas.”

  Crosby first sang the song on his December 25, 1941 radio show. Perhaps because it was a sober Christmas, just three weeks after the United States had been forced to enter World War II, the performance generated instant response. Bing recorded it six months later. Just after Holiday Inn hit theaters in late summer, Decca released Crosby’s “White Christmas” as a single. Driven by both the movie and family separations caused by the war—thousands of soldiers were far from home, longing for the familiar sights and sounds of the holidays—the song topped the charts for twelve weeks. The tune about which Irving Berlin had such misgivings would go on to win the Academy Award for best song of 1942.

  Over the course of the next twenty years, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” landed on the charts fifteen more times. It hit number one again in 1945 and 1946. Crosby’s version eventually sold more than thirty million records and spawned a successful motion picture of the same name. The song’s incredible sales alone indicate that of all the modern Christmas songs, “White Christmas” simply and eloquently best voices the Christmas dreams and wishes of most Americans. The song scores because, no matter where we are, we want to see snow on Christmas Day. For a few hours, we want our Christmas to look like a greeting card. The chord Berlin somehow struck and Crosby’s voice echoed captures the childlike longings in every person who truly loves the holidays and the spirit that makes them special.