The Irving Berlin song "White Christmas", which was first performed by Bing Crosby in the 1942 film "Holiday Inn," is a seasonal touchstone that highlights the best of who we are throughout the holiday season.

When it was first issued, it was a comfort to American troops serving overseas.

"Without their sweethearts, spouses, wives, parents, and children, Americans naturally found themselves reacting to the mournful feelings of Berlin's Christmas house song," says Jody Rosen in his book "White Christmas: The Story of an American Song."

Crosby's rendition has sold over 50 million copies, while the album as a whole has sold over 100 million copies. It's been written about over 500 times. It is, without a doubt, a truly American Christmas gem, penned in Southern California by a Jewish immigrant from Russia yearning for a wintry New England Christmas.

• Published in: 1942, 1945, 1947, 1950,...
• Composer: Irving Berlin
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9QLn7gM-hY

Judy Garland initially performed this popular song in the 1944 MGM musical "Meet Me in St. Louis". The song's harsh lyrics, composed by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, first turned Garland off.

"About a week before the scene when Judy sings it to me was to be shot, she glanced over the lyrics and asked, 'Don't you think these are excessively dark?' In 2006, Garland's co-star Margaret O'Brien told Entertainment Weekly, "I'm going to Hugh Martin and ask if he can lighten it up a touch."

"Have yourself a Merry little Christmas", they say. It may be your last. "Someday soon, if the gods allow, we shall all be together," became "Next year, we may all be living in the past." We'll have to bumble our way through till then."

Frank Sinatra requested another rewrite for his version a few years later to lighten it up even further. Despite this, the warmth and lovely sadness of this Christmas favorite persisted.

• Published in: 1944 by Leo Feist, Inc.
• Composer: Hugh Martin
• Lyricist: Ralph Blane
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnEqv8WcVq8

"Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" is titled "The Christmas Song", in case you didn't know. Whatever you name it, it's a classic from Nat King Cole, the legendary jazz-pop performer who recorded four versions.

His 1961 recording is the one we hear the most. It was composed in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. In August, at Cole's request — and over Capitol Records' reservations - a second recording was recorded with a tiny string group. This rendition went on to become a huge smash on the pop and R&B charts.

In the 2000s, the song grew more popular than ever, with radio stations of all types included it on their holiday playlists every year. It was the most-played holiday song of the preceding five years, according to ASCAP, and even though numerous artists had recorded it, Cole's version was by far the most popular. The song was the third most popular Christmas tune in 2011, after "Sleigh Ride" and "Winter Wonderland," according to ASCAP.

• Published in: November 1946 (2nd recording)
• Composer: Robert Wells and Mel Tormé
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwacxSnc4tI

The Christmas song "Silent Night" was penned in Austria in the early 1800s. In 1935, Bing Crosby recorded it.

It is is a traditional Christmas song written by Franz Xaver Gruber in the tiny village of Oberndorf in Salzburg, Austria, in 1818 to lyrics by Joseph Mohr. In 2011, UNESCO designated it as an intangible cultural treasure. [2] Many vocalists from various musical styles have recorded the song. Bing Crosby's 1935 rendition has sold 10 million copies as a single.

Crosby said "Good Housekeeping" in 1956, "They claimed neither my voice nor my manner was appropriate to such spiritual tunes," according to Wikipedia, alluding to a recording of "Adeste Fideles." "I spoke the truth — that singing in my customary ballad style was not intended to be blasphemy.

"I went on to say that the record's selling must have brought those two lovely songs closer to many individuals who hadn't heard them before."

• Published in: 1833
• Native name: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht
• Composer: Franz Xaver Gruber
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEH7_2c644Q

"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song written by lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent, and sung by Bing Crosby in 1943, Americans were fighting in World War II overseas. On his 1957 album "Elvis' Christmas Album," Elvis Presley recorded a fantastic rendition of the song, who made the song a top 10 success.

"I'll Be Home for Christmas" was created to celebrate soldiers serving overseas who wished to be home for the holidays. It has now become a Christmas classic.

The song is performed from the perspective of a soldier sending a letter to his home while stationed overseas during World War II. In the message, he informs his family that he will be returning home for the holidays and asks for snow, mistletoe, and presents on the tree. The soldier says, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams," as the song concludes on a sad note. "Danny Boy" was on the flip side of the original recording (Decca 18570B).

When the protagonist sings, "I'll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams," it tugs also at the heartstrings.

* Published in: The original 1943 release by Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra on Decca
* Composer: Walter Kent
* Lyricist: Kim Gannon
* Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL71eMc1blw

"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas song by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band and the Harlem Community Choir that was released as a single in 1971. Outside of his work with the Beatles, it was John Lennon's sixth single release. The song charted at number four in the United Kingdom after being delayed until November 1972, and it has since resurfaced on the UK Singles Chart several times, most notably following John Lennon's death in December 1980, when it reached number two.

"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" was also a protest song against the Vietnam War, and it has since become a Christmas tradition, with covers by various musicians, appearances on holiday music compilation albums, and surveys naming it as a holiday favorite. It was rated eighth in a UK-wide poll on the ITV television show The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song in December 2012.

* Published in: 1 December 1971 (US) and 24 November 1972 (UK)
* Songwriters: John Lennon; Yoko Ono
* Genre: Rock; Christmas music
* Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg

Edward Pola and George Wyle wrote the classic Christmas carol "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" in triple time in 1963. Andy Williams recorded and published it for his debut Christmas album, The Andy Williams Christmas Album, the same year.

Williams' record label (Columbia Records) did not release the song as a promotional single that year, instead opting to push his rendition of "White Christmas" as the official promo single from the album. The song reached number 21 on the UK Singles Chart in 2007 and has been in the Top 10 for several years, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States in 2020.

The song is a celebration and description of Christmas events, focused particularly on get-togethers amongst friends and family over the holiday season. The telling of "scary ghost stories," a Victorian Christmas custom that has generally fallen out of favor but lives on in the seasonal popularity of several versions of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, is one of the activities mentioned in the song.

Hosting parties, unexpected visits from friends, universal social gaiety, spending time with loved ones, sledding for youngsters, roasting marshmallows, sharing memories about earlier Christmases, and singing Christmas carols in cold weather are among the other activities described.

The song was selected as the theme song for Christmas Seals in 1968, 1976, 2009 and 2012.

* Published in: October 14, 1963
* Songwriters: Edward Pola; George Wyle
* Genre: Christmas
* Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFtb3EtjEic

"Someday at Christmas" is a hopeful song that envisions a time when "guys won't be boys, playing with bombs as kids play with toys." The song was initially published as a single in 1966, and then as part of the album "Someday at Christmas" in 1967, while Wonder was still a teenager.

The Vietnam War was still ongoing, but massive anti-war rallies had yet to begin. Ron Miller and Bryan Wells penned the script.

Someday at Christmas has twelve tracks, including four cover versions of Christmas standards and carols and eight original songs, most of which were written by Ron Miller, his wife Aurora, and Bryan and Deborah Wells, and have since become modern holiday classics, such as the title track and "What Christmas Means to Me." The Supremes' Christmas album Merry Christmas had contained "Twinkle Twinkle Little Me" two years prior.

• Published in: November 27, 1967
• Composer: Stevie Wonder
• Genre: Christmas, R&B
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaA7B9cu4kU

The Christmas song "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" was written by English singer-songwriter David Bowie and American vocalist Bing Crosby. Crosby sings the 1941 standard "The Little Drummer Boy" while Bowie sings the counterpoint tune "Peace on Earth," written specifically for the collaboration by the special's musical supervisors Ian Fraser and Larry Grossman, as well as scriptwriter Alan Kohan, on September 11, 1977, at Elstree Studios in London for Crosby's television special Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas. Crosby died in October 1977, and the duet was one of his final recordings.

The song has subsequently become a Christmas classic in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and has been dubbed "one of the most popular duets in Christmas music history" by The Washington Post.

Consider it a festive mash-up.
It's warm, a touch crazy, and now it's a classic.

* Published in: 27 November 1982
* Genre: Christmas
* Songwriters: Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, Alan Kohan / Harry Simeone, K.K. Davis, Henry Onorati
* Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9kfdEyV3RQ

"Christmas Time Is Here" is a classic Christmas song written by Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson for the 1965 television program A Charlie Brown Christmas, one of the first animated Christmas specials aired in the United States for network television.

On the album, A Charlie Brown Christmas, the Vince Guaraldi Trio recorded an instrumental rendition and choristers from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in San Rafael, California, who had previously played with Guaraldi on At Grace Cathedral, sang a vocal version (1965).

Since then, the song has become a Christmas classic. The Vince Guaraldi Trio's drummer Jerry Granelli said, "It's incredible: Vince has finally written a classic. Vince had always wanted to create a standard, and ''Christmas Time Is Here" has become one. As a result, he succeeded."

• Published in: December 1965
• Genre: Jazz, Christmas music
• Composer: Vince Guaraldi
• Lyricist: Lee Mendelson
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PzetPqepXA

"All I Want for Christmas Is You" is a song written by Mariah Carey, an American singer-songwriter and record producer, for her fourth studio album, Merry Christmas (1994).

The song is a fast-paced love ballad with bell chimes, backup voices, and synthesizers. The song has become a Christmas classic, and its popularity grows with each passing holiday season.

The New Yorker called "All I Want for Christmas Is You" "one of the few worthy modern contributions to the holiday canon," and The New Yorker called it "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon."

The song was a worldwide hit, reaching number one in twenty-six countries, including Australia, Canada, France, and Germany.

• Published in: October 29, 1994
• Genre: Christmas; dance-pop; R&B
• Songwriters: Mariah Carey; Walter; Afanasieff
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAkMkVFwAoo

The Christmas song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" was written by Johnny Marks and sung by Brenda Lee in 1958. Brenda Lee recorded and published the song in 1964 when she was just thirteen years old. It has now been covered by a slew of different musicians.

Lee's original version had sold over 25 million copies throughout the world by the song's 50th anniversary in 2008, with the fourth most digital downloads of any Christmas single.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, the song had over one million digital downloads by 2016, putting it fifth on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles in SoundScan history.

As of December 2019, it had sold 1,170,000 copies in the United States.

• Published in: 1958 (US), December 1962 (UK)
• Genre: Christmas, country, rockabilly
• Songwriters: Johnny Marks
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qYz7rfgLWE

"Last Christmas" is a song by the British pop duo Wham!, released in December 1984 on CBS Records globally and Epic Records in the UK as a double A-side with "Everything She Wants." It was written and produced by George Michael, and has been performed by numerous artists since its original release. It has been described as a "high watermark of mid-80s British synthpop songcraft".

Outside of the United Kingdom, the song reached the top of the charts in Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, and Sweden, and reached the top 10 in Australia, Ireland, and the United States.

It was the most-played Christmas song of the twenty-first century in the United Kingdom until it was surpassed in 2015 by "Fairytale of New York."

On Spotify, there are around 100 distinct covers of the song. It presently has 550, 542, 191 Spotify streams, making it their most-streamed song.

• Published in: 3 December 1984
• Genre: Synth-pop; dance-pop; Christmas
• Composer: George Michael
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gmARGvPlI

"Santa Tell Me" is a Christmas song by Ariana Grande, an American singer. Grande, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Savan Kotecha wrote it. On November 24, 2014, the song was published globally via iTunes Store, and it was featured on the Japanese exclusive version of Grande's EP Christmas Kisses.

Because of its popularity on music streaming sites throughout the years during the holiday season, the song has been considered a modern Christmas staple.

"Santa Tell Me" charted in the top ten in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Sweden, and Switzerland, and the top 20 in Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom.

On November 18, 2014, the song was performed for the first time at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles during the 2014 A Very Grammy Christmas concert.

• Published in: November 24, 2014
• Genre: Christmas; R&B
• Songwriters: Ariana Grande, Savan, Kotecha, Ilya
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlR0MkrRklg
  

Justin Bieber's Christmas single "Mistletoe" is a hit in Canada. Bieber and his producers Nasri and Adam Messinger collaborated on the song. Bieber's number one single, "Mistletoe," comes from his Christmas album, Under the Mistletoe, which was published in 2011. "Mistletoe" is a pop/R&B song with reggae undertones.

The majority of music critics gave "Mistletoe" good reviews. The song charted in the top ten in Canada, Denmark, and Norway, and just missed the top ten in the United States (peaking at 11), as well as in nine other countries. The tune set a new Billboard Hot 100 record for the highest debut for a Christmas song.

On Spotify, the song has a total of 331, 964, 531 streams.

• Published in: October 17, 2011
• Genre: Pop; R&B; Christmas
• Songwriters: Nasri Atweh, Adam Messinger, Justin Bieber
• Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUjn3RpkcKY