"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is a

Christmas song 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 or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

written in 1951 by

Meredith Willson Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American flutist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and writer. He is perhaps best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 195 ...

. The song was originally titled "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas". The song has been recorded by many artists, but was a hit for

Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian-American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing ...

and

The Fontane Sisters The Fontane Sisters were a trio (Bea, Geri and Marge Rosse) from New Milford, New Jersey. Early years Born to an Italian family, their mother, Louise Rosse, was both a soloist and the leader of the St. Joseph's Church choir in New Milford. Bea ...

with

Mitchell Ayres Mitchell Ayres (December 24, 1909 – September 5, 1969) was an orchestra leader, music arranger, composer and performer. He is best known for his many years of work with Perry Como on radio, records, and television and as the musical condu ...

& His Orchestra on September 18, 1951, and released on

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

as 47-4314 (45 rpm) and 20-4314 (78 rpm).

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

recorded a version on October 1, 1951, which was also widely played.

History

Background and writing

A popular belief in

Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Yarmouth is a town in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. A port town, industries include fishing, and tourism. It is the terminus of a ferry service to Bar Harbor, Maine, run by Bay Ferries. History Originally inhabited by the Mi'kmaq, the regi ...

, holds that Willson wrote the song while staying in Yarmouth's Grand Hotel. The song refers to a "tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well..."; the park being Frost Park, directly across the road from the Grand Hotel, which still operates in a newer building on the same site as the old hotel. It also makes mention of the

five and ten ''Five and Ten'' is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by an uncredited Robert Z. Leonard and starring Marion Davies, Leslie Howard and Irene Rich. Davies plays as an heiress and Howard the man she loves, though he marries s ...

which was a store operating in Yarmouth at the time. It is also possible that the "Grand Hotel" Willson mentions in the song was inspired by the Historic Park Inn Hotel in his hometown of

Mason City, Iowa Mason City is a city and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,338 in the 2020 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro Go ...

. The Park Inn Hotel is the last remaining hotel in the world designed by architect

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

, and is situated in downtown Mason City overlooking central park.

In popular culture

Meredith Willson incorporated the song into his 1963 Broadway musical ''

Here's Love ''Here's Love'' is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson. Based on the 1947 film ''Miracle on 34th Street'', it tells the tale of a skeptical young girl who doubts the existence of Santa Claus. When the real Kris Kringle i ...

'', where it is sung in

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

to the newly composed song "Pine Cones and Holly Berries".

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

recorded the song for his 1986 album ''

Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis ''Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis'' is the fourth Christmas album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on September 23, 1986, by Columbia Records. This was Mathis's fourth holiday-themed gramophone record, LP and focused exclus ...

''; this version gained popularity after its inclusion in the film '' Home Alone 2: Lost in New York''. Gradually, Mathis's recording began to receive wide

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

airplay, and for the past several years this version has been a Top 10 Christmas hit.

Perry Como version

and

with

& His Orchestra released their cover of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" on September 18, 1951, becoming one of the biggest versions of the song, which is still widely played today, with over 264 million streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

as of December 15, 2022.

Weekly charts

Certifications and sales

Michael Bublé version

Canadian singer

Michael Bublé Michael Steven Bublé ( ; born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian singer. A four-time Grammy Award winner, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songboo ...

's version was first released on October 24, 2011, as the first track of Bublé's ''

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

'' album. However, it was then released as the album's second single on November 18, 2012, achieving greater success. In the UK, the song peaked at number 7 in 2018.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Other notable versions

* 1962:

Alvin and the Chipmunks Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks or simply The Chipmunks, are an American animated virtual band and media franchise first created by Ross Bagdasarian for novelty records in 1958. The group consists of three s ...

on their album ''Christmas with The Chipmunks'' * 2002:

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on their album '' Holiday Harmony'' * 2007:

The Four Freshmen The Four Freshmen is an American male vocal quartet that blends open-harmonic jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires, The Pied Pipers, and The Mel-Tones, founded in the barbershop tradition. The singers accom ...

on their album ''Snowfall'' * 2008: Harry Connick Jr. on his album '' What a Night! A Christmas Album'' * 2009:

Connie Talbot Connie Victoria Elizabeth Talbot (born 20 November 2000) is an English singer. In 2007, she was the runner-up of the first series of ''Britain's Got Talent''. She then signed with Rainbow Recording Company and released her debut album '' Over t ...

on her album ''

Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic ''Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic'', also known as ''Connie Talbot's Christmas Magic'', is the third album by British child singer Connie Talbot. Released 13 October 2009 by AAO Music, it features rerecordings of songs from Talbot's previous albu ...

'' * 2015:

Jann Arden Jann Arden (born Jann Arden Anne Richards; March 27, 1962) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress. She is famous for her signature ballads, "Could I Be Your Girl" and "Insensitive (song), Insensitive", which is her biggest hit to date. Ea ...

on her album ''A Jann Arden Christmas'' * 2016:

Laura Pausini Laura Pausini (; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian singer. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with her debut single "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an internat ...

on her album '' Laura Xmas'' * 2017:

Noah Cyrus Noah Lindsey Cyrus (born January 8, 2000) is an American singer and actress. As a child actress she voiced the titular character in the English dub of the film ''Ponyo'' (2008), as well as having minor roles on shows like ''Hannah Montana'' and ' ...

on her

promotional single A promotional recording, or promo, or plug copy, is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as ...

* 2018:

Pentatonix Pentatonix (abbreviated PTX) is an American a cappella group from Arlington, Texas, currently consisting of vocalists Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying, Kirstin Maldonado, Kevin Olusola, and Matt Sallee. Characterized by their pop-style arrangements ...

on their album ''

Christmas Is Here! ''Christmas Is Here!'' is the seventh studio album by American a cappella group Pentatonix. It is also their third full-length holiday album following ''A Pentatonix Christmas'' in 2016. It was released on RCA Records, and the first single is a co ...

'' * 2020:

Meghan Trainor Meghan Elizabeth Trainor (born December 22, 1993) is an American singer-songwriter and television personality. She rose to prominence after signing with Epic Records in 2014 and releasing her debut single "All About That Bass", which reached ...

on her album ''

A Very Trainor Christmas ''A Very Trainor Christmas'' is the fourth major-label studio album, and debut Christmas album, by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor, released on October 30, 2020, by Epic Records and her own label, Honest OG Recordings. The album contains ...

'' * 2020: Quintino on the album ''Home Alone (On the Night Before Christmas) EP'' * 2021:

Kelly Clarkson Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter, author, and television personality. She rose to fame after winning the first season of ''American Idol'' in 2002, which earned her a record deal with RCA. Her debu ...

on her album '' When Christmas Comes Around...'' * 2022:

V_(singer) Kim Tae-hyung (; born December 30, 1995), also known professionally as V, is a South Korean singer and a member of the boy band BTS. V has released three solo tracks under the band's name: "Stigma" in 2016, " Singularity" in 2018, and "Inner C ...

(Kim Taehyung) from

BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010 and debuting in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet—consisting of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook—co-writes and co-produ ...

, released on SoundCloud and the Youtube channel "BANGTANGTV"

References

{{authority control 1951 songs American Christmas songs Andrea Bocelli songs Bing Crosby songs Johnny Mathis songs Olivia Newton-John songs Perry Como songs Reprise Records singles Richard Marx songs Songs written by Meredith Willson