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 ...
novelty song
A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and w ...
and monologue written and performed by
Harry Stewart
Harry Stewart (October 21, 1908 – May 20, 1956), born Harry Skarbo, was an entertainer, singer, comedian, and songwriter. He was best known for his portrayal of Yogi Yorgesson, a comically exaggerated Swedish American.
Synopsis
The song is made of two parts. The first is a short musical number (in
thirty-two-bar form
The 32-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century.
A ...
) in which Yogi shops for his wife and, considering buying a nightgown for his wife but not knowing her size, opts to buy her a
carpet sweeper
A carpet sweeper is a mechanical device for the cleaning of carpets. They were popular before the introduction of the vacuum cleaner and have been largely superseded by them. However, they continue to be used in many home and commercial applicat ...
as his gift to her. The second is a parody of the poem " A Visit from Saint Nicholas." The spoken monologue begins with a peaceful house on
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...
as Yogi sneaks off to the local bar; instead of staying to his original plan of drinking a single beer, he gets caught in the Christmas spirit and binge-drinks a dozen Tom & Jerrys.
Yogi comes home, seriously drunk, and gets too little sleep before Christmas morning arrives and the children wake him up. The severely hung-over Yogi must not only cope with his rambunctious children, but both his own relatives and his wife's, who do not get along with each other but nevertheless both visit the house for Christmas dinner. The in-laws quickly get drawn into an argument that soon escalates into violence; as
Gabriel Heatter
Gabriel Heatter (September 17, 1890 – March 30, 1972) was an American radio commentator whose World War II-era sign-on, "There's good news tonight," became both his catchphrase and his caricature.
Early life
The son of Jewish immigrants from ...
's voice is heard reciting the
annunciation to the shepherds
The annunciation to the shepherds is an episode in the Nativity of Jesus described in the Bible in Luke 2, in which angels tell a group of shepherds about the birth of Jesus. It is a common subject of Christian art and of Christmas carols.
Bibli ...
preaching peace and good will, "just at that moment, someone slugs Uncle Ben." The monologue ends with the fight spilling out of the house and Yogi grateful that Christmas only comes once a year. The song ends with a short eight-bar verse.
Throughout the song, a mock Scandinavian accent is used, with words beginning in "j" pronounced with a "y" sound (hence the spelling of the title), and "w" sounds pronounced as a "v".
Chart performance
"I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas", backed with " Yingle Bells", peaked at #5 on ''
Billboard's
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...
'' Best Sellers in Stores chart for the week after Christmas 1949.
Cover versions
Farm broadcaster
Orion Samuelson
Orion Samuelson ( ; born March 31, 1934) is a retired American broadcaster, known for his agriculture broadcasts and his ability to explain agribusiness and food production in an understandable way. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in ...
, himself of Norwegian descent, covered the song in the late 1960s with backing by the
Uff Da
''Uff da!'' (sometimes also spelled ''oof-da'', ''oofda'', ''oofala'', ''oof-dah'', ''oofdah'', ''huffda'', ''uff-da'', ''uffda'', ''uff-dah'', ''ufda'', ', or ''uf daa'') is a Scandinavian exclamation or interjection used to express dismay, ty ...
Band. Other than some minor tweaks (a lower
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
and replacing Gabriel Heatter with
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 ...
Stan Boreson Stan Boreson (May 5, 1925 – January 27, 2017), the "King of Scandinavian Humor," was a Norwegian-American comedian, accordionist and singer from Everett, Washington. Boreson was an early local TV star in the Seattle area, with a career that includ ...
and Doug Setterberg recorded the song as the title track to their 1968 Christmas album ''Stan and Doug Yust Go Nuts at Christmas'', a Harry Stewart tribute album. This version replaces Heatter with
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
and is more loose with the narration, with Setterberg slipping in retorts at certain points to Boreson's story.