I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten, and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white
About This Song
On Christmas Day, 1941, just 18 days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bing Crosby announced that he would be debuting a new song on The Kraft Music Hall radio show he hosted for a decade. That day, Crosby went on to croon “White Christmas” live on the air.
Released around one of the darkest moments in U.S. history to shed some light around the holidays, “White Christmas,” written by Irving Berlin, evoked visions of holidays past and was not as upbeat as some of its more pop yuletide musical counterparts of the time.
Though the year the song was written is unknown, the lyrics centered around the death of Berlin’s son, who died on Christmas Day in 1928 at only three weeks old. Every year after the death of his son, Berlin, who was Jewish, and his wife would visit his grave on Christmas, something that may have led him to write the more somber holiday song.
