Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

From the New York Sun, September 21, 1897:

Do You Hear What I Hear?

The uncle I was named after worked for Goodyear Tire, and among the things in my house growing up were a bunch of Christmas records featuring the Goodyear logo. These records (apparently a new one was put out each year) featured holiday standards sung by various artists of the day.

Among my favorite songs from these albums was "Do You Hear What I Hear?" sung by Andy Williams. Now, I don't remember exactly what made me look this up a few years ago, but it turns out this song has a very interesting history.

From WikiPedia:

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a Christmas song written in October 1962 with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne Baker. The pair . . . wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Baker stated in an interview years later that neither could personally perform the entire song at the time they wrote it because of the emotions surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis.

"Our little song broke us up. You must realize there was a threat of nuclear war at the time."

Kind of puts a whole new spin on it, don't it?

At any rate, without further ado, here is Andy Williams performing this wonderful Christmas tune.

PS: Man, do I love YouTube. After writing the above, my plan was to simply find a video of Andy Williams singing it, but then I found this:

"From the 1966 LP: "Goodyear's Great Songs Of Christmas Album 6" (Columbia Special Products CSS-388)"

The Greatest Gift

The story came to him in a dream. He found himself compelled to put it on paper. When finished, it came out to barely 4,000 words. He polished it for years afterward.

In the golden age of magazine fiction, he sent his story off to more than one hundred of them and got no takers.

Finding no place that would publish it, he decided to send the 200 copies he had printed out himself as a Christmas card to all his friends.

Then, in a twist that all us aspiring writers secretly hope for, it somehow ends up on the desk of a famous film director looking for a new project. After reading the story, he knew he'd found it.

The writer was paid $10,000 for the film rights (and yes, I too wonder exactly what 10,000 1940s dollars translate to today. $100,000 maybe?)

The film is made and lands with a thud. Hardly anybody goes to see it. But over time, with the advent of television, more and more people see the film. It becomes the must see holiday movie, and eventually becomes the most popular Christmas movie ever made.

For those of you who already know this story, the name Philip Van Doren Stern is probably recognizable too. I thank you for your indulgence.

But for those of you who haven't read the story, you can find it here.

[Update: The entire story used to be available at the link, however and alas, no more. Bet you can still find it out there though, and it's a bet I'd win.]