Wishing You a “Burl Ives” Holly, Jolly Christmas
We are celebrating Christmas each day for the next week with short stories and memories about the Christmas season. Yesterday I talked about Snoopy and the Christmas Truce of 1914. Today I want to wish you a “holly, jolly Christmas.”
When you hear someone wish a “holly, jolly Christmas,” your mind probably jumps straight to Burl Ives. After all, he made the song famous, singing it on his own hit record and in the TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Many people assume Ives wrote the song himself. The truth is, the song was written by a little-known artist named Johnny Marks.
You’ve probably never heard of Johnny Marks, but you have heard his music. Marks wrote “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas,” but he wrote several other popular Christmas songs, including, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Run, Run Rudolph,” and, yes, the old standby “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (written along with his brother-in-law Robert L. May who created the character of Rudolph for Montgomery Ward).
In 1967 the Royal Guardsmen released “Snoopy’s Christmas.” The song, which followed up their hit “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” is a favorite on many radio stations this time of year. In the song, Snoopy goes up against German ace fighter pilot “the Red Baron” on Christmas Eve during World War I. In the end, the Baron invites Snoopy to land with him; the pair exchange Christmas wishes, and part ways “each knowing they’d meet on some other day.”