Classic Christmas Songs That Are Darker Than You Realized

In 1934, songwriter Haven Gillespie was asked by his publisher to write a Christmas song for children. Having gone to the meeting directly from his brother Irwin's funeral, Gillespie had no interest in the project. Somehow he was talked into it and began writing the song on his train ride home. Thinking of all the pleasant memories he created with his brother during the holidays, Gillespie wrote "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town."

The song was later recorded by Eddie Cantor and became a huge hit, inspiring many covers and a classic stop-motion animated film. Gillespie, however, never liked hearing the song, since it reminded him of his brother.

"White Christmas" holds the surprising record of being the world's best-selling single, first released by Bing Crosby only a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The song was written by Irving Berlin for a Broadway musical that was never made, but managed to find its way into the Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby movie Holiday Inn (and its spiritual successor, White Christmas).

Since Berlin was Jewish, he didn't really celebrate the holiday. But he had developed a yearly tradition of visiting his son's grave; the child had passed away on Christmas Day when he was three weeks old. The melancholy Berlin associated with Christmas certainly came through in the song, and it became a hit after resonating with sentimental listeners during World War II.

Continuing the dark history of the song, the playing of "White Christmas" over the radio also served as code for American soldiers to evacuate Saigon during the Vietnam War.

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" has been covered by many artists, including Carrie Underwood and Whitney Houston. The lyrics describe a lamb pointing out a star to a shepherd boy, who then tells the king to bring silver and gold to a special child. It sounds like a sweet, not overly religious tune, and thank to the repeating verses, it's a classic holiday selection for choirs.

What many people don't know, however, is that the star with the "tail as big as a kite" actually refers to a missile. The song was written in 1962 by Gloria Shayne Baker and Noel Regney, both terrified of being blown up as the Cuban Missile Crisis went down. The lines at the end urge listeners to "pray for peace people everywhere" and were the songwriters' response to the tense situation.

"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!" is a classic carol, but it's also the twisted hybrid of several men putting their own touches on it without asking for approval from the guy before. The original lyrics were created as a poem in 1739 by Charles Wesley, but since they were written in old-timey English and contained odd phrases like "welkin rings," an evangelist named George Whitefield decided to change the lyrics without permission. Wesley was upset, but the poem became more popular after Whitefield's adjustment, so the new lines stuck.

In 1855, after both men had passed on, an organist named William Cummings set the Wesley/Whitefield poem to music composed by Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn had always insisted that his work never be used for religious purposes, but since he was dead too, he didn't really get a say. The classic song was born, and all three men turned over in their graves.

Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure was commissioned to write a poem for Christmas mass in 1847, and wrote the lyrics to "O Holy Night" based on the nativity Bible stories. Cappeau thought the impact of his words would be more powerful set to music, and asked Adolphe Charles Adams to create the score.

The French Catholic church liked the song – until Cappeau decided to become a socialist and they found out Adams was Jewish. The church banned and denounced the song since a man of a different religion had written it. But the French people still sang it, and soon it became popular overseas, too.

"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" has been covered by everyone from Amy Grant to Barry Manilow, but it was originally written for the 1944 movie Meet Me in Saint Louis and sung by Judy Garland. Hugh Martin was given the task of creating a song that could show the family's sadness over celebrating the last Christmas in a home they were soon moving from. With lyrics like "Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last," Martin did such a good job of writing a melancholy tune that Garland complained it was too depressing.

The lyrics were changed, but one of the song's last lines as heard in the film, "From now on, we'll have to muddle through somehow" was later altered to "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough." That was at the request of Frank Sinatra, who thought the song was still too dark. Despite the fact his more jolly version was the one that turned the song into a holiday classic, most people agree that it's the song's melancholy undertone that they really relate to.