Things Worth Remembering: ‘White Christmas’ Is a World War II Anthem Today, we see it as a quintessential secular Christmas song. To its original audience in 1941, however, the lyrics were impossible not to associate with the war.
Danny Kaye, Dean Jagger, and Bing Crosby starred in the 1954 film White Christmas, named for the song first written for the 1942 film Holiday Inn. (Paramount Pictures)
Welcome to Things Worth Remembering, our weekly column in which writers share a poem or paragraph that all of us should commit to heart. This week, Mene Ukueberuwa reflects on ‘White Christmas,’ and how the song that debuted weeks after Pearl Harbor echoed the homesickness of a nation at war.
When you think of “White Christmas,” there’s a good chance you can recall every note of Bing Crosby’s crooning delivery, along with the cooing backup vocals of the Ken Darby Singers. After all, you’ve probably heard it hundreds of times: It’s the best-selling single in the history of the world. For young and middle-aged folks, “White Christmas” is a quintessential secular Christmas song. The lyrics evoke a man staring out his window, pining for snow and a more innocent past while he writes Christmas cards to distant relatives and friends. The sentiment is beautiful and could be felt by anyone, in any time period...
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