8 Christmas Songs Written by Jewish artists
(From Kveller) "Did you know that a great deal of Christmas songs were actually written by Jews? That’s right, the songs that keep playing in stores and doctor’s offices for months leading on to Christmas were written by Jews — from “Santa Baby” to “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”
A new album released this month from Grammy award winning Jewish musician Joanie Leeds and Grammy-award nominated rapper Fyütch highlights is dedicated to those songs. It’s called “Oy Vey! Another Christmas Album,” but honestly, listening to these fresh new recordings will have you kvelling — not kvetching. You can see more here.
The reason why so many Jews wrote Christmas tunes, is surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, pretty relevant at this moment in which antisemitism is once again making headlines.
As Leeds explained in an interview with Kveller, once she realized how rampant antisemitism was in almost every industry at the time these songs were created “it started to make sense that these songs were written out of necessity to survive in America and assimilate patriotically.”
8 Christmas Songs
- “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” by Mel Torme popularized in 1946 by the iconic singer Nat King Cole
- “Santa Baby” by Joan Javits and Phil Springer sung by Eartha Kit
- “Let it Snow” by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
- “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin sung by Bing Crosby
- “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and
- “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” & A Holly, Jolly Christmas,” by Johnny Marks
- “Walkin’ In a Winter Wonderland” by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith
Christmas Jewelry designed by Linda B
Christmas Order Deadline is 12/1
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