(Corrected thanks to Brian’s comment.)
In 1957, Dr. Seuss wrote a book called How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Nine years later, it was turned into an animated TV special by the team at Warner Brothers under the direction of Chuck Jones, the cartoon legend who created some of the most memorable Bugs Bunny and Road Runner adventures. Boris Karloff provides the narration, and although he might have seemed to be a strange choice at the time, now the show is unimaginable without him. Most of the dialogue is lifted verbatim from the Seuss book, although the special also contains several original songs written by Seuss and Albert Hague. You might have seen Hague in the movie or TV series Fame, where he played Mr. Shorofsky, the music teacher. He is also animated into the Grinch cartoon itself—he’s the Who with a beard seen singing in the Whoville town square.
“You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” has become the signature song from the show, and it’s been covered in recent years by several high-profile artists: Sixpence None the Richer, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Aimee Mann, and this year, Mannheim Steamroller. But it’s “Welcome Christmas,” the song the Whos sing on Christmas morning, that I want to write about here. A few years ago, a now-defunct website claimed that the song is an adaptation of a song sung in an isolated Norwegian town called Hu. I’m not buying that, but wherever it came from, it’s lovely:
Welcome Christmas
Bring your cheer
Cheer to all Whos far and near
Christmas Day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp
Christmas Day will always be
Just as long as we have we
The Mrs. and I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas! the other night, and it occurred to me that like “I Believe in Father Christmas,” “Welcome Christmas” is completely plausible as an atheist Christmas song. It doesn’t require commitment to a particular creed to show love to your loved ones, and to celebrate the fact that they love you back.
The recording below is from the TV soundtrack, although it seems like a different version from the one seen on the show itself—it’s a little stiff and not as sweet, but you’ll get the idea.
Programming Note: This weekend, just like the retailers who are going full-goose bozo to get you to buy the inventory that’s still in stock, I’ll be putting up new holiday-themed posts on both Saturday and Sunday because I have extras in the can already. Stop by, why dontcha.
“Welcome Christmas” (from the How the Grinch Stole Christmas! TV soundtrack; buy it here)
Fantastic! This is, without a doubt, my favourite Christmas song. A wonderful message AND nonsense words? What a great combination. :)
Actually, Chuck Jones didn’t do this at Warner Brothers.
They had closed their cartoon department in 1963 and Jones was at MGM doing Tom and Jerry cartoons. It’s MGM who Jones did “How The Grinch Stole Christmas For.”
Meant to add:
Jones was with a company who worked through MGM between 1964 and 1967 and it was there he did “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.” He also did a cartoon called “The Dot and The Line,” for which he won an Oscar.