150 Fun Facts About Christmas Carols History

Silent Night was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 in a village church near which Austrian city?

The church in Oberndorf was later destroyed by repeated flooding and replaced with the Silent-Night-Chapel.

In Good King Wenceslas, whom does the king trudge through the snow to help?

His page nearly gives up in the cold but keeps going by stepping in the king's footprints.

Who wrote the words to Silent Night, two years before it was set to music?

The young priest wrote the poem in 1816 at Mariapfarr, and a manuscript in his own hand was only discovered in 1995.

Silent Night's tune was long credited to famous composers such as Haydn, Mozart and whom?

The real composer was Franz Xaver Gruber, a village schoolmaster and organist, who wrote it for guitar accompaniment.

In 2011 Silent Night was declared an intangible cultural heritage by which organisation?

With more than 137,000 known recordings, it is among the most-recorded songs of any kind.

John Freeman Young, who wrote the standard English Silent Night in 1859, was a priest in which city?

He translated only three of Mohr's original six verses; a 1998 retranslation restored the 'holy infant with curly hair'.

Placide Cappeau reportedly composed the poem behind O Holy Night in 1847 while travelling how?

A local priest had asked him for a new text for Midnight Mass after the church's stained glass was restored.

Which composer of the ballet Giselle set O Holy Night to music within days?

Cappeau called the finished piece Cantique de Noël; false rumours that Adam was Jewish were later used to attack the carol.

John Sullivan Dwight wrote the 1855 English version of O Holy Night. He admired its message because he was what?

The verse about breaking chains for the enslaved resonated during the American Civil War; Dwight altered the French text much more than a translation required.

Wesley's original 1739 opening line for Hark! The Herald Angels Sing mentioned the 'welkin', meaning what?

George Whitefield rewrote the couplet into the version sung today; Wesley had wanted the words sung to his Easter tune.

Mendelssohn wrote the tune now used for Hark! The Herald Angels Sing to celebrate the 400th anniversary of what?

William Hayman Cummings, organist at Waltham Abbey, fitted Wesley's words to the Festgesang in 1855.

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is name-checked in which 1843 novella?

Dickens has Scrooge threaten a boy singing it; the carol is also quoted in George Eliot's Silas Marner.

The Latin original of O Come, All Ye Faithful is known by what title?

It has been credited to John Francis Wade, John Reading, King John IV of Portugal and anonymous monks; Wade's 1751 manuscript is at Stonyhurst College.

Which English Catholic priest translated the Latin carol into 'O Come All Ye Faithful' in 1841?

The original four verses were later extended to eight and translated into many languages.

The real Wenceslas of Good King Wenceslas was a tenth-century duke of which land?

Saint Wenceslaus I lived from about 907 to 935; his feast-day journey in the carol takes place on St Stephen's Day.

Good King Wenceslas is set to a 13th-century tune originally about which season?

Tempus adest floridum came from the 1582 Finnish collection Piae Cantiones, which also supplied Gaudete and Personent hodie.

The First Nowell is a traditional English carol most likely from which county?

It reached a wide audience through an 1833 antiquarian collection, Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern.

The melody of Deck the Halls comes from Nos Galan, a traditional carol from which country?

Nos Galan means New Year's Eve; the English words were added by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant in 1862.

Until about 1892, how did the published title of Deck the Halls differ from today's?

The 'fa la la' refrain in the Welsh original was an instrumental flourish, likely for harp.

We Three Kings (1857) is described as the first widely popular Christmas carol written in which country?

John Henry Hopkins Jr. wrote it for a New York pageant while rector in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, giving each king a solo verse.

Phillips Brooks wrote O Little Town of Bethlehem after visiting Bethlehem itself in which year?

Three years later his organist Lewis Redner wrote the tune 'St. Louis' in great haste for a Sunday-school service.

Which composer collected 'Forest Green', the British tune for O Little Town of Bethlehem?

Americans sing it to Redner's 'St. Louis' instead; the same composer took down the Sussex Carol from a singer near Horsham.

Edmund Sears, who wrote It Came Upon the Midnight Clear in 1849, was a pastor of which denomination?

Americans sing it to Richard Storrs Willis's tune, while Commonwealth countries use an Arthur Sullivan adaptation called 'Noel'.

Angels We Have Heard on High is an English version of a traditional carol from which country?

Les Anges dans nos campagnes was paraphrased by James Chadwick; the tune is called 'Gloria'.

In the Bleak Midwinter began as a poem by which Victorian poet, published in Scribner's Monthly in 1872?

Its two famous settings are by the composer of The Planets and by Harold Darke; Darke's was voted the best carol of all in a 2008 poll of choirmasters.

Which composer of The Planets wrote the congregational tune 'Cranham' for In the Bleak Midwinter?

It appeared in the 1906 English Hymnal; Darke's 1909 anthem is the version choirs prefer.

The Coventry Carol, a lullaby sung by mothers, refers to which biblical event?

It comes from a 16th-century mystery play, the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, and contains a textbook Picardy third.

Cecil Frances Alexander's 1848 hymnbook, with Once in Royal David's City, was aimed at whom?

Organist Henry Gauntlett set it to music a year later; since 1919 it has opened the King's College Christmas Eve service.

At King's College Cambridge, who sings the first verse of Once in Royal David's City on Christmas Eve?

By tradition the soloist is picked moments before the broadcast, whichever boy's voice is strongest that day.

Away in a Manger was long wrongly attributed to which German religious reformer?

It is now thought to be wholly American, with settings by James Ramsey Murray (1887) and William J. Kirkpatrick (1895).

Joy to the World was written in 1719 by which English hymn-writer as a paraphrase of Psalm 98?

The tune usually sung is Lowell Mason's 1848 arrangement of a melody attributed to Handel; no carol has been printed in more North American hymnals.

Which folk-song collector took down the standard version of The Holly and the Ivy in Chipping Campden in 1909?

He took it down from a woman named Mary Clayton; the tune also serves Trans-Siberian Orchestra's 'The Prince of Peace'.

Jingle Bells was first performed in September 1857 at Ordway Hall in Boston by what kind of entertainer?

It was one of many 'sleighing songs' of the day, possibly meant as a drinking song, and only became a Christmas song decades later.

When Jingle Bells was copyrighted, James Lord Pierpont was an organist in which Southern city?

Medford, Massachusetts also claims the song was written at its Simpson Tavern in 1850, and has a plaque to prove it.

The lost 1889 Jingle Bells, thought to be the first Christmas record, was on what format?

Banjoist Will Lyle made it; the earliest surviving version is the Edison Male Quartette's 1898 'Sleigh Ride Party' medley.

Carol of the Bells is based on Shchedryk, a Ukrainian song originally associated with which celebration?

Mykola Leontovych built it on a four-note folk motif; the pre-Christian new year was marked by the return of the swallows.

Shchedryk had its US premiere in October 1922 at which New York venue?

Peter Wilhousky wrote the bell-themed English words for NBC's radio orchestra in 1936 and copyrighted them.

The tune of Ding Dong Merrily on High first appeared in a 16th-century French book as what kind of piece?

Thoinot Arbeau's Orchésographie called it 'Branle de l'Official'; George Ratcliffe Woodward, a bell-ringing enthusiast, added words in 1924.

What Child Is This? sets William Chatterton Dix's 1865 words to which traditional English tune?

Though written in Britain, the carol is now more popular in the United States than at home.

Which Austrian singing group of Sound of Music fame first recorded The Little Drummer Boy in 1951?

Davis labelled her manuscript a 'Czech carol freely transcribed', a bit of mystery she later admitted she made up.

Do You Hear What I Hear? was written in October 1962 as a plea for peace during which Cold War standoff?

Lyricist Noël Regney and composer Gloria Shayne were married at the time; it has since sold tens of millions of copies.

Which composer and choral arranger wrote Mary's Boy Child, a 1956 hit for Harry Belafonte and later Boney M.?

Boney M.'s disco version was one of the biggest-selling singles of 1978.

The Wexford Carol is a traditional carol from which country?

It is also called the Enniscorthy Carol after the County Wexford town it comes from.

Which pioneering English printer published The Boar's Head Carol in a 1521 collection?

It is macaronic, mixing English and Latin, and is still sung at Queen's College, Oxford's boar's head feast.

The first Nine Lessons and Carols service was held on Christmas Eve 1880 at which English cathedral?

Bishop Edward White Benson devised it partly to lure Cornish revellers out of the pubs and into church.

In which year did King's College, Cambridge hold its first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols?

The new dean Eric Milner-White introduced it just after the Armistice; the BBC began radio broadcasts in 1928 and television in 1954.

In dulci jubilo is a medieval 'macaronic' carol, meaning its text mixes German with which language?

J. M. Neale's English version is Good Christian Men, Rejoice, and Bach's chorale prelude on the tune is a traditional Christmas postlude.

Gaudete and the Good King Wenceslas tune come from Piae Cantiones, a 1582 songbook compiled in which country?

It was compiled by Jacobus Finno, headmaster at Turku, and printed in Greifswald; Steeleye Span took Gaudete to number 14 in the UK in 1973.

Vernacular Christmas songs spread through 13th-century Italy under which saint's influence?

The earliest English carols appear in a 1426 manuscript by a chaplain named John Awdlay, probably sung by wassailers going house to house.

The earliest known English carols were written down in 1426 by John Awdlay, a chaplain from which county?

He recorded twenty-five 'caroles of Cristemas', probably sung by groups of wassailers.

During which period in England were carols sung only privately, at semi-clandestine services?

The Victorian revival, driven by antiquarian collectors, brought many old carols back into print.

Whose 1833 collection Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern preserved The First Noel and I Saw Three Ships?

Bramley and Stainer's Christmas Carols, New and Old followed in 1871 and popularised The Holly and the Ivy.

Which organisation, under Charles Fry, began playing carols in public with a brass band in 1878?

Two years later Truro Cathedral brought carols into church services for the first time.

The Oxford Book of Carols (1928) was edited by Percy Dearmer, Martin Shaw and which composer?

The same composer supplied Forest Green and the Sussex Carol tune to the English repertoire.

Orchard-visiting wassailers in the West Country sing to the trees to promote a good harvest of what?

House-visiting wassailing on Twelfth Night, with a shared bowl of hot spiced ale or cider, is the ancestor of door-to-door carolling.

The best-known tune for The Twelve Days of Christmas is a 1909 arrangement by which English composer?

The words were first published in England in the late 18th century, and many different melodies were used before Austin's stuck.

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming first appeared in print in 1599 in which German city?

The harmonisation everyone sings is Michael Praetorius's from 1609; the rose stands for the Virgin Mary.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel paraphrases which plainchants sung at Vespers just before Christmas?

The Latin hymn is first found in print in 1710, despite a persistent myth that it is early medieval; John Mason Neale translated it in 1851.

The German carol O Tannenbaum is known in English by what title?

It began as a folk song that had nothing to do with the holiday and only later attached itself to the decorated tree.

Good King Wenceslas looks out on the Feast of Stephen, which falls on what date?

Neale added the reference to St Stephen's Day so the carol could be performed on it, the day after Christmas.

Roughly how many known recordings of Silent Night exist, making it one of the most recorded carols?

The carol has been translated into around 300 languages and was first recorded in 1905.

Into approximately how many languages has Silent Night been translated?

The English version most people sing uses only three of Joseph Mohr's original six verses.

Joseph Mohr wrote the poem Stille Nacht in 1816 while serving at a pilgrim church in which Austrian town?

A manuscript in Mohr's own hand, found in 1995, settled the date and confirmed Gruber as composer.

Which travelling family of folk singers gave Silent Night its first US performance, in New York in 1839?

An organ builder named Karl Mauracher carried the song to the Zillertal, where singing families picked it up.

At the first performance of Silent Night in 1818, which instrument did Joseph Mohr play?

Gruber, the schoolteacher and organist from Arnsdorf, composed the melody that same Christmas Eve.

Before becoming a schoolteacher and composing Silent Night, Franz Xaver Gruber worked in which trade?

Gruber was born in Hochburg-Ach, Upper Austria, to a family of linen weavers.

Whose dissonant 1978 violin-and-piano arrangement of Stille Nacht caused a scandal in Austria?

It was written as a holiday greeting for the violinist Gidon Kremer.

Under what title was Jingle Bells first copyrighted in September 1857?

The familiar title only arrived with an 1859 reissue by Oliver Ditson of Boston.

A plaque in which Massachusetts town claims to mark the birthplace of Jingle Bells?

Researcher Kyna Hamill argues the song was more likely composed in Boston shortly before Pierpont moved south.

In 1965, which spacecraft's astronauts played Jingle Bells on a smuggled harmonica and bells?

Wally Schirra's tiny Hohner 'Little Lady' harmonica now belongs to the Smithsonian.

Which bandleader's 1941 big-band Jingle Bells reached No. 5 on the Billboard pop chart?

Benny Goodman had charted with a swing version six years earlier, peaking at No. 18.

White Christmas was written by Irving Berlin for which 1942 musical film?

It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the 1954 film White Christmas reused it.

Roughly how many copies has Bing Crosby's White Christmas single sold, a world record?

Counting every version of the song, Guinness puts total sales above 100 million.

Bing Crosby first performed White Christmas in public on Christmas Day 1941 on which radio show?

It was just weeks after Pearl Harbor; the studio recording followed in May 1942 and took 18 minutes.

Why did Bing Crosby re-record White Christmas in March 1947?

The 1947 version, heard most on radio today, can be told apart by flutes and celesta at the opening.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was originally created in 1939 as an assignment for which company?

Robert L. May wrote the story; his brother-in-law Johnny Marks turned it into the 1949 song.

Who recorded the original 1949 hit version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Autry first rejected the song as a B-side, but his wife talked him into recording it.

The 1949 hit recording of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer holds what distinction in US chart history?

It also remains the only chart-topper to fall completely off the chart immediately after hitting No. 1.

Whose 1959 record Run Rudolph Run is a rock-and-roll sequel to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Later pressings often credit the song to Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie rather than Berry.

Which studio made the 1950 black-and-white Frosty the Snowman short long aired by WGN-TV?

It features a jazzy a cappella version of the song, and WGN has aired it alongside Suzy Snowflake and Hardrock, Coco and Joe.

Which comedian narrated and sang in the 1969 Rankin/Bass TV special Frosty the Snowman?

The animation was done by the Japanese studio Mushi Production, with Jackie Vernon voicing Frosty.

Which New York village holds an annual parade dedicated to Frosty the Snowman?

The song's action is said to take place in White Plains or Armonk, though Christmas is never mentioned in the lyrics.

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town became a hit after which entertainer sang it on his radio show in November 1934?

Within 24 hours, 500,000 copies of sheet music and more than 30,000 records were sold.

Bruce Springsteen's famous live Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town was recorded in 1975 at what kind of venue?

It first appeared on a 1981 Sesame Street compilation before becoming the B-side of My Hometown.

The chorus refrain borrowed by Springsteen, the Jackson 5 and Mariah Carey comes from whose 1963 recording?

It appeared on Phil Spector's album A Christmas Gift for You.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was introduced by Judy Garland in which 1944 MGM musical?

Her character Esther sings it on Christmas Eve to cheer up her little sister Tootie, played by Margaret O'Brien.

Which singer asked Hugh Martin in 1957 to 'jolly up' a line of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?

The gloomy 'muddle through somehow' became 'hang a shining star upon the highest bough' for the album A Jolly Christmas.

Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote Let It Snow! in July 1945 under what conditions?

The pair imagined cooler weather; the lyrics never once mention Christmas.

Who made the first recording of Let It Snow! in autumn 1945, taking it to No. 1?

Monroe's record topped Billboard's best-sellers for five weeks from late December into early 1946.

Lyricist Richard Smith wrote Winter Wonderland in 1934 while being treated for which illness?

He was reportedly inspired by the snow-covered Central Park of his hometown, Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

In the 1947 children's rewrite of Winter Wonderland, Parson Brown was replaced by what figure?

The new lyric turned a romantic winter interlude into a song about playing in the snow.

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) was co-written in 1945 by Robert Wells and which jazz singer?

Tormé said they wrote it in about 40 minutes during a hot July, trying to 'stay cool by thinking cool'.

Which of Nat King Cole's four recordings of The Christmas Song is generally regarded as definitive?

The 1961 recording joined the National Recording Registry in 2022; the 1946 original is in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride was premiered in May 1948 by which orchestra?

Arthur Fiedler conducted; the Pops' 1949 recording on red vinyl became a hit on RCA Victor Red Seal.

Near the end of Sleigh Ride, which instrument imitates a horse whinnying?

A percussionist supplies the clip-clop and whip crack on temple blocks and a slapstick.

Who was commissioned by Mills Music in 1950 to add lyrics to Sleigh Ride?

Parish, who also put words to Stardust, gave Sleigh Ride lyrics that never mention any holiday.

Under what title did Katherine Kennicott Davis originally write The Little Drummer Boy in 1941?

Davis disliked the later title, calling it 'cutie cute'; the drummer at the manger is not in the Bible.

Whose 1958 chorale recording turned The Little Drummer Boy into a perennial Christmas chart hit?

It copied a Jack Halloran Singers arrangement almost exactly, adding only finger cymbals and the new title.

Bing Crosby's 1977 duet medley of The Little Drummer Boy was sung with which rock star?

Crosby had already made a solo recording of the song in 1962.

José Feliciano wrote and first recorded Feliz Navidad in which year?

He wrote it homesick in a Los Angeles studio and recorded it in about 10 minutes; it has just 19 words.

Besides acoustic guitar, which Puerto Rican instrument does José Feliciano play on Feliz Navidad?

The song finally reached the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 in 2020, half a century after it was recorded.

Blue Christmas, later an Elvis Presley staple, was first recorded in 1948 by which country singer?

Ernest Tubb's 1949 version then spent a week at No. 1 on Billboard's country jukebox chart.

Which vocal group backed Elvis Presley on his 1957 recording of Blue Christmas?

Soprano Millie Kirkham's neutral 'blue notes' in the backing are a musical in-joke on the title.

How old was Brenda Lee when she recorded Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree in 1958?

In December 2023 the same recording finally topped the Hot 100, making Lee the oldest artist ever to do so.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree topped the Billboard Hot 100 how many years after its release?

It is the longest gap ever between a song's original release and reaching No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Bobby Helms claimed the Beal-Boothe song Decca handed him in 1957 was originally titled what?

Both men said they rewrote the music, lyrics and tempo and added a bridge, but never received writing credit.

Silver Bells debuted in which 1951 Bob Hope film?

Songwriters Livingston and Evans originally called it 'Tinkle Bells' until a wife pointed out the double meaning.

Which composer of The Music Man wrote It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas in 1951?

Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters made the first recording; Yarmouth, Nova Scotia claims its Grand Hotel inspired a lyric.

Gene Autry got the idea for Here Comes Santa Claus after riding his horse in a 1946 parade in which city?

Crowds chanted 'Here comes Santa Claus' as he rode by; a demo used ice cubes to mimic sleigh bells.

Which broadcaster banned I'll Be Home for Christmas in WWII, fearing it would sap troop morale?

Americans felt differently: it became the most requested song at Christmas USO shows.

In the 1964 TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Burl Ives sang A Holly Jolly Christmas as which character?

The song was originally meant for Yukon Cornelius but was handed to Ives because of his singing fame.

The first known Christmas hymns, such as Veni redemptor gentium, are traced to 4th-century Rome and which archbishop?

These austere Latin hymns defended the doctrine of the Incarnation against Arianism.

Henry Bramley co-edited the 1871 revival book Christmas Carols, New and Old with which composer?

Its selections helped fix favourites such as See, Amid the Winter's Snow in the popular mind.

Carols for Choirs, the bestselling OUP series first published in 1961, was edited by Reginald Jacques and whom?

The series has grown to five volumes, with John Rutter joining as an editor for later books.

The word 'wassail' comes from a salutation in which language, meaning 'be in good health'?

The toast-and-reply formula 'wassail ... drinkhail' spread among the Anglo-Danes before the 12th century.

On which date is the house-visiting wassail traditionally held?

Some still wassail on 'Old Twelvey Night', 17 January, the date before the 1752 calendar change.

Which Shakespeare play contains the first recorded use of 'wassail' to mean general revelling?

By about 1300 the word had already shifted from a toast to the spiced ale itself.

Carols by Candlelight, the outdoor singalong tradition, was popularised in 1938 in which city?

Radio announcer Norman Banks of 3KZ organised it after seeing a lonely woman singing along to a carol by candlelight.

Since 1959, Australia's oldest Carols by Candlelight has been held at which permanent venue?

The first event in Alexandra Gardens in 1938 drew around 10,000 people.

Cornish miners in Moonta, South Australia, sang carols on Christmas Eve with candles stuck to what?

The region was dubbed 'Australia's Little Cornwall'; the candles were tallow 'fatjacks' fixed with wet clay.

Benjamin Britten composed A Ceremony of Carols in 1942 while doing what?

It is scored for three-part treble chorus and harp, with texts mostly in Middle English.

Which instrument accompanies the choir in Britten's A Ceremony of Carols?

A harp solo Interlude based on the Gregorian chant Hodie Christus natus est helps unify the eleven movements.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio, written for the 1734 season, is divided into how many parts?

Each part is a cantata for a feast day from Christmas Day to Epiphany, reusing music from earlier secular cantatas.

After Bach's lifetime, the next complete public performance of the Christmas Oratorio was in which year?

The Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell revived it; the full work runs about three hours.

Go Tell It on the Mountain was first published by John Wesley Work Jr., a collector of songs sung by which group?

Work was the first African-American collector of spirituals and taught Latin and Greek in Nashville.

Which future Wailer was reportedly discovered in 1962 singing Go Tell It on the Mountain in the street?

The Wailers recorded the song in 1970 with Tosh on vocals.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is based on an 1863 poem by which American poet?

He wrote it on Christmas Day after his son Charles was badly wounded fighting for the Union.

Which Rudolph songwriter composed the 1956 melody for I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day recorded by Bing Crosby?

Crosby reportedly quipped to Marks: 'I see you finally got yourself a decent lyricist.'

The Huron Carol, Canada's oldest Christmas song, was written around 1642 by which Jesuit missionary?

He wrote it in the Wendat language; the tune is the French folk song Une Jeune Pucelle.

In the English Huron Carol, what do the 'chiefs from afar' bring instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh?

Jesse Edgar Middleton's 1926 English lyrics place the birth in a 'lodge of broken bark'.

Which Poet Laureate is credited with the words of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks, published in 1700?

For decades it was the only Christmas hymn the Anglican Church authorised for singing.

The standard British tune for While Shepherds Watched, Winchester Old, first appeared in a 1592 book of what?

Este's psalter drew the tune from Christopher Tye's 1553 setting of the Acts of the Apostles.

The Coventry Carol was originally sung in a mystery play staged by which Coventry guilds?

The only surviving text was edited by Robert Croo, who dated his manuscript 14 March 1534.

Robert Croo's original 1534 Coventry Carol manuscript was destroyed in an 1879 library fire in which city?

Thomas Sharp's careful 1817 and 1825 transcriptions are now the only source for the text and music.

Which composer's 1916 arrangement made the Latin carol Personent hodie a favourite processional in England?

The arrangement is sometimes nicknamed 'Theodoric' after the composer's middle name, Theodore.

The Cherry Tree Carol is unusual in being both a Christmas carol and one of what collection of traditional songs?

Joan Baez brought a Kentucky version to mainstream audiences on her 1961 album Joan Baez, Vol. 2.

Do They Know It's Christmas? was written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and which Ultravox frontman?

Band Aid recorded it in a single day at Sarm West Studios; it sold a million copies in its first week.

Wham!'s Last Christmas first reached UK number one on what date, 36 years after release?

Until then it was the highest-selling UK single never to have reached number one.

Mariah Carey co-wrote and co-produced All I Want for Christmas Is You with which collaborator?

It was the lead single from her 1994 album Merry Christmas and has spent 22 weeks atop the Hot 100.

Which singer duets with Shane MacGowan on the Pogues' Fairytale of New York?

The song was kept off the 1987 UK Christmas number one by the Pet Shop Boys' Always on My Mind.

Wonderful Christmastime was recorded during sessions for which 1980 solo album by a former Beatle?

He played every part himself, though the members of Wings appear in the video shot at a West Sussex pub.

Which vocal group is credited alongside the Plastic Ono Band on Happy Xmas (War Is Over)?

Its title echoes the 'WAR IS OVER! If You Want It' billboards Lennon and Yoko Ono rented in 12 cities in 1969.

The chorus melody of Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody came from a discarded 1967 song by Noddy Holder called what?

Jim Lea wrote the verse melody in the shower; the single beat Wizzard to the 1973 Christmas number one.

Why did Wizzard re-record I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday with a new school choir in 1981?

The remake used children from Kempsey Primary School in Worcestershire in place of the original schoolchildren.

Cliff Richard's 1988 hit Mistletoe and Wine was originally written for a musical based on which fairy tale?

In the musical Scraps it was sung ironically; Richard changed the lyrics to give it a religious theme.

Which UK broadcaster announces the Christmas number one single each year?

A serious Christmas number one contest only began in 1973, when Slade and Wizzard both aimed for the top spot.

Steeleye Span's 1973 hit Gaudete was one of only two UK top-20 singles sung entirely in which language?

Guitarist Bob Johnson heard the carol at a folk-carol service in Cambridge; the other Latin hit was Pie Jesu in 1986.

The familiar words of O Tannenbaum were written in 1824 by Ernst Anschütz, a teacher and organist in which city?

He kept August Zarnack's first verse, so in German the song does not mention Christmas until verse two.

Which Victorian designer and poet wrote the words of Masters in This Hall around 1860 to an old French dance tune?

The tune was composed by Marin Marais as a sailors' march for his 1706 opera Alcyone.

The Spanish Renaissance carol Riu Riu Chiu is known from a single 1556 songbook preserved at which university?

The Cancionero de Upsala was printed in Venice; the Monkees performed the song on their 1967 Christmas show.