Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ~ Isaiah 7:14
Christmas Song Lyrics Compiled by Charles P. Scott
Christmas Time is Here
From 1965 TV Special "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
Lyrics
Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer,
Fun for all that children call their favorite time of year.
Snowflakes in the air, carols everywhere,
Olden times and ancient rhymes and love and dreams to share.
Sleigh bells in the air; beauty every where;
Yuletide by the fireside and joyful memories there.
Christmas time is here; we'll be drawing near;
Oh that we could always see such spirit through the year,
Such spirit through the year.
About This Song
"Christmas Time Is Here" is a popular Christmas standard written by Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson for the 1965 television special "A Charlie Brown Christmas," one of the first animated Christmas specials produced for network television in the United States.
Vince Guaraldi, who composed the tune, also wrote the score for the special, which is the famous Peanuts theme music (the song is actually called "Linus and Lucy"). Using jazz in a children's special was very unusual, but it was a brilliant choice, helping the special appeal to both kids and adults.
Originally, this was an instrumental piece that Vince Guaraldi wrote to open A Charlie Brown Christmas. About a month before it aired, Lee Mendelson, who produced the special, decided it might work better with some words, so he wrote the lyric in about 10 minutes sitting at his kitchen table. "It was a poem that just came to me," he told PRI in 2014. "Never changed the words to this day. It was only about a minute long."
A Charlie Brown Christmas used real children (mostly culled from producer Lee Mendelson's neighborhood) to voice the characters in the special, so the voices on this song are also kids. They are not the same group of children though - "Christmas Time Is Here" is sung by a group of kids Vince Guaraldi put together.
