(If you’d like to read the other days, you can do so by clicking here. Don’t forget I’m making a playlist in Spotify as we go through this series, you can subscribe to here.)

Today, we’re going for a Sleigh Ride….and while it may feel like winter to us. I didn’t feel like winter for these composers when they wrote these songs. Both of them were written during the summer, and both during heat waves!

Today’s songs aren’t necessarily Christmas songs, they’re more about winter and snow than anything. But, we hear them at Christmastime, just like we hear other non-Christmas songs at Christmastime. And we love them! Especially Sleigh Ride. If you’ve ever heard a live orchestra perform this song, you know it’s a song packed full of energy and excitement. It’s got a lot of moving parts to it, plus a few fun sounds like the crack of a whip, the whinnee of the horse  and the clapping of the horses hooves. (Although, I have to ask the question, if you’re going for a sleigh ride in the snow, would you actually hear the horse? Wouldn’t the sound be softened by the snow?)

Sleigh Ride

Anyway, the song started as an orchestral piece by Leroy Anderson. He actually had the idea for the song in the warm months of summer in 1946 and finished the song in 1948. Supposedly this is the most played and recorded song in Western Music, however, I find that hard to verify. Mitchel Parish wrote the lyrics in 1950, but the instrumental version remains the more popular version of the song.

Let It Snow

The lyrics for Let is Snow were written by Sammy Cahn and the song composed by Jule Styne in 1945. The song has been re-recorded by a number of artists: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Aaron Neville, Chicago, Michael Buble, Twisted Sister, Lady Antebellum, Blake Shelton, Rod Stewart and many others. Of course, one of our favorite uses of the song is during the closing credits of Die Hard 1 & 2. Which proves, without any doubt that Die Hard is in fact a Christmas Movie.

And for a little bonus, I thought I’d share another song from my Christmas album that I just released. It’s the title track for the album, “When The Snow Falls” (which is available on iTunes).

I grew up loving snow, and in fact love it to this very day. There’s nothing I don’t love about snow. I know many others feel differently, but I LOVE IT! So, since there aren’t enough songs about snow, I decided to write one!