The traditional Christmas carols we know and love today have been around for many years, even centuries; each one has a fascinating story behind it. In this read-aloud collection, Tonya Lambert reveals stories and the trivia behind popular Christmas carols, traditional and contemporary--the music, the lyrics, the composers, the singers and the time and traditions around which they were written:

- In one of the most successful television commercials to employ a Christmas song, Hershey’s Kisses are portrayed as bells playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

- In Austria, "Silent Night" is protected from commercialism and is not played, broadcast or sung until Christmas Eve

- Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw thought the tune of "O Christmas Tree" sounded like "the funeral march of a dead eel"

- The first Christmas carol broadcast in space was "Jingle Bells"; during the flight of Gemini 6 in 1965, astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra sang the carol accompanied by a harmonica and sleigh bells

The earliest collection of Christmas carols is found in a manuscript compiled 600 years ago by a blind priest and poet in Shropshire, England

- George Rock, who first recorded "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth," received thousands of teeth in the mail, two at a time, from children

- It took Haven Gillespie just 15 minutes to write "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" on the back of an envelope while sitting in a bar in 1932

Christians in the mostly Muslim country of Malaysia have to obtain a police permit to sing Christmas carols in church or at home

- Songwriter Irving Berlin tried unsuccessfully to get Elvis Presley’s version of "White Christmas" banned from radio stations

...and so much more!

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TONYA LAMBERT is a writer, editor, historian and actress and has been a bookseller, book reviewer, indexer, coach and teacher. She grew up in the small town of Kelvington, Saskatchewan, before moving to Edmonton with her three daughters. She earned a BA Honors Degree in History with High Honors and an MA in History from the University of Saskatchewan. Halloween has long been her favorite holiday.