"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"
Was it written in Yarmouth?

There is a possibility that the song was written, or at least the lyrics were started, in the Grand Hotel in December of 1950 or 1951 by Meredith Willson, who wrote "The Music Man" which included "Seventy-Six Trombones" and "Till There Was You" which later became a Beatles hit. He also wrote "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" and "I See the Moon" and the musicals "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and "Here's Love."

The legend is: he was sitting in the lobby of the Grand Hotel just before leaving to return to the United States when he began writing the lyrics. He had earlier walked down the street and saw the old Woolworth's 5 & 10 decorated for Christmas, and saw the toys of the day that were on sale there; he saw the town tree lit up in what is now Frost Park, and of course, was next to the tree that was always in the Grand Hotel lobby at Christmas time. Out of this came the lyrics:


It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go;
Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again
With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Toys in ev'ry store
But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be
On your own front door.

A pair of hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots
Is the wish of Barney and Ben;
Dolls that will talk and will go for a walk
Is the hope of Janice and Jen;
And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go;

There's a tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well,
The sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas;
Soon the bells will start,
And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing
Right within your heart.


Truth or Coincidence? Who knows?

As the motto of Uncle Jeb's tours is "Lots of stories, some of them true"

Thanks to:
Uncle Jeb's Walking Tour of Yarmouth
Phone: (902) 649-2006
Website: www.unclejeb.com