Season’s Greetings!

One of the most well-known and beloved holiday tunes is “The Christmas Song”made famous round the world by Nat King Cole. It’s certainly one of my favorite Christmas melodies, evoking a simpler time filled with family traditions and warm memories.

“The Christmas Song” (commonly subtitled “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”)waswritten in 1945by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé (yes, the Velvet Fog, himself).

According to Tormé, the song was written in Julyduring a blistering hot summer. In an effort to “stay cool by thinking cool”, the most-performedChristmas song was born.“I saw a spiral notepad on Bob’s piano with four lines written in pencil”, Tormé recalled. “They started,‘Chestnutsroasting… Jack Frostnipping… Yuletide carols…Folks dressed up likeeskimos.’ Bob didn’t think he was writing a song lyric. He said he thought if he could immerse himself in winter he could cool off. Forty minutes later we’d written that song.”

Since Nat…