Medina Holiday Pops

Did You Know?

Leroy Anderson wrote the music for Sleigh Ride during a heatwave in July of 1946, at his summer home in Woodbury, Conn., where he was vacationing with his family. Words for Sleigh Ride were added in 1950 by Mitchell Parish, and while the song does not make any specific reference to Christmas, it has since become a Christmas classic. (Source: songfacts.com)

The uniquely twinkling instrument you hear in The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is a celesta. Tchaikovsky smuggled this relative of the piano into Russia from Paris to add a unique sound to accompany the character of the Sugar Plum Fairy. (Source: takelessons.com)

Gene Autry came up with the idea for Here Comes Santa Claus in 1946 while participating in the annual Hollywood Santa Claus Lane parade. Astride Champion Jr., ahead of St. Nick on his sleigh, Autry heard a child on the sidewalk shout, “Here comes Santa Claus!” Oakley Haldeman, the composer who operated Autry’s music publishing division, came up with the melody. (Source: geneautry.com)

Mel Tormé’s The Christmas Song, cowritten with Robert Wells and better known by its opening line, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” was made famous by Nat King Cole in 1946 and subsequently recorded in more than 1,700 versions. (Source: britannica.com)