Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Song Meaning of It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas by Bing Crosby

Meredith Willson wrote the 1951 Christmas song "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas" was the song's original title. Although many other musicians have covered the song, Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters made it popular. On October 1, 1951, Bing Crosby recorded a version that was also played a lot.

In Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, there is a widely held assumption that Willson composed the song while lodging at the Grand Hotel. A "tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well..." is mentioned in the song; Frost Park is the park that is situated right across the street from the Grand Hotel. The five and ten, a business that was open in Yarmouth at the time, is also mentioned.

It's also probable that the Historic Park Inn Hotel in Mason City, Iowa, Willson's hometown, served as the model for the "Grand Hotel" he describes in the song. Located in Mason City's downtown, with a view of Central Park, the Park Inn Hotel is the final standing hotel created by Frank Lloyd Wright.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas lyrics by Bing Crosby

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Everywhere you go

Take a look in the Five & Ten

Glistening once again

With candy canes and silver lanes aglow

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Toys in every store

But the purdy-est sight to see

Is the holly that will be on your own front door

A pair of Hop-a-long 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

Everywhere you go

Now 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

A pair of Hop-a-long 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

Soon the bells will start

And the thing that will make them ring

Is the carol that you sing

Right within your heart