"Christmas Alphabet" is a

Christmas song Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

written by

Buddy Kaye Jules Leonard "Buddy" Kaye (January 3, 1918 – November 21, 2002) was an American songwriter, lyricist, arranger, producer, and author. His songs were recorded by top performers, including Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washingto ...

and Jules Loman, first released in 1954 by

The McGuire Sisters The McGuire Sisters were a singing trio in American popular music. The group was composed of three sisters: * Ruby Christine McGuire (July 30, 1926 – December 28, 2018) * Dorothy "Dottie" McGuire (February 13, 1928 – September 7, 2012) * P ...

. The melody is taken from Skidamarink, the final song of the Broadway production ''The Echo''. In 1955, a cover version recorded by

Dickie Valentine Richard Bryce ( Maxwell; 4 November 1929 – 6 May 1971), known professionally as Dickie Valentine, was a British pop singer who enjoyed great popularity in Britain during the 1950s. In addition to several other Top Ten hit singles, Valentine h ...

and produced by

Dick Rowe Richard Paul Brutton Rowe (9 June 1921 – 6 June 1986) was a British music executive and record producer. He was head of A&R (Singles) at Decca Records from the 1950s to the 1970s, and produced many top-selling records during that period. Kn ...

became a Christmas number one hit in the UK Singles Chart. It first entered the UK chart on 25 November 1955, where it spent seven weeks, three of which were at No. 1. In the song, various things the singer associates with Christmas are listed alphabetically. It is notable for being the first UK Christmas chart-topper that is actually about Christmas, a trend that would continue on and off over the next several decades. A Christmas special of ''

America's Funniest Home Videos ''America's Funniest Home Videos'', also called ''America's Funniest Videos'' (abbreviated as ''AFV''), is an American video clip television series on ABC, based on a recurring segment on the Japanese variety show '' Fun TV with Kato-chan and ...

'' released in 1999, "Unwrapped for the Holidays" hosted by actor

Richard Kind Richard Bruce Kind (born November 22, 1956) is an American actor and comedian. His television roles include '' Carol & Company'' (1990–1991), Dr. Mark Devanow in '' Mad About You'' (1992–1999, 2019), Paul Lassiter in '' Spin City'' (1996–20 ...

, features a video of preschoolers performing the song at a concert. As part of the concert, children showed a card with a letter in "Christmas" to the audience as each lyric about a particular letter was sung. However, the "C", "R", "T", "M", and "A" cards were held upside down. The video won the first place prize, $10,000.

References

1955 singles 1955 songs American Christmas songs Songs about language The McGuire Sisters songs Songs with lyrics by Buddy Kaye UK singles chart number-one singles Christmas number-one singles in the United Kingdom {{1950s-single-stub