"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"

Most Christmas songs seem to be written about Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or the season as a whole, but one song seems to have been written especially for this time of year. "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"was written by Meredith Wilson, now best known for the musical The Music Man. Indeed, the song mentions such things as the five and ten store "glistening once again," "toys in every store," "the tree in the Grand Hotel," and so on. I have always thought it was written about that time of year that stores and individuals first start decorating for the Yuletide.

Like The Music Man, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" could have been inspired by Meredith Wilson's hometown of Mason City, Iowa. There is a theory that the"Grand Hotel" mentioned in the song could have been inspired by the Park Inn Hotel in downtown Mason City. The hotel was designed by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright himself and is the last remaining hotel in the world that he designed. It takes its name from Mason City's Central Park, which it overlooks. Making the idea that the Park Inn Hotel could have served as the inspiration for the Grand Hotel in "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is that the park is immediately mentioned after the hotel in the song: "There's a tree in the Grand Hotel, one  in the park as well..."

"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" by Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra was released on September 18 1951. The song proved to be a hit, peaking at no. 12 on the Billboard chart. It has since charted every holiday season over they years. In 1951 Bing Crosby also recorded his own version of the song. It has since been recorded by such artists as Kate Smith, Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, Dean Martin, and Michael Buble.