JOHNNY MATHIS - WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS

WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS

JOHNNY MATHIS

SONGWRITER: JERRY HERMAN

COUNTRY: U.S.A.

ALBUM: CHRISTMAS EVE WITH JOHNNY MATHIS

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: CHRISTMAS SONG

YEAR: 1986

"We Need a Little Christmas" is a popular Christmas song originating from Jerry Herman's Broadway musical, Mame, and first performed by Angela Lansbury in that 1966 production.

In the musical, the song is performed after Mame has lost her fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and decides she, her young nephew Patrick, and her two household servants "need a little Christmas now" to cheer them up. The original lyrics include the line, "But, Auntie Mame, it's one week past Thanksgiving Day now!" Since the time the song was written the phenomenon of Christmas creep has resulted in the normal holiday season beginning much earlier than it once did, which has led to more recent recordings changing the line to, "But, Auntie Mame, it's one week from Thanksgiving Day now!

Haul out the holly

Put up the tree before my spirit falls again

Fill up the stocking

I may be rushing things but deck the halls again now

For we need a little Christmas right this very minute

Candles in the window, carols at the spinet

Yes we need a little Christmas right this very minute

Hasn't snowed a single flurry, but Santa dear we're in a hurry

Climb down the chimney

Turn on the brightest string of lights I've ever seen

Slice up the fruit cake

It's time we've hung some tinsel on the evergreen bough

For I've grown a little leaner, grown a little colder

Grown a little sadder, grown a little older

And I need a little angel sitting on my shoulder

Need a little Christmas now

For we need a little music, need a little laughter,

need a little singing ringing through the rafter

and we need a little snappy, happy ever after

We need a little Christmas now!