Deck The Halls - Things You Didn't Know about this Christmas Hit!

How did the melody to a 300 year old New Years Dance become one of the most famous Christmas Carols of all!?

This is the story of Deck The Halls

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
How did the melody to a 300 year old New
Year's dance become one of the most famous Christmas carols
of all? I'm Drew Savage, and this is the story
behind the Christmas hit, Deck the Halls.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Behind the Christmas hits with Drew Savage.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
We have to go back further than we have ever
had to go before to explore the origins of this one,
as Deck the Halls might be the oldest Christmas hit
of them all, certainly the oldest one we've discussed so
far on the pod. The melody we've all seemingly known
for our entire lives, comes from 16th century Wales. It
was first published as a dance tune called Nos Galen,

(00:38):
which means New Year's Eve. The music was lively, written
for harp, and had nothing to do with Christmas at all.
It praised the pleasures of winter, and good cheer, because
it was a folk tune that was passed down orally,
the original composer is unknown, and frankly, it probably evolved
over generations anyway. English lyrics wouldn't be put to the

(00:59):
song for another 300 years. That is mind-boggling to think about.
The entire genre of rock and roll isn't even 100
years old yet, and here's this melody that thrived for
3 whole centuries before someone put English words to it.
Those words came from a Scottish musician and linguist named
Thomas Oliphant. Thomas was the fifth son of Ebenezer Oliphant

(01:22):
and was baptized on Christmas Day in 1799. He was
an accomplished musician who wrote the choral for the wedding
for King Edward the Seventh and Queen Alexandra. In 1862.
He adapted Nosegallen, infusing it with some festive Christmas imagery.
The practice of putting holly in homes goes back even

(01:42):
further than the melody. Ancient druids would bring in holly
to offer shelter to fairies and elves, and to ward
off evil spirits and lightning. In Germanic and Celtic traditions,
it symbolized hope and life, with the bright berries offering
a colorful contrast to the cold, dark days outside. It
was within the Christian community that holly became associated with Christmas.

(02:05):
Evergreen decor was already in fashion. Holly was adapted, layering
Christian symbolism onto the plant, with its prickly leaves representing
the crown of thorns, and the red berries as Christ's blood. However,
Oliphant did not write the fa la la la la line,
that nonsensical refrain comes directly from the original Welsh lyrics.

(02:26):
Oliphant thought the wordless vocalizing matched well with the new
lyrics he had written.
Like many traditional carols, Deck the Halls isn't tied to
a single original recording artist. The earliest known recordings date
back to the early 20th century, when groups like the
Edison Male Quartet sang it on wax cylinders. What's a
wax cylinder? Well, it was a tube.

(02:47):
Coated in wax that was about 10 centimeters long and
5 centimeters in diameter. Sounds were etched in grooves by
stylists as the cylinder would spin around. Each cylinder could
hold only 2 to 4 minutes' worth of audio. Maybe
that's why Deck the Halls is so short. Think of
the wax cylinder as the precursor to vinyl records, but

(03:07):
even before that, it was widely printed in Victorian songbooks
and performed in parlors, schools, and churches across North America
and the UK.
Now, despite having been around for almost 500 years now
in one form or another, Deck the Halls has never
been a big charting hit on its own. There really
is no definitive version, even though everyone from Nat King

(03:29):
Cole to Pentatonix has recorded it. It's a song everyone
knows and sings, but because of its age, no one
artist can truly call it theirs. It belongs to everyone.
Literally, because the lyrics and melody are so old, they
predate any existing copyright laws. Deck the Halls has been
in the public domain forever. Unless you wanted a specific version,

(03:49):
the song is free for anyone to use. That's why
you hear the generic melody in the background of countless commercials, movies,
TV shows, and even singing Christmas cards and sweaters. No
one's paying a cent for it.
So let's offer a festive tip of the old Christmas
cap to Thomas Oliphant and the generations of artists and
performers who kept this song alive for centuries to become

(04:12):
one of the most well-known Christmas hits of all time.
I'm Drew Savage. Thank you so much for listening. You
can find me on Instagram.
At Drew Savage on air. If you'd like to share
some fun and festive thoughts on this or any other episodes,
please leave us a rating and review. It helps other
Christmas music lovers find the show. And make sure you
click subscribe before you go, so you never miss a

(04:32):
story behind the Christmas hits.