Snoopy's Christmas

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"Snoopy's Christmas"
side-A label
Side A of the Australian single
Single by The Royal Guardsmen
from the album Snoopy and His Friends
B-side"It Kinda Looks Like Christmas"
Released1967
Genre
Length
  • 3:10 (single version)
  • 6:16 (album version)
LabelLaurie (LR 3416)
Songwriter(s)
The Royal Guardsmen singles chronology
"Wednesday"
(1967) 		"Snoopy's Christmas"
(1967) 		"I Say Love"
(1968)

"Snoopy's Christmas" is a song by The Royal Guardsmen which appears on the album Snoopy and His Friends (1967).

Overview

A followup to their earlier hit "

Red Baron on a bitterly cold Christmas Eve. The Baron has Snoopy at his mercy after a long dogfight, but instead of shooting him down he forces Snoopy to land and offers Snoopy a chivalrous holiday toast. Afterward, Snoopy and the Red Baron fly their separate ways, "each knowing they'd meet on some other day".[1]

The release begins with a chorus singing "

Hark the Herald Angels Sing
". The chimes can also can be heard during the fade-out at the end of the song. The album version of the song has a simulated radio news report of failed efforts at a Christmas truce, leading to Snoopy being sent out to hunt his sworn foe.

The song references the 1914 "Christmas truce" of World War I which was initiated not by German and British commanders, but by the soldiers themselves.[2] The length of the cease-fire varied by location, and was reported to have been as brief as Christmas Day or as long as the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. Trench-bound combatants exchanged small gifts across the lines, with Germans giving beer to the British, who sent tobacco and tinned meat back in return. No Man's Land was cleared of dead bodies, trenches were repaired and drained, and troops from both sides shared pictures of their families and, in some places, used No Man's Land for friendly games of football.[3] The song even has the initiator correct as it was generally the German soldiers who called over to the British and initiated the truce and, in the song, it is the Red Baron—a German WWI hero—who extends the hand of Christmas friendship to Snoopy.

Reception

New Zealand Herald in 2007.[8]

In Canada, the song reached No. 39, January 6, 1968.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Christmas Carols - Snoopy's Christmas Lyrics". Metrolyrics.com. Archived from the original on April 14, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. ^ "Snoopy's Christmas The Royal Guardsmen". M.songfacts.com. August 20, 1996. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  3. ^ "HELLFIRE CORNER - The Christmas Truce - 1914". Fylde.demon.co.uk. December 24, 1914. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  4. ^ Block, George (December 3, 2018). "Sun, huge crowd make for vintage parade". Otago Daily Times Online News. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  5. ^ "Snoopy's Christmas by The Royal Guardsmen Songfacts". Songfacts.com. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  6. ^ Hughes, Alistair (December 19, 2013). "Snoopy still flying at Christmas". Dominion Post. Fairfax. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  7. ^ "THE ROYAL GUARDSMEN - SNOOPY'S CHRISTMAS (SONG)". charts.nz. Hung Medien. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  8. ^ "Snoopy's Christmas 'worst Christmas song of all time'". NZ Herald. APN. December 18, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  9. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - January 6, 1968" (PDF).
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