"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is a classic Christmas song written in 1951 by Meredith Willson. The song was originally titled "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas". The song has been recorded by many artists, but was a hit by Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra on September 10, 1951, and released on RCA Victor as 47-4314 (45 rpm) and 20-4314 (78 rpm). Bing Crosby recorded a version on October 1, 1951, which was also widely played.
A popular but unproven belief in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, holds that Willson wrote the song while staying in Yarmouth's Grand Hotel.[1] The song makes reference to a "tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well..."; the park being Frost Park, directly across the road from the Grand Hotel which still operates in Yarmouth. However Grand Hotel was a popular name used by many hotels in numerous towns and cities.
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" was later incorporated into the pre-Broadway version of the score of Willson's 1963 musical Here's Love and can be heard on that show's original cast recording, where it is sung in counterpoint to a new melody and lyric, "Pinecones and Holly Berries."
Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1961 album Christmas with The Chipmunks and 1981 album A Chipmunk Christmas.
In 1986, Johnny Mathis recorded "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" for his album Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis; this version gained popularity after its inclusion in the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Gradually, Mathis' recording began to receive wide radio airplay, and for the past several years this version has been a Top 10 Christmas hit. In 2009 the song was covered by Connie Talbot.
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is featured in the DVD version of Very Merry Christmas Songs which is part of the Disney Sing Along Songs franchise.
In 2008, the song was used for television Christmas adverts for the UK supermarket Asda.
In 2011, Michael Bublé covered the song and released it on his holiday album, Christmas.