"A Holly Jolly Christmas", also known as "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas", is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and most famously performed by Burl Ives. The song has since become one of the top 25 most-performed "holiday" songs written by ASCAP members, for the first five years of the 21st century.
Background "A Holly Jolly Christmas" was written by Johnny Marks in 1962. It was the title song of The Quinto Sisters' first album, Holly Jolly Christmas, recorded in June 1964 for Columbia Records, featuring guitarist Al Caiola with arrangements by Frank Hunter and Marty Manning.
The song was featured in the 1964 Rankin-Bass Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, in which Burl Ives voiced the narrator, Sam the Snowman. Originally to be sung by Larry D. Mann as Yukon Cornelius, the song, as well as "Silver and Gold", was given to Ives due to his singing fame. This version was also included on the soundtrack album.
The song was re-recorded by Ives and released in 1964 as a single and later featured the following year in his 1965 holiday album, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. This version of "A Holly Jolly Christmas" has a somewhat slower arrangement than the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer version and features a twelve-string guitar solo introduction; it is this version that has since become the more commonly heard rendition on radio. This song mentions mistletoe in the bridge, where the singer asks the younger lover to "Kiss her once for me". "A Holly Jolly Christmas" features men and women singing the chorus, whose repeated "Ding-dong" imitation of Christmas bells are heard in the outro of the song, before it fades out.
The song's enduring popularity is evidenced by reaching its peak of No. 30 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1998, as well as No. 21 on the U.S. Country Digital Songs chart and No. 5 on the Holiday 100 chart in 2011. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 2017, after rules on chart eligibility for older songs had been relaxed several years before, and reached a peak of No. 38.
For the week ending December 8, 2018, the song re-entered the Hot 100 chart. It reached No. 10 for the week ending January 5, 2019. On the week ending January 4, 2020, "A Holly Jolly Christmas" reached a new peak of No. 4. With this feat, Ives now holds the record for the longest break between Hot 100 Top Ten as he returned to this minimum ranking after 56 years, seven months, and two weeks since his previous Top 10 hit and, at 109 years after birth, surpassing Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" (which reached the Top 40 when Armstrong would have been 86 years old) as the oldest artist, living or deceased, to have a Top 40 hit. As of December 2019, Ives's recording has sold 664,000 copies in the United States since becoming available for download in the digital era.
Chart performance Burl Ives version
Weekly charts + Weekly chart performance for "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives Chart (1998–2024) Peakposition Australia (ARIA) 11 Croatia International Airplay (Top lista) 13 Greece International (IFPI) 50 Latvia Streaming (LaIPA) 16 Lithuania (AGATA) 17 Luxembourg (Billboard) 22 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) 15 Romania Airplay (TopHit) 51 Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) 43 U.S. Country Digital Songs (Billboard) 21 U.S. Country Streaming Songs (Billboard) 1 U.S. Holiday 100 (Billboard) 3 U.S. Rolling Stone Top 100 4
Monthly charts + Monthly chart performance for "A Holly Jolly Christmas" Chart (2025) Peakposition Estonia Airplay (TopHit) 77 Romania Airplay (TopHit) 59
Year-end charts +2022 year-end chart performance for "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives Chart (2022) Position US Billboard Hot 100 89 +2023 year-end chart performance for "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives Chart (2023) Position US Billboard Hot 100 71 + 2024 year-end chart performance for "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives Chart (2024) Position US Billboard Hot 100 94
Alan Jackson version + Chart performance for "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Alan Jackson Chart (1997–1998) Peakposition
Michael Bublé version
Weekly charts + Weekly chart performance for "Holly Jolly Christmas" by Michael Bublé Chart (2011–2026) Peakposition Australia (ARIA) 7 Croatia (Billboard) 19 Croatia International Airplay (Top lista) 40 France (SNEP) 35 Greece International (IFPI) 74 Iceland (Tónlistinn) 20 Italy (FIMI) 20 Latvia Streaming (LaIPA) 8 Lithuania (AGATA) 10 Luxembourg (Billboard) 11 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) 10 Norway (VG-lista) 10 Poland (Polish Airplay Top 100) 53 Poland (Polish Streaming Top 100) 17 Singapore (RIAS) 26 South Africa (RISA) 72 Spain (PROMUSICAE) 59 Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) 34 US Holiday 100 (Billboard) 22
Year-end charts +2023 year-end chart performance for "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Michael Bublé Chart (2023) PositionHungary (Single Top 40) 59
Lady Antebellum version + Chart performance for "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Lady Antebellum Chart (2012–2016) Peakposition US Holiday 100 (Billboard) 80
Certifications Burl Ives version
Michael Bublé version
Notes
References
External links All Music Guide A Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives Lyrics link