Although it doesn't sound like it, this deceptively upbeat tune has a melancholy undertone that places it in the ranks of wistful holiday classics like "
White Christmas" and "
I'll Be Home For Christmas," where the yuletide season is a symbol of hope in difficult times.
Written by Jerry Herman, the song originated in the 1966 Broadway musical
Mame, starring Angela Lansbury as a madcap bohemian who loses all her money in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. To bolster the spirits of her nephew and servants (including Bea Arthur as her secretary, Agnes), Mame leads them in a cheerful performance of "We Need A Little Christmas," insisting that decking the halls earlier than usual will pave the way for their happily ever after. Mame uses the opportunity to pass on a lesson to her nephew, singing, "Haven't I taught you well to live each living day?"
Auntie Mame is a 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis. Before it was adapted into a musical, it hit the Broadway stage as a comedic play in 1956, with Rosalind Russell in the title role. Russell reprised the part two years later when it was made into a popular movie. A film adaptation of the musical version followed in 1974, swapping Lansbury for Lucille Ball. Critics weren't kind regarding the I Love Lucy star's performance, claiming the 63-year-old was too old and raspy for the gig. But Ball balked at the opinion, telling an interviewer: "Mame stayed up all night and drank champagne! What did you expect her to sound like? Julie Andrews?"
Herman already had another show running on Broadway,
Hello, Dolly!, when he was asked by playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee to musicalize
Auntie Mame. He didn't have to think twice. "I just went, 'Oh, boy, yes,'" Herman
told NPR in 2006. "It was such an instantaneous love affair that I had with this piece of work because I honestly could have written seven or eight more songs for this character. She's so rich and she's so full of fun and she has her problems and her romance and her disappointments, and it was just everything that a songwriter dreams about being offered."
The Broadway Cast recording was released by Columbia Masterworks in 1966. That same year, Louis Armstrong, Herb Alpert, and Bobby Darin all notched hits covering the title track, and Eydie Gorme found success with a recording of "If He Walked Into My Life," but "We Need A Little Christmas" made its mark as a holiday favorite. One of the most popular versions is by Johnny Mathis from his 1986 album Christmas Eve With Johnny Mathis. His rendition was arranged and conducted by Ray Ellis, who famously worked with Billie Holiday on her 1958 Lady In Satin album.
"We Need A Little Christmas" was covered by The Muppets for the 1987 TV special A Muppet Family Christmas. Others to cover it include Percy Faith, The New Christy Minstrels, Andy Williams, Andrea McArdle, Sufjan Stevens, and Idina Menzel. Kimberley Locke's version peaked at #19 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 2008, and a 2010 version by the Glee cast (featured in the episode "A Very Glee Christmas") reached #15 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #16 on the Holiday Digital Songs chart. Pentatonix had the best showing on the AC tally, peaked at #14 with their rendition in 2020.
Angela Lansbury recorded this song again with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 2001. It was included on the group's 2006 album, The Wonder Of Christmas.
Lansbury won a Tony Award for Best Performance By A Leading Actress In A Musical for her role as Mame in 1966. Bea Arthur also took the prize for Best Performance By A Featured Actress In A Musical, and Frankie Michaels, who played Mame's nephew, Patrick, won for Best Performance By A Featured Actor In A Musical.
In the original lyrics, the tune is set a week after Thanksgiving - much too early to haul out the holly, according to Mame's young nephew, especially since most people at the time didn't even put up their tree until Christmas Eve. These days, it's not unusual for Christmas decorating and shopping to begin around that time, so modern versions of the song changed the setting to a week before Thanksgiving.
This was also used in these TV shows:
Major Crimes ("Chain Reaction" - 2014)
The Facts Of Life ("Christmas In The Big House" - 1984)
Emu's World ("Episode #5.4" - 1984)
And these movies:
Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas (2021)
Welcome To Christmas (2018)
Candles, Snow, And Mistletoe (1993)
