The story behind This Christmas
This Christmas is a promise in a soul meter. Donny Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor wrote it, and Hathaway recorded it in 1970. Bells are there, but they ride a groove rather than a sleigh. The lyric hopes that this particular Christmas, not Christmas in general, will be the one spent close to the beloved. Fireside, tree, and mistletoe are scenery for a relationship that is about to be specific. The mood is warm on purpose.
The record became the spine of later R&B holiday albums. Singers cover it to join a tradition, not to rescue an obscurity. Hathaway's vocal, joyful and a little urgent, is the tradition's center. McKinnor's share of the writing matters because the song is a collaboration that the star's fame can accidentally hide. Say both names. Then put the needle down and let the groove explain why the title stuck.
History and origins
Hathaway was a Chicago born singer, pianist, and arranger whose work for Atlantic in the late 1960s and early 1970s set a standard for soul that could be musically elaborate and emotionally direct. This Christmas belongs to that burst. The 1970 recording, associated with the Atco and Atlantic world, did not need to behave like a novelty to be seasonal. It uses harmonic color and a rhythmic pocket that working bands recognize as real music, then hangs lights on it. McKinnor co wrote the piece. Accounts of the session place it among Hathaway's early masterpieces rather than among contractual holiday filler. The difference is audible. He sounds glad, not assigned.
The lyric's thesis is the word this. Other songs praise the season or mourn it. This one bets on a particular year. The singer is going to know someone better, trim the tree with them, hear carols as a shared errand rather than as background. That bet can break, which gives the joy a thin edge of hope rather than a flat guarantee. Soul music is good at hope with an edge. Hathaway's gospel trained intensity makes a domestic scene feel like good news. The bells are punctuation. The pocket is the sermon.
For years the record lived as a treasure among listeners who already cared about soul, while pop Christmas stations stuck to older crooners. Covers widened the door. Patti LaBelle carried it in holiday shows with a virtuoso glow. Christina Aguilera recorded it on My Kind of Christmas in 2000 and introduced Hathaway's changes to a teen pop audience that could feel the harmony even if they did not name it. Chris Brown's late 2000s version, tied in memory to the season of the film This Christmas, pushed the groove toward contemporary R&B radio. Each cover is a distribution event. The composition was already finished in 1970.
Lalah Hathaway, Donny's daughter and a significant singer in her own right, has performed the song in concert and on seasonal programs, a family continuation that listeners hear as both repertoire and remembrance. His death in 1979 means every December revival is partly memorial. The healthiest way to hear that fact is to let the music stay joyful. He wrote a warm song. Later grief should not be forced backward onto the groove until the groove cannot dance. R&B holiday albums now treat This Christmas as required language, the way jazz albums treat certain ballads. That status is the cultural arrival of a record that did not begin as a general market stunt.
Full lyrics
Excerpt
Hang all the mistletoe
I'm gonna get to know you better
This Christmas will be
A very special Christmas for me
The lines above are a short excerpt for identification and study. The full lyric is still under copyright. Replace this block with a licensed copy if you have the right to print the complete text.
Lyrics presented for educational and personal use. Sing along responsibly this holiday season!
Meaning and symbolism
The meaning is particularity. The singer does not ask the universe for a generic merry. He asks that this year be the year love is present tense. Mistletoe and the tree are not the point except as tasks you do with someone. The emotional risk is obvious and adult. If the person is not really there, the lyric collapses. If the person is there, ordinary decorations become evidence. Hathaway sings as if the evidence is arriving. That optimism, grounded in a body rhythm, is why the song feels like soul rather than like a greeting card.
There is a musical meaning too. By making a Christmas song that musicians respect as changes and groove, Hathaway and McKinnor refused the idea that December records must be simple to the point of poverty. The warmth is sophisticated. Horns and voices can dress it up, or a trio can strip it, and the thesis remains. This year, this person. Popular seasonal music needs that thesis alongside the old carols and the jokes. A year that is special is a modest miracle and a common hope. The song takes the common hope seriously.
Fun facts and statistics
- Donny Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor wrote This Christmas.
- Hathaway recorded it in 1970 in the Atlantic and Atco orbit.
- The groove is soul, with bells used as color rather than as the whole arrangement.
- The lyric bets that this particular Christmas will be the one shared with the beloved.
- It became a required song on later R&B holiday albums.
- Christina Aguilera recorded it in 2000, and Chris Brown recorded a popular version in the late 2000s.
- Patti LaBelle has kept it in her holiday performances.
- Lalah Hathaway has sung her father's song in concert and on seasonal programs.
Top 5 most popular renditions
Donny Hathaway
1970
Hathaway's 1970 recording is the root, a soul arrangement that makes bells serve the pocket rather than the other way around. He sings the bet that this Christmas will be the special one with gospel warmth and jazz harmony in the same throat. Nadine McKinnor shares the writing, and the record should always carry both names even though his voice is the one rooms recognize in a bar. The track's later status as an R&B holiday standard starts here, not with a remix. Play this before the covers if you want the harmony and the hope at their original temperature.
Donny Hathaway
Patti LaBelle
1990s
LaBelle has carried This Christmas through holiday shows and soul revues, using the full range of her instrument on a song that can survive ornament. Where Hathaway is warm and urgent, she often adds a virtuoso glow, holding notes as if the special year were a high wire. The practice kept the piece in front of audiences during decades when pop radio might have skipped straight to newer jingles. Her performances are a bridge repertoire, proof that a 1970 groove could feature a star associated with a later era of soul and still feel like the same thesis. This year. This closeness. The fireworks are extra.
Patti LaBelle
Christina Aguilera
2000
Aguilera recorded the song for My Kind of Christmas in 2000 and brought Hathaway's changes to a pop audience that knew her from radio ballads. She respects the melody's twists instead of ironing them into a simpler seasonal hook. That respect matters, because the sophistication is part of the meaning. A young singer choosing this cover was choosing musicianship as holiday content. Listeners could then be led back to 1970. The track is a distribution event in the song's history, not a replacement. It widened the room without repainting the thesis.
Christina Aguilera
Chris Brown
2007
Brown's late 2000s version moved the groove into contemporary R&B radio and into the season of the film This Christmas, when the title was suddenly a movie as well as a song. His reading is smoother and more modern in rhythmic dress, aimed at playlists Hathaway's original was not always allowed to enter. The bet about a special year remains audible. For a generation, this cover was the front door. A responsible back door still leads to 1970 and to McKinnor's credit. Brown's chart friendly take shows how a soul standard can be restyled without being emptied, provided the singer still sounds like he wants this year and not a generic one.
Chris Brown
Lalah Hathaway
2010s
Lalah Hathaway has sung This Christmas in concert and on seasonal programs, a daughter interpreting a father's hit with her own formidable ear. The performances carry remembrance and musicianship in equal parts. She does not treat the song as a fragile relic. She treats it as living soul repertoire, which is what the groove asks for. Audiences hear a family line and also a fresh phrasing. That combination keeps Donny Hathaway's December from freezing into a memorial clip. McKinnor's collaboration remains on the page. Lalah's voice is one of the ways the page stays in the air, joyful first, history included.
Lalah Hathaway
Sheet music
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Notes for singers
If you place This Christmas in a December service, a school program, or a living room sing, teach 1970 soul groove before you add harmony. A confident melody lets guests enter on the refrain. Say the names when you introduce it. The words are credited to Donny Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor, and the music to Donny Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor. The year to remember is 1970, and the place to name is New York.
This sits in the library as a popular song. Let that tradition set the tempo. A lullaby loses its point if it is hurried. A dance carol loses its point if every syllable is precious. Leave a breath at the end of the verse so the next line feels chosen rather than chased.
Donny Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor wrote This Christmas. Hold that fact in the introduction you speak, not only in a program note. Hathaway recorded it in 1970 in the Atlantic and Atco orbit. Those two details give a listener a reason to hear the song as a made thing, not as wallpaper.
When the group is small, one voice can carry the verse and everyone can take the refrain. When the group is a choir, decide in advance whether you are telling a story or painting a picture. Story songs want clear words. Picture songs can bloom. This Christmas will tell you which it is after a single unaccompanied read through.
Questions readers ask
Donny Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor. Hathaway recorded it in 1970, and his voice is what most people remember, so her share of the writing is easy to drop and should not be dropped. The song is a soul groove with bells, built around the hope that this particular Christmas will be the one spent with the beloved. It later became a cornerstone of R&B holiday albums. The root recording still sets the temperature.
It makes the wish specific. The singer is not praising every Christmas or mourning one in general. He is betting on the present year, the tree he will trim with a particular person, the closeness that has not always been there. That bet can fail, which gives the joy an edge. Hathaway sings as if the good outcome is arriving. Covers work when they keep the particularity. A generic party reading misses the thesis even if the bells are correct.
Patti LaBelle kept it on soul stages. Christina Aguilera's 2000 album My Kind of Christmas brought the harmony to a pop crowd. Chris Brown's late 2000s version, associated with the era of the film This Christmas, pushed it toward contemporary R&B radio. Lalah Hathaway's performances add a family continuation. None of these replace 1970. They are how a record that began in the Atlantic orbit became common December language without losing its groove.
Hathaway died in 1979, so later Decembers hear the song partly as remembrance. The tape itself is joyful, a man glad about a year that might be special. Forcing later grief backward onto every bar turns a warm groove into a funeral the authors did not write. The adult way is to know the biography and still let the music dance. Remember McKinnor. Remember Lalah's continuing voice. Then let this Christmas mean what the lyric says.
Why this song endures
It endures because it makes musicians glad and listeners hopeful at the same time. A song that only musicians love stays niche. A song that only casual listeners love gets replaced by the next jingle. This Christmas clears both bars. The groove is a pleasure to play. The thesis is a pleasure to believe for three minutes. Hathaway's vocal is the proof that the belief can be sunny without being thin. Later singers are paying tuition when they try it.
It also endures as a memorial that refuses to be only sad. The facts of his short life are real, and so is the warmth of this tape. Holding both is adult listening. Every December a new band books the song and a new room learns the bet, that this year might be the special one. McKinnor and Hathaway wrote a bet people still want. That is as sturdy a definition of a standard as the season offers, and it did not require snow.