John Lennon – Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Merry Christmas everyone… another year older…and a new one just begun.  This had to be the first Christmas song I posted. 

This is my favorite Christmas song hands down…although I was just introduced to Slade’s Christmas song a few years back, that one is a strong 2nd. This song gets me in the Christmas mood like no other. The song is highly idealistic but that is alright. It was the early seventies and the time for idealism.

In 1969 John and Yoko had rented billboard spaces in 12 major cities around the world, for the display of black-and-white posters that declared “WAR IS OVER! If You Want It – Happy Christmas from John & Yoko”. Two years later this slogan became the basis for this song when Lennon decided to make a Christmas record with an anti-war message…plus John said he was sick of White Christmas.

War is Over - John & Yoko Billboard - Time Square - NYC 1969. | Yoko, War, John lennon

John’s voice goes so well with this song. The song peaked at #2 in the UK charts, #38 on the Billboard 100, #10 in New Zealand, and #43 in Canada in 1971. The song did peak at #42 on the Billboard 100 in 2019.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote this in their New York City hotel room and recorded it during the evening of October 28 and into the morning of the 29th, 1971 at the Record Plant in New York. It was released in the US for Christmas but didn’t chart. The next year, it was released in the UK, where it did much better, charting at #2. Eventually, the song became a Christmas classic in America, but it took a while.

Lennon originally wrote this as a protest song about the Vietnam War, and the idea “that we’re just as responsible as the man who pushes the button. As long as people imagine that somebody’s doing it to them and that they have no control, then they have no control.”

The children’s voices are the Harlem Community Choir, brought in to sing on this track. They are credited on the single along with Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band.

I think of High School when I hear this song. Our school had a Christmas poster contest and a buddy and I made a poster as a joke and wrote “So this is Christmas and what have you done another year over, and a new one just begun” and won first prize…with John’s assistance.

This didn’t appear on an album until 1975 when it was included on Lennon’s Shaved Fish singles compilation. This is one of the first Lennon albums I bought.

Happy Xmas (War is Over)

(Happy Christmas Kyoko)
(Happy Christmas Julian)

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let’s stop all the fight

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun
And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now

Happy Christmas

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

37 thoughts on “John Lennon – Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”

  1. Pingback: John Lennon – Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – MobsterTiger

  4. John Lennon said, “War is Over!” even when wars were still happening because he wanted to let people know that they had the power to end it if they just stopped fighting, essentially urging them to actively work towards peace, not just passively accepting the existence of war, thus the phrase should have been, “War is over! If you want it” and that emphasizes this idea of commitment to create peace.

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  6. One of those billboards was in Dallas. It was located on Highway 75 at LBJ Freeway, one of the busiest intersections in the city. I thought it was a nice gesture even though the Vietnam war was in full tilt that year. It’s also a nice little tune about Christmas. On a different note, but still about Christmas, I’m going to fall on a sword if I hear Mariah Carey’s Christmas song one more time. I keep my car radio on AM talk just to avoid it. She’s become the Kardashians of the pop music world. As always, a good post.

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      1. When my father was in the stage band for the Ozark Jubilee, or the Red Foley show as it was known, I was a wee child, around 6. My mother and me got to stay backstage in the wings and watch the show from there. I was told that I met Brenda Lee, but don’t remember much of the encounter. I do like her Christmas songs, her and Amy Grant are the best.

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  7. When I was a kid in the early 80s there was an TV ad in high rotation by the Jamaica tourist board with the jingle “Come Back to Jamaica” which had the same tune as “Happy Xmas (War is Over).” I learned later in life that John Lennon and the Jamaica tourist board both borrowed the melody from an old folk song called “Stewball,” which is kind of odd. Anyhow, I still find myself inserting “Come Back to Jamaica” into “Happy Xmas” after all these years.

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      1. The initial British run was issued in 7″ single format on opaque green vinyl with the picture sleeve and variant label, but it sold out quickly and had to be repressed on standard black vinyl. – wiki

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  9. A Christmas classic for sure – I don’t even mind Yoko’s voice on it. I will put in a vote for the opposition though, I like Mariah’s Christmas behemoth… it is , mind you, the one and only song I’ve heard her do that I DO like. Overall – not a fan. But there are plenty of ones that do get me irked routinely by the 24th each year, one of the prime examples being that old bandmate of John’s going on and on and on about having a wonderful Christmas time.

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    1. Yea I don’t like Paul’s at all…but the Carey one….I told you before…I had a nasty flu riding to WV and heard that damn album over and over again.

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  10. John was building on the work of Phil Ochs here. Ochs held a “War is Over” rally in 1967 and wrote a song for it, singing “I declare the war is over.” Lennon took it another step by combining it with a Christmas song.

    David Grisman and Joel Paterson have recorded instrumental Christmas albums (as have a group of jazz artists under the title “A Blue Note Christmas”) that make some of those traditional tunes easier to take after thousands of listenings.

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    1. Lennon did something similiar with Come Together as well…I believe it was for Ginsberg originally.
      Yea it’s nice to hear different versions.

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  11. It was a time for idealism, yes. And the war ended, even though it took a few more years. I’m actually (surprisingly!) enjoying some songs of the season but I’ll be putting some earplugs in by the time we get 12 days out from Christmas. The quota of Christmas schmaltzy/snow jobby songs starts to really get up towards the unbearably devil-may-Carey by then. There’s only so much gratuitous good cheer one can take without starting to feel full of it.

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    1. Only a few I can stomach but this is one of them. Funny…The Slade song so many people are burnt out on…but I’ve probably only heard it 7-8 times before.

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  13. A great one. Unfortunately the lyrics will probably still be relevant for a long time until people really do want an end to war. The worst song for me is the Dean Martin version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. Horrible.

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  15. This is always one of my Xmas favourites, and it never gets old (probably because it’s not overplayed like some festive songs). It’s funny, I’ve always hated ‘Wonderful Christmastime’, while ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ has lost its appeal over the years to the point where I’d happily never hear it again. ‘Last Christmas’, though… For some reason it’s never quite lost its appeal.

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    1. A very few of them don’t get old…yea I don’t like the Paul song either…John out did him on this one.
      Unlike you probably…I still love the Slade Christmas song because I’ve only heard it a hand full of times.

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  17. I agree. This is The DADDY of all Christmas songs, both from a musical and sentiment perspective. There are loads of festive songs I love, but this one, even though it was released in prime Glam Rock era here in the UK has the edge. I remember it being played as the end-of-evening ‘smoochie’ at school Christmas discos from 1972 onwards. 🙂

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    1. I think so…but the one that is a close second for me is the Slade song…but realize…I’ve only heard it 10 times maybe…I only found it a couple of years ago…but this one is the best.

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