One of the joys of being a collector of Christmas material is the large number of different categories in which you can specialize while searching and adding to the collection. Decorations, lights, advertisements, wrapping paper and Coca-Cola items are but a few of the areas that are appropriate during the Christmas season. Each area allows for branching off into specialty areas, such as glass decorations, tree stands, miniatures figures for Christmas village scenes, or creche figures.

Two areas that will provide a lifetime of searching are Christmas records and sheet music.

Christmas singles and albums recorded and released in the last 70 years would fill an entire book. From 1926-1957, favorites of the Christmas season were released on the heavy 78 RPM record. Sold singly or in many instances in full albums that contained two, three, or four records. The 78s were eventually replaced by the vinyl long-playing 331/3RPMs. In addition, many Christmas single hits after 1949 were issued on the popular 45 RPM records.

Christmas records have been recorded by famous artists, unknown artists, groups, and many were instrumental with full orchestras or just organ and chimes. After World War II, Christmas was recognized by companies, department stores, and other organizations as a perfect way to not only advertise their product, but to provide customers with records as a thank you gift for purchasing automobile tires, batteries, phonographs, or making purchases in a specific store. It was an advertising tool to create repeat customers, not only in the holiday season, but for the rest of the year.

Some holiday movies were created around certain songs that would remind the viewer of the good times of Christmas past and present. The movie and the songs would often become a seasonal favorite.

The popular Christmas song received its greatest boost during World War II with the introduction of White Christmas. The song was written by Irving Berlin in 1940. Its fame came about when Bing Crosby sang it in the 1942 musical movie Holiday Inn. He sang it as a duet with Marjorie Reynolds and the song won an Academy Award in 1943. What everyone thinks of as the original recording of White Christmas is not in fact the original, but a second recording made on March 19, 1947. The master of the original had been copied so many times that it was no longer useable. So Bing Crosby had to record a second one and it this master recording that is heard every holiday season.

On Oct. 4, 1943, Bing Crosby recorded I’ll Be Home For Christmas with the John Trotter Orchestra for Decca Records. It shot to number three on the charts and stayed there through the Christmas season, and it remains a Christmas favorite. I’ll Be Home For Christmas became the most requested song by soldiers and their loved ones back home during World War II. It touched a nostalgic nerve as the war continued to rage on for the next two years. Both of these hits from more than 60 years ago continue to be heard each holiday season. Almost every popular singer has recorded these classic Christmas songs. Bing Crosby along with the Andrew Sisters released two different eight-record sets of Christmas music. Either set now sells in the $50 range for the eight records in their original album cover.

In 1949, the first releases of Christmas favorites were produced on the new vinyl

45 RPMs – Christmas Hymns and Carols on RCA records. It was a special 45 RPM set of red vinyl records sold or given out by the local RCA authorized dealers. The RCA Red Seal Record has crossover appeal for the collector of Christmas records or the collector of company advertising material, with a value of $60. Into the early 1950s, vinyl 45 RPM sets slowly began to replace the heavy 78 RPMs. Even movie actors became involved in issuing holiday season records. In 1949 actor Ronald Coleman voiced the character of Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on a Decca recording. The supporting cast included Hans Conried as the First Ghost and Gale Gordon as the Third Ghost and the Man in the Street. This is another crossover album, for movie collectors and Christmas record collectors and it is valued at $50.

With the end of World War II the Baby Boom was under way, and Christmas records began to be focused on the millions of new children in the United States. In December, 1949 the big hit was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer sung by Gene Autry. The song was based on a story by Robert May, which he had written for his young daughter to assist her in coping with the death of her mother in 1938. May worked for the Montgomery-Ward Department Store chain and when he read his story at a party, the company purchased it and put it in a comic book, which was given to children after their visit to Santa Claus at the Montgomery-Ward Department Stores. Eventually the company sold the rights back to May.

Millions of children grew up listening to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The next year, Gene Autry had a second hit with Frosty the Snowman. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman were produced on the Columbia Record Label in 78 RPM. If found with the colorful record sleeve, these sell for about $10.

Children’s records were produced throughout the 1950s on various labels and connected to popular children’s television shows. In 1953 Howdy Doody and Santa Claus was released by RCA in a 78 RPM set. All the characters from the famous show were heard on the record. This record is valued at $125.

Peter Pan Records, manufactured by Synthetic Plastics, Newark, N.J., released many Christmas records from the 1950s into the early 1960s. The Christmas singers are the Caroleers, who would later release their own 331/3 RPM Christmas record. The Peter Pan records were manufactured in bright red and yellow colors and were meant to be played on the new line of children’s phonographs that were on the toy market. The records sell in the $3 – $10 range.

Throughout the 1950s and ’60s hundreds of Christmas records were issued each season by such artists as Johnny Mathis, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, The Norman Luboff Choir, Loretta Lynn, and Elvis Presley. Other albums were issued by such companies as Goodyear Tire, Firestone Tire and A&P Grocery stores. Each year a new album was sold only through the company outlets. RCA continued to issue 45 RPM records with four songs on each featuring their famous artists Perry Como, The Ames Brothers and Harry Belafonte. Nat King Cole made famous the 1944 Mel Torme tune, The Christmas Song. Like White Christmas and I’ll Be Home For Christmas, The Christmas Song became a holiday classic.

As for the acceptable condition of a record, it depends on the collector. Some collect just for the album cover, others are more interested in actually playing the records. So the collector has to decide what is important to him. Christmas albums can be found at yard sales, second hand stores, and flea markets from 25 cents to a few dollars. The material is unlimited.

A second area of collecting is sheet music. In some instances songs were sold on sheet music through music stores and never were recorded and distributed. Others when recorded were edited. The famous 1934 hit Santa Claus Is Coming To Town only had the chorus recorded. The sheet music commences with " I Just Came Back From A Lovely Trip Along The Milky Way." Other sheet music was sold in the hopes of increasing sales of a singer or specific song. In the 1940s Bing Crosby appeared on sheet music of Christmas Songs and Carols. He appeared on the cover just as on his album covers. Purchase the record and sheet music and sing along. Sheet music is inexpensive, but condition, as with any ephemera item, is critical to price.