December Musical Giftstravaganza Day Eight You're getting two days in a row of Stevie Wonder, because I couldn't imagine not putting up my favorite Christmas song, Stevie Wonder's "One Little Christmas Tree" →[More:]

My heart dropped a bit when I saw that initapplette's Giftstravaganza post yesterday was from Motown and then even more when I saw one of the two songs was from Stevie Wonder. I have a bunch of weirdo Christmas obscurities and cynical holiday songs, but my heart was set on posting this song. This song is from the same album as one of the songs featured in initapplette's post, so it's a Stevie twofer.

This is one of the originals from Stevie Wonder's 8th studio album, his 1967 Christmas offering on Tamla Records, Someday at Christmas. The song was written especially for the album by Ron Miller and Bryan Wells, who together wrote a few other songs for Stevie Wonder, and individually wrote for Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Glen Campbell, Gladys Knight, the Four Tops, the Temptations, and many more. The album was produced by Motown house producer Henry Cosby, who produced many of Stevie's early hits.

The album is a mix of holiday standards and originals from the Motown songwriting stable, mostly done with cheesy orchestral arrangements and pretty basic instrumentation. But Stevie's voice takes what could be an uninspired record in the hands of another artist and makes it special. It's probably my most played Chirstmas album.

I love whole record, but this is my favorite song. It plays out like a children's story - the type of thing that should be accompanied by a cartoon or claymation tv special. But Stevie delivers it with such sincerity that it gets to me every time I hear it. 20+ years ago a friend and I teamed up for a Christmas mix tape for friends and when we met up with all of our holiday records and the list of songs we wanted to include, this was the only song on both of our must-be-included lists. I hope you enjoy it.