"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" is an American Christmas song with music and lyrics by Tommie Connor.
The original recording by Jimmy Boyd on 15 July 1952 when he was 13 reached #1 on the Billboard charts in December 1952, and on the Cash Box chart at the beginning of the following year. The song was commissioned by Saks Fifth Avenue to promote the store's Christmas card for the year, which featured an original sketch by artist Perry Barlow, who drew for The New Yorker for many decades.
The song describes a scene where a child creeps down from his/her bedroom to see his/her mother kissing "Santa Claus."
Boyd's record was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in Boston when it was released on the grounds that it mixed kissing with Christmas, ignoring the fact that mistletoe, under which many couples kiss, is traditionally hung in many homes during the Christmas season. Boyd was photographed meeting with the Archdiocese to explain the song. After the meeting, the ban was lifted.
Read more about I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus: Spike Jones Version, Cover Versions, Film Adaptation
Famous quotes containing the words santa claus, mommy, kissing, santa and/or claus:
“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”
—Shirley Temple Black (b. 1928)
“We never really are the adults we pretend to be. We wear the mask and perhaps the clothes and posture of grown-ups, but inside our skin we are never as wise or as sure or as strong as we want to convince ourselves and others we are. We may fool all the rest of the people all of the time, but we never fool our parents. They can see behind the mask of adulthood. To her mommy and daddy, the empress never has on any clothes—and knows it.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”
—Shirley Temple Black (b. 1928)
““That’s where I reckon Santa Claus comes in
To be our parents’ pseudonymity
In Christmas giving, so they can escape
The thanks and let him catch it as a scapegoat....””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)