Song content The song is a celebration and description of activities associated with the Christmas season, focusing primarily on get-togethers between friends and families. Among the activities included in the song is the telling of "scary ghost stories," a
Victorian Christmas tradition that has mostly fallen into disuse, but survives in the seasonal popularity of numerous adaptations of
Charles Dickens'
A Christmas Carol. Other activities mentioned include hosting parties, spontaneous visits from friends, universal social gaiety, spending time with loved ones, sledding for children, roasting marshmallows, sharing stories about previous Christmases, and singing
Christmas carols in winter weather. In a 2005 interview, Williams discusses how
The Andy Williams Show figured into his recording of the song, first introduced in the 1962 Christmas episode: George Wyle, who is a vocal director, who wrote all of the choir stuff and all of the duets and trios and things that I did with all the guests, he wrote a song just for the show – I think the second Christmas show we did – called 'Most Wonderful Time of the Year'. So I did that, you know, every Christmas, and then other people started doing it. And then suddenly it's become – not suddenly but over 30 years – it's become a big standard. I think it's one of the top 10 Christmas songs of all time now. Although Williams occasionally rerecorded the song, the original 1963 version remains the most popular and well-known. The song was selected as the theme song for
Christmas Seals in 1968, 1976, 2009 and 2012. ==Other notable versions==