It captures this sense of sadness and loneliness in its final line: “if only in my dreams.” In the fall of 1943, as Americans prepared for their third Christmas at war, Bing Crosby released his recording of a new song, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” written by Buck Ram, Kim Gannon, and Walter Kent. As Carl Sandburg wrote on the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor, “We have learned to be a little sad and a little lonesome.” It’s only after initial encounters with the enemy that confidence and bravado start to give way to ambivalence and grim determination.įolks back home begin to yearn for days of old and secretly wonder when it will all end. When war begins, few can imagine it being anything but swift and decisive. “I’ll be home for Christmas” is the optimistic refrain of soldiers and sailors heading off to war. Written by Todd DePastino In 1942, the nation’s most popular entertainer took an obscure song from the year before and made it the best-selling record of all time.
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