Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

The words to this Christmas favorite began as a poem called “Lilly's Secret,” written by Emily Huntington Miller and published in a children's magazine back in 1865. About a decade later, in 1874, James R. Murray set it to the tune we still sing today. There's long been a bit of folklore that the little boy “Johnny” asking Santa for skates in the lyrics was a real child, though nobody has ever been able to prove it. Real or not, the story fits the song's warm, whispering, secret-sharing charm.