The Background Story
It was 1965. Johnny Gondesen was driving his daughters from Galveston, TX to Houston in search of a Christmas tree. As they passed the Christmas tree lots, his daughters would sing “Ho, Ho, Ho”. They associated Christmas trees with Santa Claus. Wanting to have some fun with his daughters, each time they said “Ho, Ho, Ho” he would respond with “He, He, He.” As the trip continued, Johnny started to think Ho, Ho, Ho, He, He, He could be great lyrics for a Christmas song. That night he stayed up and wrote “Christmas is Here.”
The song is born
Johnny played “Christmas is Here” for his band and they loved it. The band leader, Don Westmoreland, was just starting a recording studio out of his house. The band set up in the house, the drummer was in the kitchen, lead and steel guitar players were in the hallways and Johnny was in a small room with Don’s wife, who played the jingle bells.
With one countdown the band started playing and Don hit record on the reel-to-reel tape recorder. When the song ended Don told Johnny, “I think we got it.” He rewound the tape and had Johnny record a second vocal track to give the track vocal depth.
They used the tape to have 7-inch single records pressed at 45 RPMs.