April 2026 - Vol. 23, Issue 2

My book, Christmas Gifts from the Chanukah Crowd: The Extraordinary Contributions of American Jews To Christmas, has a chapter about Christmas songs written or co-written by Jews. Some were the result of collaboration between Jews and Gentiles. The song “Winter Wonderland” had a Gentile lyricist, Richard Smith, and a Jewish composer, Felix Bernard.

One special thing about “Winter Wonderland” was pointed out by Ace Collins in his book, Stories Behind the Greatest, that I quote in my book: “‘Winter Wonderland’ may be the only holiday song that owes its magical, upbeat lyrics to a devastating terminal disease.”

That disease was tuberculosis which Smith contracted while still a child. Smith was born in 1901 in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, one of the four children of John H. Smith, a partner in a cut glass manufacturing plant, and housewife Eliza Bruning Smith. The family attended an Episcopal Church. A writer commented on Smith’s childhood: “One-horse open sleighs were not yet nostalgic images for calendars or Christmas cards but were still a way people got about, especially in the countryside in those winter days.”

Richard Smith’s sister, Margaret, recalled in an interview that she and her brother often admired the way snow fell upon the park across from their house around Christmastime. Peter Becker, a journalist who grew up in a house close to the Smiths, remembered, “Late at night, a good snow blankets the park and tree limbs, illuminated by the lamps, which make the cascade of snowflakes glow as they filter down to make another layer of white.” Becker speculates that Smith, his brother Warren, and his sisters Marion and Marjorie, perhaps accompanied by other neighborhood children, “must have made a legion of snowmen” and may even have enjoyed playful snowball fights.

The Smith house had an upright piano that little Richard loved playing. A classmate remembered, he “showed a gift for the piano from his school days” and “was witty and clever at making verses.” However, his childhood was not free of negatives. Smith suffered grief in elementary school when his father died. As previously mentioned, he was still a child when he first contracted tuberculosis. However, he recovered soon. Richard graduated Honesdale High School in 1920.  Then he attended Penn State University where he majored in advertising, edited the school magazine, and formed an orchestra of which he was conductor.

Upon graduating college in 1927, Smith moved to New York City where he worked as a newspaper editor. He also started managing Broadway theater productions and writing songs. In 1930, he married nurse Jean Carson. Sadly, his career and marriage were soon interrupted when the tuberculosis he contracted as a child became active and led to  a stay at the West Mountain Sanitarium in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It would be this institution that would be the seemingly unlikely springboard for a dearly loved classic Christmas song.

The Truth of Tuberculosis

To understand what Richard Smith experienced, what he was enduring when he wrote “Winter Wonderland,” it is important to know the symptoms of tuberculosis and useful to review its history.

Tuberculosis, often shortened to TB, is a life-threatening disease that primarily impacts the lungs. It caused by bacteria, or germs, called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. These bacteria are spread through sneezing, coughing, speaking, laughing, and singing. TB germs are breathed in through droplets and enter the lungs. People are more likely to be infected when they spend time together in an indoor space. TB is most easily spread in places where people live or work together for long periods or in crowds.

TB infections occur in three stages. Primary TB infection is the first stage in which the immune system cells find and capture TB germs. In some cases, the germs are totally destroyed. In others, the germs survive and multiply. Most people do not have symptoms during primary TB infection but some get symptoms similar to the flu like coughing, fatigue, and a low fever.

Latent TB infection typically follows primary infection. In this second stage, immune system cells build a wall of TB germs around lung tissue. If the immune system controls them, the germs do no more harm. A person has no symptoms during latent TB infection. A person in the latent infection stage cannot transmit TB.

The third stage is active TB disease. This is when the immune system cannot control the infection. Germs cause disease to activate through the lungs and perhaps other body parts. It can occur immediately after primary infection but usually occurs after months or years of latent TB infection. Symptoms include coughing (sometimes coughing up mucus and blood), chest pains, painful breathing, fevers, chills, night sweats, fatigue, and weight loss.

When TB spreads outside the lungs it is called extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. Common sites of active TB outside lungs are liver, kidneys, heart, fluid around brain and spinal cord, lymph nodes, bones, joints, skin, blood vessel walls, and voice box (also called the larynx).

History of TB Outbreaks In America

TB has a long history in the United States. The World BioHaz Tec asserts, “TB’s early impact on the U.S. led to the creation of some of our first organized public health campaigns.”

In the 1700s, TB was called “The Robber of Youth” and “The Captain of Death.” In the 1800s, it was called “The White Plague” because so many with it turned pale. Through the centuries, it has been called “consumption” for the way it can “consume” with its (previously) high mortality rate and how people were “consumed” by hacking coughs, terrible pain, fever, and often the inability to get out of bed.

TB spread as America went from a rural to an urban nation because poor parts of town were often overcrowded. Poor sanitation and malnutrition also made poor people especially vulnerable to TB.

During the 19th century and the early 20th century, it was America’s most common death cause. Although poor people were disproportionately impacted, the privileged could also succumb to it. Famous Americans who had TB included Presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, authors Henry David Thoreau, Stephen Crane, and Thomas Wolfe, actor W. C. Fields, and business tycoon Jay Gould. Two of President Richard Nixon’s brothers also had TB.

By the late 19th century, America sought to control TB through its first major health campaign. Treatment centers called sanatoriums were established for people with TB. Part of the reason for these sanatoriums was to prevent the spread of the disease and part to help people with TB recover. It was believed that fresh air, rest, and good nutrition would aid in recovery. Sanatoriums were often located in rural areas and patients were encouraged to spend time outdoors where they enjoy clean air. The World BioHazard Tec website states they became recognized as places of “healing and hope.”

Glancing Out A Window, Seeing A “Winter Wonderland”

It was close to Christmas when Smith glanced out the window of the West Mountain Sanitarium and saw children frolicking in the snow. He went to his nearby desk and took pen to paper. He wrote lines that would become famous because they so perfectly etched a scene of winter fun and emotional optimism.

In this writer’s opinion, one of the reasons for the power of “Winter Wonderland” is that it is a Christmas song that is also a tribute to a basic human relationship: marriage. The married author seems to reminisce about the days when he was still single but yearning to “pop the question.” The verses “Gone away is the bluebird/here to stay is a new bird/He sings a love song” could simply refer to being less likely to see bluebirds than other birds close to Christmas but it could have a deeper meaning, at once sharply personal and profoundly general. The “new bird” that sings a “love song” is the desire to propose marriage. A few verses follow and our narrator and the narrator’s companion “build a snowman” and “pretend that he is Parson Brown.” Parson Brown asks the companions if they are married; they reply they are not. The snow-built Parson Brown assures the couple, “But you can do the job when you’re in town.” Part of the charm of “Winter Wonderland” is that it ties the joys of Christmas to the joys of a marriage proposal. We learn the couple will later “conspire” by a fireplace “to face unafraid” their plans to wed that they made “walking in a winter wonderland.” Writer Debi Simons has speculated that the verse “face unafraid” could reflect the fears that Smith might have felt before he proposed marriage to Jean, or the fears that he projected backward onto his recent self since he was writing inside the sanitarium. He and Jean both might have had to overcome fears for the future if they discussed his TB infection before they married.

One of the oddities about “Winter Wonderland” is that there is ambiguity about the narrator’s age. The references to Parson Brown and marriage indicate a young adult, someone about the age of Richard Smith when he wrote it or slightly younger. However, the verses about building a snowman and having “lots of fun” with that snowman until the “other kids knock him down,” suggest our narrator is a child. It is possible the narrator is a kid fantasizing about marrying a childhood crush.

As I pointed out in my book, Christmas Gifts from the Chanukah Crowd, talk of “frolic and play” and calling it “the Eskimo way” could be viewed as politically incorrect, perhaps even bigoted, in contemporary terms. It is certainly true that Eskimo/Inuit people live in an environment that is often harsh and requires hard work to survive. Their lives are hardly just “frolic and play.” However, it is not too much to suggest that when people in general “frolic and play” in snow, we might be doing it, at least to some extent, “the Eskimo way” since we are temporarily in an environment that is their constant environment.

The song ends with the repeated refrain, “Walking in a winter wonderland.” There are two stories about how Smith made up that term. In one, Smith was walking with a group on New Year’s Eve through the Pocono Mountains. A young lady, delighted by the beauty of the snow on the trees, exclaimed, “This is like a winter wonderland!” Realizing the potential for a song title/refrain, Smith jotted the words “winter wonderland” on the back of a tailor’s bill. A second story has to do with Smith’s friend Felix Bernard. The pals were having lunch at an automat during a heatwave. Felix, thinking fondly of the opposite sort of weather, impulsively wrote the words “winter wonderland” on a stone-topped automat table.

Teaming Together To Make A Masterpiece

It was around 1934 when Smith was healthy enough to leave the West Mountain Sanitarium. He returned with wife Jean to New York City. He soon met up with friend Felix Bernard and showed him the “Winter Wonderland” lyrics.

Born in New York City in 1897, Bernard had, like Smith, demonstrated musical interest and talent from an early age. He became a professional pianist during his teenaged years. Bernard later became a professional tap dancer and leader of his own band. He co-wrote with Johnny S. Black and Fred Fisher a song entitled “Dardanella” that was made into a record in 1919 and was among the first records to sell one million copies. He was destined to live a life of accomplishment, writing one-act vaudeville comedies as well as writing music for top performers like Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor, Marilyn Miller, and Al Jolson. Bernard’s credits include “The Mailman’s Got My Letter,” “Cutest Kid in Town,” “Tom Thumb and Tiny Teens,” “Painter in the Sky,” “Twenty One Dollars a Day Once a Month,” and “The Whistlin’ Cowboy.”

When Smith showed Bernard “Winter Wonderland,” the latter was delighted to compose music for it. And the music was beautifully suited to the emotional tone of the lyrics.

The friends had written a masterpiece

The Road To Recording “Winter Wonderland”

Smith and Bernard sold their song to Donaldson-Douglas-Gumble music publishers — which then seemed to just forget they had it instead of getting it recorded or played on radio! The song appeared destined to languish in obscurity until Richard Smith’s brother, Bernie Smith, mentioned “Winter Wonderland” to Joey Nash, the vocalist for Richard Himber’s orchestra. Nash recalled that Bernie Smith “showed me a penciled manuscript” before launching into a “wheezy, home-made recording of ‘Winter Wonderland.’” Nash may not have been especially impressed by Bernie Smith’s “wheezy” rendition of the song but he was most impressed by the words he saw on that manuscript. Nash made an arrangement to record it with Himber and his orchestra. “Due to technical difficulties, time had run out and the session ended without the song being made,” Nash remembered years later. “Himber had left the studio and the musicians were packing up. I so wanted to do this tune, I asked the band, as a special favor to me, to try for a master. They agreed but it would be a one-shot try. If something or someone fouled it up, well, that would be just too bad.” They gave it a try and, Nash related, “It was a perfect performance.”

They had a record of “Winter Wonderland.” Joey Nash began regularly performing the song on Himber’s radio broadcasts.

Famous bandleader Guy Lombardo liked what he heard of this charming song. Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians recorded “Winter Wonderland” and it shot to second place on the 1934 Hit Parade. Luckily, both Richard Smith and Felix Bernard were around to see the song they created make the Hit Parade although, sadly, a recurrence of TB ended Smith’s life on September 28, 1935 — one day before what would have been his 34th birthday.

Tuberculosis Since Smith’s Death

In the decades since TB slew Smith in 1935, progress has been made in its treatment. The roots of that progress were sown during Smith’s lifetime.

Major progress toward TB prevention was made by Albert Calmette and Jean-Marie Camille Guerin when they developed the Bacilli Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine in 1921. This vaccine greatly helped stem TB’s spread.

Along with vaccines to prevent the illness, other major breakthroughs in treatments came about through the discovery of antibiotics. Selman Waksman, Elizabeth Bugle, and Albert Schatz developed the TB antibiotic streptomycin in 1943.

In the 1950s and 1960s, four more antibiotics effective in the treatment of TB were developed. They are isoniazid (developed in 1951), pyrazinamide (1952), ethambutol (1961), and rifampin (1966). Due to improvements in diagnoses, preventions, and treatments, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal of eradicating TB by 2050.

“Winter Wonderland” Forever!

For slightly over a decade after making the Hit Parade in 1934, “Winter Wonderland” receded from popular view. Then, in 1946, the Andrews Sisters and Perry Como recorded rival versions which were immediate hits. Sadly, Felix Bernard was not around to witness the revival as he died in 1944 at age 47.

Since 1946, “Winter Wonderland” has become a perennially popular and beloved Christmas standard. It has been recorded by no less than 200 musical artists! It has been recorded in varied genres and styles. As well as Perry Como, other crooners who have recorded “Winter Wonderland” include Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett. Jazz and Soul greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Ray Charles have done their own renditions of this Christmas standard. Country artists who have taken us to “Winter Wonderland” include Dolly Parton, LeAnn Rimes, George Strait, and Luke Bryan. Rock and Pop versions of the song have been recorded by  well-known artists like The Carpenters, Cyndi Lauper, Radiohead, Eurythmics, and Michael Bublé.

“Winter Wonderland” is a cherished Christmas song because it is finely etched with details of winter and fun specific to the season. It speaks powerfully to our feelings about Christmas and touches our senses of generosity and optimism. As previously mentioned, another factor in its becoming a classic is the way it unites our affection for the Christmas season with that of the basic human relationship of marriage.

It might seem ironic that “Winter Wonderland” was written by a  sick man and confined by that sickness. But given that TB sanatoriums were also places of “healing and hope,” perhaps no one was better situated to write a song so full of yearning and appreciation and nostalgia for a “Winter Wonderland” than Richard Smith was when he was in the West Mountain Sanatorium.

References

Becker, Peter. “LOCAL HISTORY: Winter Wonderland: The inspiration behind the song.” Tri-County Independent. Dec. 18, 2018. https://www.tricountyindependent.com/story/entertainment/human-interest/2018/12/18/local-history-winter-wonderland-inspiration/6618278007/

Christmas Classics PERSON OF THE DAY: Richard B. Smith. Sept. 28, 2013. https://christmasclassics.com/christmasmusic/christmas-classics-person-day-richard-b-smith

Dismuke. “The Story Behind ‘Winter Wonderland.’” Musical Notes. https://www.early1900s.org/notes/2019/12/23/the-story-behind-winter-wonderland-1934/

Dutta, Dr. Sanchari Sinha. “History of Tuberculosis.” News Medical Life Sciences. https://www.news-medical.net/health/History-of-Tuberculosis.aspx

I Barberis, NL Bragazzi, L Galluzzo, M Martini. “The history of tuberculosis: from the first historical records to the isolation of Koch’s bacillus.” Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5432783/

Simons, Debi. “Did the lyricist of the famous song actually get to go ‘walking in a winter wonderland?’” Behind the Music. Nov. 14, 2022. https://debisimons.com/walking-in-a-winter-wonderland-story-behind-the-words/

Noe, Denise. Christmas Gifts from the Chanukah Crowd: The Extraordinary Contributions of American Jews To Christmas. Bear Manor Media. 2020.

“TB And American’s First Public Health Campaign: A Look Back At Early Efforts To Combat Tuberculosis.” World BioHaz Tec. June 3, 2025. https://worldbiohaztec.com/tb-and-americas-first-public-health-campaign-a-look-back-at-early-efforts-to-combat-tuberculosis

Tuberculosis. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tuberculosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351250