For millions of Americans, “White Christmas” is the soundtrack of the holidays. But for Bing Crosby, the song became deeply emotional during World War II — and led to what his family later described as one of the hardest moments of his career.
Crosby first introduced “White Christmas” in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, which featured music by Irving Berlin. Released in August of that year, the song slowly gained momentum before exploding in popularity during the winter — just as American troops were deployed overseas.
By the end of 1942, “White Christmas” had become something much bigger than a holiday tune. It played constantly on Armed Forces Radio and struck a powerful chord with homesick soldiers longing for home.
“It was embraced by homesick American GIs as a symbol of the country to which they longed to return,” author Jody Rosen later wrote. “It was the war’s unlikely anthem — a ‘Why We Fight’ song in which the fight was never mentioned.”
The song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became the best-selling single of all time — a record it still holds. While countless artists have covered it, Crosby’s warm baritone became inseparable from the song itself.
During the war, Crosby regularly traveled to entertain U.S. troops in Europe. In a 2016 interview, Crosby’s nephew Howard recalled asking his uncle what the most difficult moment of his entertainment career had been.
Crosby didn’t hesitate.
In December 1944, Crosby was performing in a USO show alongside Bob Hope and the Andrews Sisters at an outdoor venue in northern France. As expected, the show ended with “White Christmas.”
“He had to stand there and sing ‘White Christmas’ with 100,000 GIs in tears,” Howard said, “without breaking down himself.”
Many of those soldiers would soon be sent into one of the deadliest conflicts of the war — the Battle of the Bulge, which began just days later. It became the largest and bloodiest battle fought by U.S. forces during World War II.
Crosby later reprised the song in the 1954 film White Christmas, co-starring Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Fittingly, the movie follows two former soldiers turned performers who stage a holiday show to honor their old commanding officer — a gentle echo of the real-life bond between the song and the men who fought overseas.
By the early 1950s, the New York Times summed it up simply: “White Christmas is a national institution.”
I was just a kid but my cousins were in the frey in the Pacific and Europe and we missed them at Christmas .