Donald Yetter Gardner, the songwriter best known for the children’s classic yule tune “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth”, was born in Portland, PA on August 20, 1913. He was the son of the town mayor and grandson of the town clerk. He earned his degree in music and met his future wife at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.
It was the beginning of the holiday season in 1944 when Gardner and his wife, Doris, were helping 22 second-graders in Smithtown, N.Y., compose a Christmas song. He asked them to complete the sentence, “All I want for Christmas is … “ and then began smiling as he heard 16 of them lisping wishes without the help of one or both front teeth.
“I was a music teacher, and we were trying to come up with some songs the second graders could sing at the Christmas program we were putting together for the parents,” he revealed. “All of a sudden, it dawned on me; the children had stopped talking about songs. They had changed the subject. They were talking about the gifts they hoped Santa would bring them for Christmas. Over and over, the phrase ‘All I want for Christmas…’ was used.
“There were about 25 students in that second-grade class. I made a joke, and I remember the youngsters started laughing. I couldn’t help but notice about two-thirds of them were missing some teeth up front. That’s when I had the idea for my song.” That night, in the space of 30 minutes, the 31-year-old music teacher composed the ditty that would bring him royalties until the end of his life.
For three years, the songwriter tried to get somebody interested in the cute little tune. Nobody seemed interested. That is, until the legendary Spike Jones recorded it, during the final days of 1947-just before a strike by the American Federation of Musicians.
Gardner was amazed. The royalty checks poured in. The Chipmunks made a record of it, and so did Nat “King” Cole. Even the distinguished Boston Pops played it. The composer conceded that he was “flabbergasted.” A serious musician, Gardner never expected a novelty tune would be his greatest success.
Donald Gardner was quite pleased his “little Christmas tune” became such an unexpected smash hit. “I still can’t believe it,” he once declared. “I’d walk down a street, and I would hear it played in stores. It was all over the radio at Christmas. I couldn’t understand why it caught on the way it did.”
“I was amazed at the way that silly little song was picked up by the whole country,” Gardner told the alumni newsletter of his West Chester University School of Music in 1995.
Gardner moved to suburban Boston and became a music consultant and editor for Ginn & Co. music publishers. He wrote songs for music textbooks, composed church music and directed church and community choirs.
Among his published hymns are “Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone but by Every Word of God” and “Oh, Give Thanks Unto the Lord.”
Gardner died, at age 91 on September 15, 2004, from complications after falling at his home in Needham, Massachusetts, outside of Boston. Gardner is survived by his wife of 65 years, Doris Yoder Gardner; three sons, Richard of Needham, Mass., Jerry of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., and David of Peach Tree City, Ga.; six grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Lyrics
“All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth”
Everybody stops and stares at me.
These two teeth are gone as you can see.
I don’t know just who to blame for this catastrophe.
But my one wish on Christmas Eve is as plain as it can be.
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,
My two front teeth, see my two front teeth!
Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth,
Then I could wish you “Merry Christmas.”
It seems so long since I could say,
“Sister Susie sitting on a thistle.”
Gosh, oh gee, how happy I’d be
If it could only whistle (thhhh).
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,
My two front teeth, see my two front teeth!
Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth,
Then I could wish you “Merry Christmas.”
Warner Bros. PublicationsCopyright