About The Song
“Christmas Time’s A-Comin'” is the title track of Sammy Kershaw’s first holiday album, released by Mercury Nashville on October 4, 1994. On a record that mixes classic carols, country standards and a few newer songs, this three-minute cut stands out as the one that ties Kershaw directly to bluegrass history. Instead of writing a new Christmas tune, he reached back to a 1950s standard and reshaped it in his own Louisiana-flavored country style, turning an old fiddle tune into a warm, radio-ready 1990s Christmas single.
The song itself long predates Kershaw’s career. “Christmas Time’s A-Comin'” was written by Bell Labs engineer and fiddler Benjamin “Tex” Logan and first recorded in 1951 by Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys. Over the decades it became a bluegrass Christmas standard, cut by generations of pickers and singers who loved its simple promise of heading home for the holidays. By the time Kershaw approached it in the mid-1990s, listeners already associated the tune with snowy homecomings, mandolin breaks and Monroe’s high, keening voice, giving his version a rich heritage to play off.
Kershaw wrapped the song inside a full album built around traditional favorites. Christmas Time’s A-Comin’ runs just over 33 minutes and features songs like “White Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman,” “Winter Wonderland” and a duet on “Up on the House Top” with his daughter Erin. Produced by Buddy Cannon and Norro Wilson, the record leans on Nashville studio heavyweights on bass, drums, steel, strings and horns, while Kershaw handles lead vocals. The album reached the Top Country Albums chart in the U.S., peaking in the lower half of the list and establishing him as a reliable voice for country holiday music.
At the heart of “Christmas Time’s A-Comin'” is a simple story that resonates with anyone who grew up far from the city. The narrator hears bells ringing, sees the snow beginning to fall and feels an almost physical pull toward his country home. References to joy in the singing, cold weather, and a long journey back through the hills paint a picture of someone working or living away who measures the year by the chance to go home at Christmas. The language is plain and rural, full of trains, mountains and church bells rather than shopping malls or big-city lights, which is part of why the song fits both bluegrass and traditional country so naturally.
Kershaw’s arrangement stays true to that spirit while updating the sound for 1990s country radio. His version moves at an easy, mid-tempo clip, driven by acoustic guitar, fiddle and steel, with a rhythm section that keeps things bouncing without ever feeling rushed. Where Bill Monroe’s original floats on high tenor and mandolin, Kershaw leans into his rich, slightly nasal south-Louisiana drawl, sounding more like a man remembering childhood than a young picker racing through a jam. Subtle touches of piano and strings from the Nashville session players soften the edges, turning the tune into something that sits comfortably alongside his contemporary hits.
The single enjoyed an unusual chart life. Released to country radio in connection with the 1994 album, Kershaw’s “Christmas Time’s A-Comin'” entered Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in the 1995 Christmas season, eventually peaking around the No. 50 mark. A few years later, as stations pulled it back into recurrent rotation during the holidays, it returned to the chart and climbed into the low 50s again in 1998. That pattern tells its own story: it was never a blockbuster hit, but it became a reliable seasonal favorite that programmers could spin every December without it wearing out its welcome.
Since then, the track has settled into a comfortable place in both Kershaw’s catalogue and the broader country Christmas canon. It turns up regularly on streaming playlists and country Christmas compilations, often alongside his versions of “Please Come Home for Christmas” and “White Christmas,” and the official music video from the mid-1990s still circulates each year. For fans of Bill Monroe and bluegrass, Kershaw’s cut is a respectful, polished nod to the original; for fans who discovered the song through 1990s radio, it is simply one of those familiar, good-natured voices that means the season has really started. In either case, his “Christmas Time’s A-Comin'” keeps the connection between classic bluegrass and modern country alive every time the snow and the bells roll back around.
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Lyric
Holly’s in the window
Homeward the wind blows
Can’t walk for runnin’‘Cause Christmas time’s a-coming
Can’t you hear them bells ringin’, ringin’?
Joy, joy don’t cha hear them singin’
When it’s snowin ‘I’ll be goin’
Back to my country homeChristmas time’s a-coming
Christmas time’s a-coming
Christmas time’s a-coming
And I know I’m goin’ homeWhite candle’s burnin’
My old heart’s a-yearnin’
For the folks at home when
Christmas time’s a-comingCan’t you hear them bells ringin’, ringin’?
Joy, joy don’t cha hear them singin’
When it’s snowin ‘I’ll be goin’
Back to my country home
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And I know I’m goin’ homeSnow flake’s a-fallin’
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Tall pine’s a-hummin’
Christmas time’s a-comingCan’t you hear them bells ringin’, ringin’?
Joy, joy don’t cha hear them singin’
When it’s snowin ‘I’ll be goin’
Back to my country homeChristmas time’s a-coming
Christmas time’s a-coming
Christmas time’s a-coming
And I know I’m goin’ home