“Someday at Christmas” is Stevie Wonder’s Christmas album, which was released in 1967 and is Wonder’s eighth studio album. The album has 12 songs, of which eight are original. This album was released under Motown Records under Tamla, which is a sub-label of Motown. When this album was released on November 27, 1967, at the time, it wasn’t the most successful album, but over time, in a lot of people’s eyes, it has become a classic due to Stevie Wonder’s fame, as well as multiple songs being covered over time.

The album’s title track, “Someday at Christmas,” is the most popular song on the album. With 122,357,970 streams on Spotify, this was one of the original songs off the album. 

This song holds a special meaning for me because it was the first Stevie Wonder song I ever listened to, and it was also the first one I heard on the radio during the holiday season. This song looks to a better future, as evident in the title “Someday at Christmas,” which signifies that he is talking about a future Christmas. A lyric like “Someday at Christmas, there’ll be no wars” is clear about hoping for peace. This is a meaningful lyric because this was at the peak of the Vietnam War for the United States.

Another song off this album is “The Little Drummer Boy”, which is one of the songs he covered and was originally written by Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. This is a classic song with multiple different versions, most famously by Bing Crosby and David Bowie (1977). 

Stevie Wonder’s version came a decade earlier, and even if people like the Bowie and Crosby version, this is still worth a listen because it offers a different type of voice. Crosby and Bowie have deeper voices, while Stevie’s version offers more of a lighter and more upbeat voice. This is my favorite cover song off this album.

The final song on this album is “What Christmas Means to Me” and is an original song made for this album. It had a resurgence when John Legend covered it in 2018, hitting #1 on the Billboard. It also has some other notable covers, like CeeLo Green and Cher’s version. While “Someday at Christmas” was the first song I listened to, this one is my favorite on the entire album. This is a more light-hearted song compared to the deeper message of “Someday at Christmas.” It kind of reminds me of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” and Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime”. “Someday at Christmas” and “Happy Xmas” are songs with deeper meanings about wishing for a better future, while “Wonderful Christmastime” and “What Christmas Means to Me” are more feel-good songs.

While there are multiple different types of Christmas songs on the radio, check out Stevie Wonder’s holiday album.