"This Christmas" is a song by American soul musician Donny Hathaway released in 1970 by Atco Records. The song gained renewed interest when it was included in 1991 on Atco Records' revised edition of their 1968 Soul Christmas compilation album[2] and has since become a modern Christmas standard, with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers reporting that it was the 30th most-performed holiday song of all time.
Phil Upchurch said the song was "absolutely the premiere holiday song written by an African American". It was written by Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor.
"This Christmas" was recorded at Audio Finishers Studio on Ontario Street, Chicago in the fall of 1970.[2] Ric Powell (see credits below) said that Hathaway was "very upbeat during the session" and that he "knew what he wanted to do musically and the impact he wanted to make with this song" regarding the representation of African Americans in Christmas music.[2] On writing the song with Hathaway (who died in 1979), Nadine McKinnor said she felt "blessed to have written with Donny a song that celebrates the possibilities, the expectations, and the anticipation of Christmas and the good fun and happy loving times", and that the creation of the song "was a God plan. God was in this plan. And Donny Hathaway was a genius."[5]
"This Christmas" was released as a single in 1970.[6] It initially saw little success, as it was listed just once on any of Billboard magazine's weekly published music charts in the 1970s, specifically Billboard's special Christmas Singles chart (on the week ending December 23, 1972, at position No. 11).[7] But in recent years, the song has made it onto a number of Billboard's weekly music charts. In addition to making its first appearance on the main Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in late December 2020 (at position No. 39), Hathaway's "This Christmas" has also appeared on these other Billboard music charts: Global 200 (No. 62 chart peak in early January 2021), Holiday 100 (No. 25 chart peak in early January 2014), Holiday Digital Song Sales (No. 36 chart peak in early January 2020), Holiday Streaming Songs (No. 27 chart peak in December 2020), Hot 100 Recurrents (No. 10 in December 2020), R&B Digital Song Sales (No. 10 chart peak in early January 2020), R&B Streaming Songs (No. 6 chart peak in early January 2021), R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs (No. 6 chart peak in early January 2021), and Streaming Songs (No. 27 chart peak in early January 2021).
