When you hear this novelty tune these days, it’s usually the Jackson 5’s version, with 12-year-old Michael playing the youngster shocked to see his mother canoodling with Kris Kringle. It appeared on the group’s 1970 Christmas album, their fourth for Motown, and Michael was already a star.
Jimmy Boyd was a year older when he recorded this track in 1952. Like Michael, he was from a musical family and had been singing half his life, but he wasn’t nearly as famous before the single came out. He had impressed people in talent shows, which led to an appearance on Frank Sinatra’s TV program. That led to a recording contract that immediately paid off – “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” sold more than 2 million records in a few weeks and soared to No. 1, then hit No. 1 in the UK the next year. It’s still a popular cover.
Saks Fifth Avenue commissioned the song from British tunesmith Tommie Connor to match the illustration on the store’s Christmas card that year. There’s an urban legend that it was banned in Boston for its supposedly adulterous subject matter. Even today, lots of people think Mommy is stepping out on Daddy, I suppose because the singer thinks that’s the case. Of course, Santa is just Daddy in a red suit and white beard, and Diocese of Boston has no record of anyone there ever suggesting the song was risqué.
Jimmy Boyd made a few more records – 1953’s “Santa Got Stuck in My Chimney” failed to recapture the magic – before turning to Hollywood, where he became a character actor in teen films and early sitcoms.
The Ronettes covered it in 1963 on Phil Spector’s Christmas album, which inspired the Jackson 5 version.
