“The Year We Had Nothing For Christmas”
Written by Douglas Westberg
Interview by American Songwriter
Videos by American Songwriter
Douglas Westberg is the American Songwriter It’s A Wonderful Write Promotion Runner-Up for his song “The Year We Had Nothing For Christmas.” American Songwriter caught up with Westberg to get the story behind his lyrics.
How long have you been songwriting?
I won a music composition prize when I was ten, for a piano solo. A couple years later, I wrote a song called “Debbie Debbie Jo” for a girl I had a crush on. Boy, did I take a ribbing for that when my brother found it! I’ve been writing music ever since, going on six decades.
Why did you enter American Songwriter’s It’s A Wonderful Write Promotion?
I get your newsletter and saw the holiday promo. I had this Christmas song I thought might be appealing. About all I’ve had the chance to do with it until now is include it on Christmas cds I gave to family.
What was the inspiration behind your song, “The Year We Had Nothing For Christmas”?
When I was raising my kids with my second wife Carol, sometimes we would be having a lean year, and we would have one of what she called our “Little House on the Prairie” Christmases. Lots of homemade gifts, artwork, letters, poems, and stories along with lots of dollar store purchases and one or two “big presents.” Those were special times.
Who are your all-time favorite songwriters and why?
Oh gosh, so many… Randy Newman, Lowell George, Stevie Wonder, Fagen & Becker, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Lennon & McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Christine McVie, and many more. All are superb craftspeople with jazz sensibilities, with a strong sense of melody, structure and style. All are skillful, intelligent lyricists and storytellers. As a lifelong piano-vocal entertainer, it’s such enormous fun to arrange, perform, and draw from composers like these in my own writing.
Are you planning to release any new music this year?
Yes, I’m planning an album of mostly ballads written in the last several years, plus leftovers and one-offs like this one, some of those going back 40+ years. (Might be a double album!)
What would you tell other artists who are considering entering the contest?
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t break through the first time!
Read’s Douglas’s winning lyrics to “The Year We Had Nothing For Christmas” below:
“The Year We Had Nothing For Christmas
My Mom passed her favorite childhood doll down.
To make it more special, she sewed a new gown.
My Dad built a dollhouse from scraps that he found
The year we had nothing for Christmas.
My Dad made my brother a sailboat of oak
To float in the tub when he went for a soak.
He fashioned the mast from a bicycle spoke
The year we had nothing for Christmas.
My Dad wrote some poems and he put them in frames.
The first of each line spelled out each person’s name.
My Mom made a turkey and everyone came
The year we had nothing for Christmas.
My Mom made up stories and wrote them all down
On fine handmade paper in books leather-bound,
All starring her children as sleuths of renown
The year we had nothing for Christmas.
I drew Mom a picture and colored it green,
Of Mommy and Daddy and Roger and me
As we’re decorating the new Christmas tree,
The year we had nothing for Christmas.
To all of us Roger gave coupons galore,
Redeemable at Roger’s own little store
For kisses and candies and maybe a chore
The year we had nothing for Christmas.
Now that my brother and I are all grown,
With spouses and houses and kids of our own,
The Christmases that I remember alone
Are the years we had nothing for Christmas.
The fancy new toys, I’ve forgotten them all,
But the poems and the pictures still hang from the wall.
And there on the bookshelf, the porcelain doll,
That taught me the meaning of Christmas
The year we had nothing for Christmas.”
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