SA Chorus and Piano

Recommended for: Elementary and Middle School

For this charming arrangement, I joined together two beautiful songs to create the sweetness and nostalgia of the holiday season. “Jolly Old St. Nicholas” is usually sung in common time, but to lend the impression of a lullaby in 6/8 and create a dreamlike state where young children can imagine all the toys they wish for, I partnered it with the hypnotically swaying rhythms of “Toyland.” I wrote this arrangement during the pandemic at a time when children were feeling abandoned at home, in the hope that their imaginings of the winter holidays would let the innocence of childhood shine through the darkness.

Performance Time: 2:10 minutes

Snow

Wonderful world of joy!

Joy

Jolly old St. Nicholas

lean your ear this way.

Don’t you tell a single soul

what I’m goin’ to say.

Christmas Eve is coming soon.

Now, you dear old man,

whisper what you’ll bring to me.

Tell me if you can.

When the clock is striking twelve,

when I’m fast asleep,

down the chimney broad and black

with your pack you’ll creep.

All the stockings you will find

hanging in a row.

Mine will be the shortest one.

You’ll be sure to know.

Toyland! Toyland!

Wonderful world of joyland.

While you dwell within it

you are ever happy there.

Childhood’s joyland,

mystic merry toyland.

Wouldn’t it be fine if we

could stay here forevermore.

Wonderful world of toys