A Special Memory
“Resplendent with home town images and themes, especially as it is performed by the iconic Kate Smith, the carol was written during a very difficult time when American soldiers were engaged in another foreign war. Stan Zabka, along with Don Upton, another ex-GI, wrote Christmas Eve in My Home Town in 1951 at the height of the Korean War. The song became an immediate hit with soldiers in the field and sailors at sea, eventually earning sobriquets as The Soldier’s Christmas Song, and the Official Christmas Song of Radio Free Europe during the Cold War years.” 1
Co-written in 1951 by GI’s Stan Zabka and Don Upton, this holiday tune has become fairly well-known thru the years due to recordings by Kate Smith and Bobby Vinton, but it was first done by Eddie Fisher in this recording made in Germany.