The Hallmark Channel aside, it turns out that Charles Dickens isn't the only one who can whip up a classic Christmas hit.
But this one, you probably never guessed.
In interviews, John Philip Sousa would tell the tale of his voyage home across the Atlantic, soon after the death of his friend and manager, David Blakely.
He'd talk of his grief, his homesickness, and of being warmed on the voyage with a patriotic glow — not quite Dickens's spirits, but close enough.
And Sousa claimed The Star and Stripes Forever was all there in his head when he arrived in New York in 1896. All he had to do was put pen to paper on Christmas Day.
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