What popular Christmas song begins with 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire'?

The popular Christmas song that begins with “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” is “The Christmas Song.” It is also commonly identified by that opening line, although its original subtitle was “Merry Christmas to You.”

Songwriters Robert Wells and Mel Tormé created it in 1945. According to Tormé, Wells had written a few wintry lines during a hot July day as a way of imagining cooler weather; the complete song was developed remarkably quickly. Nat King Cole recorded it with his trio in 1946.

Cole’s later recordings made the song a seasonal standard, especially the lush 1961 version arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael. The 1946 recording entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974, while Cole’s 1961 recording was added to the U.S. National Recording Registry in 2022.

A common mix-up is calling the song “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.” That phrase is its familiar unofficial title, not the formal title most reference works use.