Kristin Chenoweth on ‘Happiness Is … Christmas’

Hi everybody, it’s Kristin Chenoweth. I’m here for my cover for Guideposts magazine. And guess what? It’s Christmas.

♪ I got a bone to pick with you ♪
♪ On Christmas morn, what did I see ♪
♪ I found a toothbrush and a pair of mismatched socks ♪
♪ Under my tree ♪
♪ Sweater’s too big ♪
♪ Jammies too small ♪

I wanted to do another Christmas song because, frankly, it makes me happy. The music makes everybody happy. And when I was looking at the song selection, I knew that I wanted to do something that had to do with my deep DNA, which is Charlie Brown.

The name of the record is “Happiness is … Christmas.” So what we did is we melded two songs together from “Charlie Brown,” the movie, and another song from the musical and the musical is…

♪ Happiness is two kinds of ice cream ♪
♪ Building a snowman, climbing a tree ♪

But we also put

♪ Christmas time is here ♪
♪ Joyful everywhere ♪

with the kids, so it’s a very special way to open the record. And it goes from there to the Carpenters to Kay Starr to the blues.

We have an original piece called “Santa, I’ve got a Bone to Pick with You.” And it’s basically about all the times that we thought we were getting something and we didn’t. So anyway, we wrote a song, kind of funny, for that.

This album of mine, it’s eclectic. And I hope people walk away going, wow, “My Dear Acquaintance,” Peggy Lee. I didn’t even know that song. I hope they walk away knowing a lot of the music and then learning some too.

There’s a song that Jay Landers wrote, “Why Can’t it be Christmas Every Day?” that’s really fun. And it begs the question of why can’t it be Christmas every day? Which is my question for you guys. Certainly if we lived like it was Christmas every day, I think we’d be a lot happier.

♪ Got a bone to pick with you ♪
♪ If you could only hear my plea ♪
♪ I want a weekend on a brand new bearskin rug ♪
♪ Under my tree ♪