Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Mister Santa, I've Been Good   or  Winter Time is Lots of Fun.

Stream or Purchase Mister Santa, I've Been Good (It's Christmas Time CD) from many streaming sites including:

Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer.

The It's Christmas Time  CD (Donna & Andy performance and instrumental) tracks (20) are available for download or physical CD on this website.

Mister Santa, I've Been Good + Winter Time is Lots of Fun

I am writing these composer’s notes for Mister Santa, I’ve Been Good more than 20 years after the song was written so I cannot say for sure what made me think of the lyrics. I do remember that the song was a hit with my students from the first year I introduced it. I have included it in multiple school Christmas concerts over the years.

A few years after it was written and performed by my students, we decided to include this song on a Donna & Andy Christmas recording: “It’s Christmas Time.” When I was writing the arrangements, I knew I wanted a cheery banjo sound included in the accompaniment track. I love the sound of the banjo and it always makes me smile. When we got to the recording studio and ran through some sample tracks, the banjo part was every bit as delightful as I had imagined it would be. The original song was only two verses, but the banjo part was so much fun, we decided the song needed to be longer. We planned for two double verses with a bridge and a key change in the middle. The way the recording process works, the instrumental tracks are recorded first and then vocals are added to that. We had back-to-back recording days booked, so we recorded the instrumental track on one afternoon and then we were scheduled to return the next day to record the vocal tracks. With a time deadline looming, I needed to write my two new verses for the next day!

I worked very hard to keep the song lyrics focused on the singer’s behaviour rather than letting the song get into a “gimme, gimme” song. It really was about having exemplary behaviour for the whole year. As I recall, I was still writing verses on the drive to the studio the next day. Somewhere I have a hefty envelope with many pages of verse ideas that I worked on in the short 24 hours between recording the instrumental bed tracks and recording the vocals. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but necessity may also drive a composer to finish a set of lyrics in time to get them recorded (which I did!).

Fast forward to 20 years later…I was searching through a notebook of song ideas and found lyrics I had created for a rhythm echo song using the melody of Mister Santa. I was excited to think that this fun melody would have a longer shelf life than the short Christmas season. Then I decided I should have more than just Christmas lyrics so I created non-Christmas, winter words. Suddenly there are several options to facilitate use of this jaunty melody throughout the year.  You never know, one day there might be a summer version – that’s how a composer works sometimes!

When you have enjoyed singing this song with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Please send us your performance video - we might be able to post it on this page!

Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Penguin Parade

Here are 3 more penguin songs for fun singing in your home school, classroom, vocal studio or choir. 

• I Wonder
• Pondering Penguins
• The Penguin Ball

Purchase all Four Penguin Songs together and save 25%

Stream or Purchase from many streaming sites including:

Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer.

The Computer Cat  CD (Donna & Andy performance and instrumental) tracks (24) are available for download or physical CD on this website.

15 Cross-curricular activities are provided in the PDF download extending the focus of this song to other subject areas including:

• Fine arts: music, visual art, drama,
• Language arts
• Physical Activity
• Social studies
• Science
• Technology

Penguin Parade

I wrote four penguin songs for a teacher at my school who wanted to add some music to a penguin unit she was doing with her students. I didn’t have any songs to offer her but I agreed to write her some. She had a poem about penguins going on parade and she gave me a copy in case it would be useful for my writing. I wrote a little melody to go along with the poem and the students had fun learning it as part of their penguin unit. Later, I wanted to include Penguin Parade in a printed collection of my songs (Computer Cat). Finding it difficult to track down the authors of the poem, I decided it would be easier to write my own lyrics. I already had the melody I had created so I added my new lyrics and then it was easy to include the song in my collection with the other three penguin songs I had written. The penguin set includes a march, a waltz, a country line dance and jaunty “boom chick” style song. It was so much fun to write this collection of songs. Just like the penguins in The Penguin Ball, I was rather sad to come to the end of my penguin song-writing fun. For now, four penguin songs will have to be enough, but you never know, there just might be another penguin song in my future!

When you have enjoyed singing this song and doing the activities with your students - please drop by again and leave a Review on this page. Thanks!

Please send us your performing video - we might be able to post it on this page!