The Best Day of the Year — The Warmth in the Ice and Snow

October 7, 2019

If “Christmas Ain't the Same (Without You)” is the song for when Christmas is hard, this is the flip side, a song for hope and cheer. “The Best Day of the Year” is the song for the day itself — the celebration, the warmth, the one day that carries the whole season. Much like “This Christmas,” it's gaining a yearly following, and new radio stations are always adding it every season.

The lyric is the story. There's hustle in the shops, gifts are being bought, Jack Frost paints the town, choirs singing in the streets, tinsel on the trees, the snow falls all around. Then the inside of the day: candy canes hanging, dolls and small toy trains just waiting to be played, a little mistletoe, neon lights that glow, a Santa Claus parade.

And underneath all of it, the line the song keeps coming back to: I don't mind if it's cold outside — I still feel the warmth in the ice and snow. That's the whole idea. The cold is real, and so is the warmth. Christmas Day is the one day filled with hope and cheer, and the song just says so, plainly: it's the best day of the year.

There's another version of the song too: a Bill Champlin version. It appears as a 2021 bonus track — track 16, “from Bill Champlin's solo works” — on the Sony Music Japan LA Project release (SICX 30097).

The Best Day of the Year — lyrics

There's hustle in the shops
Gifts are being bought
As Jack Frost paints the town
Choirs singing in the streets
Tinsel on the trees
The snow falls all around

I don't mind if it's cold outside
I still feel the warmth in the ice and snow
I wish
You Merry Christmas
The one day, filled with hope and cheer
I wish
You a Merry Christmas
'Cause it's the best day
'Cause it's the best day of the year

We're hanging candy canes
Dolls and small toy trains
Just waiting to be played
A little mistletoe
Neon lights that glow
A Santa Claus parade

I don't mind if it's cold outside
I still feel the warmth in the ice and snow
I wish
You Merry Christmas
The one day filled, with hope and cheer
I wish
You a Merry Christmas
'Cause it's the best day
'Cause it's the best day of the year

'Cause it's the best day
'Cause it's the best day
I wish
You Merry Christmas
The one day filled, with hope and cheer
I wish
You a Merry Christmas
'Cause it's the best day
'Cause it's the best day of the year

— Franklin McKay, franklinmckay.com

Song credit: Written by Franklin McKay & Harry Hess (50/50 co-write). © 2019.

Franklin McKay · Harry Hess · under the hood