This song, co-written with Dan Dean and Don Koch in 1996 and recorded by Donny Osmond and Craig Morgan as well as the group it was originally written for, Phillips, Craig & Dean. I don’t remember a lot about the actual writing of this song as much as the fact that it came so quickly. Because I grew up in Michigan, any time I get to be a part of a Christmas song, my mind immediately reverts to white Christmases I experienced as a kid. I have been blessed with a lifetime’s worth of visuals. One of the verses in this song says.

When the family’s together swapping stories of old
Don’t they seem to get better the more that they’re told
And like all of the others I fight to resist
Aunt Molly’s yearly holiday kiss.. I remember discussing the last line in that verse and we all agreed the name should be changed to protect the guilty.

The Phillips Craig and Dean cut of the song was incredible and still holds up well all these years later. Beyond that, this song wound up in some interesting places. When they told me that Donny Osmond was going to record it for his new Christmas project, I admit I was a little skeptical. After all, nobody gets a Donny Osmond cut. I may or may not have asked if there were a chance I would get to meet Marie…

The song was also recorded by country music star Craig Morgan in 2002 as a promotional download to help raise donations for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

​

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-kid-in-me/716371733?i=716372456