Good News Tommy looks out a window at Santa Claus, his sleigh and reindeer on a snowy rooftop under a bright Christmas moon.

Benjamin Hanby: The Songwriter Behind the Classic Christmas Carol “Up on the Housetop”

December 27, 2022

Every Christmas, children sing about reindeer landing on a rooftop, Santa sliding down the chimney and that unforgettable “click, click, click.” But the story behind Up on the Housetop may be even more interesting than the song itself.

Benjamin Russell Hanby, songwriter of Up on the Housetop

Benjamin Russell Hanby (July 22, 1833–March 16, 1867)

Benjamin Russell Hanby wasn't simply the man who wrote a catchy Christmas song. He was a teacher, minister, abolitionist and composer who wrote more than 80 songs during a remarkably short life. And one of America's most enduring Christmas songs grew out of a difficult chapter in his own story.

Who Was Benjamin Hanby?

Benjamin Russell Hanby was born near Rushville, Ohio, on July 22, 1833. His father, William Hanby, was a minister, abolitionist and one of the founders of what became Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.

The Hanby family's involvement in the fight against slavery wasn't simply philosophical. According to the Westerville Historical Society, William Hanby opened his home as a station on the Underground Railroad. Benjamin also participated in the family's abolitionist efforts.

According to Ohio Memory, Benjamin would sometimes walk the streets of Westerville late at night to make sure it was safe to move people escaping slavery on to the next station.

Music was another major part of his life. As a teenager, Hanby used money from his paper route to buy a flute. He later attended Otterbein University and, despite having no formal musical training, pursued music with extraordinary determination.

Before Santa, There Was “Darling Nelly Gray”

Long before Up on the Housetop, Hanby became known for a very different song.

In 1856, he published Darling Nelly Gray, an anti-slavery ballad inspired by the story of Joseph Selby, an escaping enslaved man who had sought shelter with the Hanby family years earlier.

The song became enormously popular and established the young songwriter's reputation. Hanby would eventually compose more than 80 songs, including Darling Nelly Gray, Who Is He in Yonder Stall? and the Christmas song generations of children still sing today.

A Christmas Song Born During Difficult Times

In 1863, Hanby accepted a pastoral position in the small town of New Paris, Ohio. But his enthusiasm for using music—including the organ and flute—to reach younger members of the congregation created controversy.

Rather than allow the disagreement to split the church, Hanby left his position.

He suddenly found himself with a wife, two young children and few financial prospects.

So he turned to something he loved: teaching children music.

According to the Westerville Historical Society's history of Up on the Housetop, Hanby rented a small store on the outskirts of New Paris and opened a singing school for children and their parents.

Then Christmas approached.

Hanby didn't have enough money to purchase all the sheet music he needed for his students.

So he wrote his own.

One of those songs would still be sung more than 160 years later.

From “Santa Claus” to “Up on the Housetop”

The song we now know as Up on the Housetop was originally called Santa Claus.

It painted a wonderfully visual Christmas scene: Santa arriving with his reindeer, landing on the roof, traveling down the chimney and filling children's stockings with toys.

And then came the part generations of children would remember:

Click, click, click.

Hanby taught the song to his students. The Westerville Historical Society reports that a Quaker community in nearby Richmond, Indiana, later invited him to help entertain children in need at a Christmas event. There, the song was performed publicly.

Hanby's music eventually attracted the attention of the important Chicago music publisher Root & Cady, and Hanby moved his family to Chicago to work for the company.

In October 1866, the song appeared in print in The Dove, part of a series of children's songbooks Hanby worked on called Our Song Birds.

A Christmas Song Ahead of Its Time

Today, Santa landing his sleigh on a rooftop seems like an inseparable part of Christmas.

But Hanby's song helped popularize that image.

Otterbein University's Benjamin Hanby collection describes Up on the Housetop as one of America's earliest secular Christmas songs and notes its importance in establishing the familiar image of Santa and his sleigh landing on the roof.

That makes the song more than a Christmas favorite. It's also a small piece of the history of how Americans came to imagine Santa Claus.

Hanby's Remarkably Short Life

Sadly, Benjamin Hanby had very little time to see what would become of his music.

He died of tuberculosis on March 16, 1867.

He was only 33 years old.

Yet during those 33 years, Hanby had been a teacher, minister, abolitionist and prolific songwriter. He had written more than 80 songs and created several compositions that would survive long after his death.

The story of Up on the Housetop became even more remarkable after Hanby was gone.

For Years, People Didn't Know Who Wrote It

In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the building that housed Root & Cady and its enormous music catalog.

But Up on the Housetop survived.

Children continued singing it and passing it from one generation to another. Eventually, publishers began printing the song again—but its composer was sometimes listed simply as “anonymous.”

Benjamin Hanby's connection to his own song was nearly lost.

That changed in 1942, when historical research by Dacia Custer Shoemaker helped establish Hanby as the song's true composer. That same year, Ohio's governor proclaimed March 16 Benjamin R. Hanby Day.

A Christmas song written for children in a tiny Ohio town had survived its composer's early death, the destruction of his publisher's catalog and decades of uncertainty about who had written it.

And children were still singing it.

Sing “Up on the Housetop” With Storybooksong

That's one of the things we love about children's music at Storybooksong. A song written for children in 1864 can still bring a completely new generation together more than a century and a half later.

Storybooksong created our own kid-friendly version of Up on the Housetop, giving Hanby's Christmas classic a fun rockabilly-inspired arrangement and a colorful animated adventure with Santa Claus.

Watch Storybooksong's “Up on the Housetop” on YouTube.

The next time your family hears Up on the Housetop, there's a wonderful story to tell your children along with it.

The man behind the song wasn't just a Christmas songwriter. Benjamin Hanby was a teacher who loved sharing music with children, an abolitionist who stood against slavery and a young composer whose music continued long after his own life was cut short.

More than 160 years later, the song he wrote for children is still doing exactly what he intended—bringing people together through music.