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Ray Rast, Associate Professor of History, Gonzaga University

With 'White Christmas,' Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby helped make Christmas a holiday that all Americans could celebrate

After Irving Berlin, left, penned 'White Christmas,' he pegged Bing Crosby as the ideal singer for what would become a holiday classic. Irving Haberman/IH Images via Getty Images

Irving Berlin was a Jewish immigrant who loved America. As his 1938 song “God Bless America” suggests, he believed deeply in the nation’s potential for goodness, unity and global leadership.

In 1940, he wrote another quintessential American song, “White Christmas,” which the popular entertainer Bing Crosby eventually made famous.

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