equiliberation.com

As with most songs,"Christmas Calling" started with a musical idea. In this instance, Fred heard in his head a descending four-note melody (played on orchestra chimes) over a predominantly static chord progression followed by a slightly different descending four-note melody over a slightly more dynamic chord progression. After some minor revisions, this initial concept became the music for the verses of the song.

Since Fred began writing the music during the holiday season of 2013, and since the melody featured orchestra chimes (which Fred misidentified as tubular bells until a former middle school band director disabused him of his mistaken instrument identification), Fred decided the song should be a Christmas tune.

Uncertain about what approach he should take to writing lyrics for a Christmas song, Fred decided to ruminate on the way having children had changed his perception of the holiday. Upon identifying this focus, the words came easily, and Fred wrote the lyrics in a matter of hours.

Interestingly, the chorus words on the recording differ slightly from the original lyrics. On the recorded radio edit version, the lyrics in the two choruses are identical.