When I was a little boy my mother used to sing this to me...... It was one of three songs I also sang to my daughter to put her to sleep when she stayed with me,...until she was too old and didn't want my lullabies anymore. ...Such is life.
roger water's dad died during war world II (in the anzio batlle) and vera lynn's songs were the soundtrack of the british soldiers... that's the reason to the tribute to vera lynn in the wall.... a part the melancholinc beautiness of her songs coming from a golden lost age
I remember hearing this in that movie the wall from 1982 when the hotel hallway was being vacuumed and Bob Geldof was siting in a chair in front of a tv in hotel room and the hotel custodian was knocking on Pink's door
My dad used to sing this to me when I was little, and it always made me cry (I think he saw it as a way to make sure I would be thoroughly grateful for everything I got at Christmas!). Just played it for the first time in 50 years....and it still makes me cry! Those childhood memories never leave.... :-)
I can see why Rogers chose to start off the Wall with this song.
"I'm so sorry for that laddie. He hasn't got a daddy."
Basically, its a tongue-in-cheek number about a young boy who is living in a broken home with just his mother and who doesn't get presents on Christmas because his family is poor. In other words, Pink's (i.e. Roger Waters) childhood. It's a song of childhood disillusionment, the first brick in what will become a giant wall that alienates him from other people.