#123 – Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

by Stacy Loves Buffett · Published December 25, 2025 · Updated December 25, 2025

#123 – Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

-by Stacy Garwood-

Happy Birthday Jimmy Buffett! I did not want to let this holiday season pass without wishing you a big, beautiful, happy heavenly birthday. And it only seems fitting to share a song from one of Jimmy’s two Christmas albums, and honestly, the song came easily to me. It’s become a Christmas classic with a subtle message of love, peace, and nostalgia. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is the perfect song to share for this occasion.

“So this is Christmas and what have you done, another year over, a new one just begun…”

Jimmy ended up recording two Christmas albums over the years, but Christmas Island feels very special to me, perhaps because it was the first, and I listened to it faithfully every year since its release. Christmas Island was released by JB in 1996 and has been a fixture of every holiday season since then. I have it on cassette, CD and vinyl, and I have gifted it to several people over the years, including a copy to left at my workplace. It added a nice island vibe to the more routine Christmas recordings.

Jimmy never released a single from this album, but it still managed to get decent radio play initially and did well over the years. It’s a pretty unique album, just as Jimmy Buffett was a very unique artist. A couple years ago, I featured A Sailor’s Christmas, for a couple reasons. I loved that it was an original song that Jimmy cowrote. This year, I am focusing on a cover of a song that has become a worldwide Christmas and holiday season standard.

Jimmy’s version rang true to the original arrangement, and honestly, why mess with a good thing? It was produced by Michael Utley and Russ Kunkel and recorded at Javelina Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. I can’t say for sure why Jimmy choice this song to cover, but it’s a splendid song, and there is no doubt that Jimmy was influenced by the Beatles and the British Invasion during his formative music years.

“And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun, the near and the dear ones, the old and the young…”

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is a song written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It was a song from early in his post-Beatles days, released initially in 1971 as part of John Lennon’s work with his wife Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band. John Lennon did a solo demo of this song in October of 1971, which has led people to speculate that Ono might not have had much input on the song’s lyrics or melody. Regardless, it was recorded by Lennon, Ono and the Plastic Ono band, with the children from the Harlem Community Choir in the studio for background vocals. The single was produced by Phil Spector and released on Apple Records.

It charted several times over the years, in 1971 after its initial release, in 1972, when it was finally released as a single in the United Kingdom and again in the holiday season wake of John Lennon’s tragic murder on the streets of New York City in December of 1980. It reached #2 on the UK singles chart, second only to John Lennon’s solo endeavor, Imagine, which is one of the most powerful songs he ever wrote.

“A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear…”

I mentioned the concepts of love, peace and nostalgia in the song, but it also carries a not-so-subtle slice of anti-war messaging. John Lennon, a man never afraid to speak his mind or use music to deliver a message, used this song as a musical protest of the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono made political activism and striving for peace a part of their daily lives. As a matter of fact, they had a billboard campaign that actively highlighted “War Is Over” with stark, black and white lettering, followed by “If you want it, Happy Christmas from John & Yoko”.

Not only is the sentiment strong in the lyrics…

“And so this is Christmas for weak and for strong, the rich and the poor ones, the road is so long…”

“And so happy Christmas for black and for white, for the yellow and red ones let’s stop all the fights…”

It’s repeated liberally in the chorus…

“War is over if you want it, war is over now…”

Honestly, I can’t imagine what it would be like to share your birthday with such a gigantic holiday, but it was all that Jimmy knew. In interviews over the years he mentioned that his mother made it very important that while it was only a holiday it was also her baby boy’s birthday, and that birthday deserved equal focus that the holiday received. There were no gifts for both occasions. Jimmy celebrated Christmas and his birthday with equal attention. I am sure having a Christmas birthday must alter your perspective quite a bit, often finding yourself overshadowed.

Jimmy Buffett wasn’t a person to live in the shadows that much. He was very successful, and in part, it was because he didn’t fear attention and knew how to groom the attention to suit himself. And he did it all while being careful. Perhaps, all of that was learned as a young boy with a big birthday. And maybe some of that was learned by observing John Lennon’s fate.

“A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear…”

“And so this is Christmas and what have we done, another year over, a new one just begun…”

In the last month, John Lennon has been again posthumously circulating in the press, this time marking the forty-fifth anniversary of his death. I commented on my personal social media that day, that his death “not only cut his life short, but altered the legacy of the music he left behind”. That he “was both a legend and a regular human, just like the rest of us”. That day, I chose to share several John Lennon songs, including Watching The Wheels, Ticket To Ride and Strawberry Fields, songs that included solo work as well as songs he wrote and performed as a Beatle. I expect people to have strong reactions or opinions when they think of or talk about John Lennon, although time has probably softened some of the edges. He was that kind of person. A strong person who elicited strong reactions. I will always wonder about the music he would have gifted to the world if his life hadn’t been cut so tragically short.

I wonder this about Jimmy Buffett too, although Jimmy’s career thankfully lasted longer than John Lennon’s. I still crave more, wish for more, and find myself diving even deeper into the music of Jimmy Buffett.

And so on this Christmas, a song that touches both Jimmy and John Lennon is an easy share.

Yet I would feel remise if I didn’t mention that Jimmy was touched by more than just John Lennon. The Beatles as a whole were dynamic because they were entirely dynamic personalities, with or without each other. At some point, Jimmy became great friends with Paul McCartney, who sang to Jimmy on his death bed, and who sang a vocal tribute to Jimmy at the Hollywood Bowl concert in memorial for Jimmy. That song for both occasions was Let It Be.

Jimmy and Paul, and their wives Jane and Nancy were close friends. It was even Nancy’s off-handed remark that sparked the idea for Jimmy to write My Gummy Just Kicked In on what would turn out to be Jimmy’s posthumous album Equal Strain On All Parts.

I don’t know if Jimmy knew, or even met Ringo Starr, or how well he knew George Harrison, but in Jimmy’s author’s note from A Salty Piece Of Land”, Jimmy wrote a heartfelt tribute, penned on the day of George Harrison’s death. I remember that day too. George Harrison was a special man, and I believe the world still feels his loss.

Another interesting tie to the Beatles and Jimmy is Key West. It is well documented that Jimmy came to Key West and it changed the trajectory of his music and his career, because he loved the vibe of the small shrimping town at the south end of the Keys.

But the Beatles also experienced Key West, not quite a decade before Jimmy Buffett came to town. And like much that the Beatles did, they came into Key West like a rocket, had a wild time in a short period, and left their stamp. So much so, that when The Islander Resort in Key West was torn down, the one cottage that remained was the place the Fab Four stayed. Ironically, it’s been turned into a snack shop called The Abbey Road Snack Shop at the Hyatt Key West Resort and Spa.

As we all know, Jimmy Buffett certainly left his own viable marks on Key West. One might even say that Jimmy Buffett changed Key West forever as much as Key West changed Jimmy Buffett forever.

“A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear…”

“And so this is Christmas and what have we done, another year over, a new one just begun…”

The Beatles changed the world. Not just the music world, but the world absolutely shifted because of the music and presence of four young men from Liverpool. John Lennon’s murder shifted not only how the world viewed him and his music, but made it violently apparent how celebrities can be very vulnerable, just by following their dreams. By following their hearts. By expressing their voice.

I don’t know if Jimmy Buffett changed the entire world, but he absolutely changed my world, and that is enough. Happy Birthday Jimmy Buffett, thank you for the music, the stories, the lifestyle you gifted to your fans. You are appreciated more than you will ever know.

“A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear…”

Stacy

Please enjoy Happy Xmas (War Is Over). I have included the link below. Enjoy!

1996 Studio Version: