Songfacts®:

• This is the title track of Christian singer-songwriter Matthew West's first Christmas album, which is a mixture of original songs and classic Christmas favorites. After his video for "One Last Christmas" became a hit on YouTube, a film producer contacted West. He wanted to make a movie inspired by the song's true story of 2-year-old Dax Locke, who when he was dying of leukemia was given a special last Christmas by his local community. The producer asked West to read the script and write a new song that would potentially serve as the title of the movie. The singer-songwriter explained to The Boot: "Instead of it being a specific story song like 'One Last Christmas,' it needed to be a song that captured the whole essence of the film and the other stories that were going to go along with the script. After reading the script and realizing that one of the main characters is this mom who has a couple kids, is working two jobs and trying to make time for everything, when she's really missing the heart of Christmas, that's how I came up with the song idea." The movie people liked it and decided to call the movie 'The Heart of Christmas' as well.
• West has a small part in The Heart Of Christmas playing a friendly neighbor who together with his wife comes up with the idea of putting up Christmas decorations round the local community in honor of the little boy.