Songfacts®:

• Raised in the Baltimore area under the watchful eye of her Methodist minister father, Tori Amos grew up playing Christmas carols at Sunday services and Christmas Day celebrations in her father's church. These were the songs that gave a young Tori her first taste of music, and on Midwinter Graces, the singer-songwriter puts her own spin on some traditional classics.
• Christmas is not once mentioned on any of the 12 tracks of Midwinter Graces and Amos, who is openly opposed to the teachings of Christianity, told Musicradar.com she prefers to call it a "seasonal" or "solstice" album. She explained: "As you know, I don't like to dwell on the familiar. That just doesn't interest me - and I don't think my audience wants me to give them what they can get elsewhere."
• Amos was encouraged by the head of her label, Doug Morris, to pen this lush love ballad. She explained to Musicradar.com: "It is a love song. Doug really encouraged me to do this. He talked to me a lot about feelings he had when he would listen to the carols, and he said that sometimes they wouldn't bring him to a religious place; they'd bring him to a nostalgic place. We talked about this particular idea, and I went away thinking, My mother is going to lose her mind if I do anything to Silent Night!" [laughs]