"Winter Wonderland" was composed in 1934 with music by Felix Bernard and lyrics by Richard B. Smith. Smith wrote the words while a patient at West Mountain Sanitarium in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was being treated for tuberculosis. Inspired by children playing in the snow outside his window and the winter scenery of nearby Honesdale's Central Park, he shared the poem with his friend Bernard in New York, who set it to music. Smith died the following year at age thirty-four. The song was first recorded on October 23, 1934, by Richard Himber and His Ritz-Carlton Orchestra with vocalist Joey Nash for RCA Victor. Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians quickly followed with a version that reached number two on the Billboard charts, providing welcome uplift during the Great Depression. The composition features a lilting melody with a foxtrot rhythmic character, evoking snowy scenes and playful romance without explicitly mentioning Christmas. A 1947 revision introduced child-friendly lyrics, replacing Parson Brown with a circus clown. The song has been recorded by over two hundred artists, including Perry Como, the Andrews Sisters, and Tony Bennett, becoming one of the most widely performed seasonal standards. On AllSolos, the tune is featured on Harry Connick Jr.'s 1989 soundtrack album When Harry Met Sally..., with a piano solo by Connick.
