"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas song released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/The Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir.

[3] "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" was the culmination of more than two years of peace activism undertaken by John Lennon and Yoko Ono that began with the bed-ins they convened in March and May 1969, the first of which took place during their honeymoon.

[8][10][12] Recognising the accessibility and popular appeal that made his 1971 single "Imagine" more commercially successful than his other post-Beatles songs, Lennon concluded, "Now I understand what you have to do: Put your political message across with a little honey.

"[13] He conceived "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" as a means of elaborating upon the themes of social unity and peaceful change enacted through personal accountability and empowerment that served as the basis of the earlier billboard campaign,[14][15][16] trying to convey optimism while avoiding the sentimentality that he felt often characterised Christmas songs.

In late October 1971, with not much more than bare-bones melody and half-formed lyrics, Lennon recorded an acoustic guitar demo of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" in his rooms at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, where he and Ono were living.

Ono would receive co-writing credit, but the actual extent of her contribution at this initial stage is unclear since she did not participate in the demo, which was atypical of their collaborations.

Lennon brought in Phil Spector to help produce, as he had with his previous two albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, which had been released in the US several weeks earlier.

The Harlem Community Choir – 30 children, most of them four to twelve years of age – came to the studio on the afternoon of 31 October to record backing vocals for the counter-melody and sing-along chorus.

[17][19] In addition to these reappropriated elements, the chords and melodic structure of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" are similar to the traditional English ballad "Skewball", but with a different rhythmic meter, subsequent modulations and a wholly new and different chorus countermelody.

Issued in 7" single format on transparent green vinyl with a card-stock picture sleeve, the pressing bore two label variations, one of which displayed a sequence of five images that showed Lennon's face transforming into Ono's.

This sequence was originally featured on the reverse cover of the exhibition catalogue for Ono's career retrospective This Is Not Here, presented in October 1971 at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York.

"Happy Xmas" was coupled there with part of a live version of "Give Peace a Chance", performed as the finale of Lennon and Ono's One to One benefit concert on 30 August 1972.

[28] Over the years, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" has been reissued in a number of single formats by Capitol, Geffen and Parlophone, sometimes in conjunction with the release of albums collecting Lennon's work.

billboard campaign and candid photographs of the couple and their son Sean from the late 1970s, interspersed with a boys' choral ensemble singing along with the original Harlem Community Choir vocals.

[26][38] Between December 1972 and February 1973, the song entered the top ten in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Singapore.

[citation needed] During John Lennon's 75th Birthday Concert, Sheryl Crow, Aloe Blacc, and Peter Frampton performed the song with a children's chorus from The Stuttering Association for the Youth.

[52] In November 2019, John Legend released a new version of the song, including string arrangements by Matt Jones which featured an improvised solo by violinist Scott Tixier.