“December Will Be Magic Again” was premiered (in its “bongo version”) as part of Christmas Snowtime Special, a BBC compilation of pop appearances from the likes of Abba and Boney M, on 22 December 1979.
Kate then performed it as part of her own BBC Christmas Special, on 28 December 1979, playing it on the piano. Finally it was released as a one-off single in November 1980.
The Bongo version remained unreleased until it appeared on the It's Christmas compilation in 1989.
It was mistakenly supplied by EMI to the person assembling the Christmas compilation. Lucky us.
Anyway, if there's a ”Best Christmas Songs” list, usually the original version of “December Will Be Magic Again” is in it.
One for all, Billboard in 2017 went back through the last half-century of holiday music to choose the one song that reigns supreme in each year.
The song chose for 1980 was ”December Will Be Magic Again”:
”Bush invokes Bing Crosby and Oscar Wilde but needs neither; unsurprisingly, she has no trouble conjuring sufficient end-of-year sorcery on her own with each vocal dribble down the "ma-ha-ha-ha-ha-ahhh-gic" chorus.
Many seasonal songs attempt to evoke flurries, but "December Will Be Magic Again" goes for the full white-out, convincingly suggesting that drowning in a snowstorm would be the purest way for one to celebrate Christmas.” (1st December 2017)