Summary
"Once Upon a December" is a song from the 1997 Fox Animation Studios film Anastasia. The song was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
The song and its lyrics are heard three times through the course of the story, twice as a lullaby, and once as a complete song with a bridge. The lullaby is heard first during the film's prologue (performed by Angela Lansbury as the Dowager Empress Marie, and Lacey Chabert as the young Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia) then as an a cappella version toward the end of the film when the Dowager Empress and the adult Anastasia are reunited (sung by Lansbury, and Liz Callaway as Anastasia). Callaway also sings the complete version (which does not include the lullaby lyrics) during the film's second act.
Piano Performance
Syntesia Video Tutorial
Lyrics
Dancing bears,
Painted wings,
Things I almost remember,
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December.
Someone holds me safe and warm.
Horses prance through a silver storm.
Figures dancing gracefully
Across my memory...
(Instrumental interlude)
Someone holds me safe and warm.
Horses prance through a silver storm.
Figures dancing gracefully
Across my memory...
Far away, long ago,
Glowing dim as an ember,
Things my heart
Used to know,
Things it yearns to remember...
And a song
Someone sings
Once upon a December
