Hurrah! Hurrah for the Christmas Ship

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| name = Hurrah! Hurrah for the Christmas Ship

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| language = English

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| published = 1914

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| genre = Traditional/Family

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| composer = Henry S. Sawyer

| lyricist = Henry S. Sawyer

| producer = Chicago: McKinley Music Co.

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"Hurrah! Hurrah for the Christmas Ship" was a World War I era song that encouraged kids to donate money, food, and clothing for European children affected by the war.{{cite book|last1=Paas|first1=John R.|title=America Sings of War:American Sheet Music from World War I|date=2014|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG|location=Wiesbaden|page=15}} It was written and composed by Henry S. Sawyer and produced by McKinley Music Co. in 1914.{{cite book|last1=Parker|first1=Bernard S.|title=World War I Sheet Music|date=2007|publisher=McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers|location=Jefferson|pages=244–245}}

Soon after war broke out in Europe, the editor of the Chicago Herald, James Keeley, published an appeal to American children to donate gifts to Europe's soon to be war orphans. Two hundred newspapers across the country reprinted the appeal and together, the press coordinated a humanitarian aid campaign.{{cite journal |title=Common Welfare |journal=The Survey |date=November 21, 1914 |volume=33 |issue=8 |pages=186–187 |url=https://archive.org/details/surveycharityorg33survrich |accessdate=September 1, 2019}}

Collection efforts went on for months amassing upwards of 5,000,000 items of clothing, food, and gifts. Donations were sorted, repacked, and marked for Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Greece, and Russia. The Red Cross was in charge of distributing the goods.

US Army soldiers at Fort Hamilton loaded the cargo onto the US Navy's collier, the Jason, which it loaned to transport the goods. The Jason was known as both the Christmas Ship and the Santa Claus Ship.{{cite book |title=Annual Reports of the Navy Department for the Fiscal Year 1914: Report of the Secretary of the Navy |date=1915 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington |page=46 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101043274222&view=1up&seq=52 |accessdate=August 12, 2019}}{{cite book |last1=Klekowski |first1=Edward J. |last2=Klekowski |first2=Libby |title=Americans in Occupied Belgium, 1914-1918: Accounts of the War from Journalists, Tourists, Troops and Medical Staff |date=2014 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |pages=143–44}}