It's just about time to haul out the holiday music. What do you love to listen to at Yuletide? Here are a few of my faves:

A Charlie Brown Christmas: Is there a baby boomer alive that doesn't love this music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio?

The Nutcracker Suite: I think most people are familiar with snippets of this music, but I know the whole damn score; I love it!

Mannheim Steamroller: They've put out lots of great albums, but my favorite is 'Renaissance Christmas'.

Medieval Babes: I like their Mistletoe and Wine album.

Brian Setzer Orchestra: Boogie Woogie Christmas just makes me feel good.

Harry Connick Jr: When My Heart Finds Christmas. I like his crooning.

I think I have an old recording of Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters doing Jingle Bells, and it's fabulous.

I love anything by Amy Grant. I have an Aaron Neville Christmas CD which I really like. I have the Harry Connick, Jr. CD, too, Mary, and it is good. I also like instrumental holiday music- harps, dulcimers, etc...

Many classical selections . . . especially 'I Musici', by Bach. I love those old, Firestone 'Christmas America' long playing albums. Filling stations used to give them away, wayyyyy back in the 60's. I have several.

Can I just tell you I hate holiday music?

[signed] The Grinch

The recording "Merry Christmas, Darling" by Karen & Richard Carpenter.


Yes, velvetsky, isn't it true about those Vince Guaraldi pieces? As a kid you always knew the season was here when they aired those shows on CBS. We were like Pavlov's dogs, weren't we? (-: My favorite Guaraldi is one that I think is called "Snowfall" ?

Have you POL'ers seen those recent TV commercials for that outfit called the Trans-Siberian Express? About 30 young musicians, some scraggly & longhaired, playing hard-rock, distorted guitar+synth versions of all the famous classically-derived Christmas themes. Sure, it's fairly contrived, but all those musicians truly can play their "axes" (as we used to say at Berklee... "one's chosen instrument") very well, and they've certainly got a unique sound...

I love Josh Groban's version of "O Holy Night" ... which is my favorite Christmas song. My second fave is "We Three Kings", and I heard a great version by Dolly Parton one time, of all people. I am a big fan of oldies done by Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby as well. Also, I tend to like Christmas songs when they're sung by people with really good voices, whether or not I usually like their music. Mariah Carey being one example.

LOL on those Firestone collections, Armanis!!


As a kid in the 60's, we had one of those. I remember it contained a piece by Julie Andrews, Mahalia Jackson (white America's perennial "serious" token in the 50's and 60's), Robert Goulet, Johnny Mathis, Burl Ives and the Norman Luboff Choir. [In retrospect, I'm sure many an older, hippie-fied kid of the 60's must've found that record to be impossibly lugubrious and cheezy...]

As soon as our tree was standing and decorated, on went that damned scratchy old album. Ha-ha. I loved watching the slowly changing glimmers of the tree lights on the ceiling, the fragrance of the displaced Douglas fir mingled, days later, with the eventual smell of cat-s***, as our cat imagined the outdoors had suddenly moved in, and she had to leave us her own Christmas gift. All while that album played on our old Sears Silvertone "entertainment center" console.... remember those? Big walnut furniture behemoths disguised to look like a highboy or something? Sometimes they looked more like a casket on a bier, LOL.

I like Schubert's Winterreise- The Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau/Jorg Demus version.
Louis Vuitton used this for their Christmas display last year.

There's a Pogues Christmas theme song called "Fairytale in New York" with Kirsty MacColl that is probably the most drunk sounding Christmas song out there.

My parents like the Carpenter's album. Also, the Meet Me in St. Louis soundtrack features Judy Garland singing "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" although I prefer "The Trolley Song."

My favorite religious one is "Ave Maria" sung by amateurs in a church.

The Ray Conniff Singers! About the fourth time their albums have played, I'm ready to go at somebody with the carving knife. My mother played the records to death, and lo and behold, they're on CD! Oh, goody!

The Messiah, full blast. And I sing along. Not just the Hallelujah Chorus - the whole thing. My neighbors love me at Christmas.

And I love The Christmas Waltz.

Dave! Those Trans-Siberian Express people must be stopped! My Inspector Gadget stepfather's got speakers all over the damn house, and he loves to put that on loud enough to rattle the dishes in the china hutch and talk about his incredible sound system. I've refused to visit anymore if he's going to play that stuff, citing it as being against the Geneva Convention.

Oh, and this song called I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas. That's my very favorite Christmas song. Anybody else know it?

Religious: I love traditional English Christmas carols (Coventry Carol, the Holly & the Ivy, etc.) I love listening to Bach and Anonymous 4 too.

Secular: My favorites are "A Charlie Brown Christmas", and I especially love a CD called "Croon & Swoon: A Classic Christmas" featuring the likes of Andy Williams, Tony Bennett, and Peggy Lee.

I pretty much like all Christmas Music, but I especially love Elvis. Blue Christmas is my favorite.

I love any almost any version of, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. My favorite is probably Judy Garland's.
Another beautiful one is Michael Crawford's, O Holy Night.

I agree ...

I also like

Merry Christmas - Jackie Gleason
If Everyday Was Like Christmas - Elvis Presley
and, of course, Charle Brown's Christmas


I"m going to print out this thread and do some searching at our library for some more holiday CDs!

Oh, Holy Night.

Clay Aikens Christmas album from last year
Elvis Presley - his double CD Christmas set (especially Blue Christmas)
Mannheim Steamroller

The Barking Dogs "Jingle Bells" - so, it's hokey but they still make me smile.

Merry Christmas - Jackie Gleason is only Xmas CD I truly like. I am so done with most Xmas songs. I prefer to hear the music with no words, please.

That's why I love Jackie Gleason's CD. It's just beautiful arrangements done in his trademark lush style. It's a beautiful CD of music, IMO.

Mando

found this while searching today


Classical Kids Christmas [sound recording] Imprint Pickering, Ont. : Classical Kids ; New York, NY : Distributed by Atlantic Corp., p2001
O come, little children -- O come, o come, Emmanuel -- Huron carol -- O come, all ye faithful -- This great day -- We three kings -- What shall we bring? -- O tannenbaum -- Christmas is l'cumin -- Christmas eve is here -- Joseph, dearest -- Silent night -- O holy night -- While shepherds watched their flocks --****** What is this perfume? -******- Angels we have heard on high -- Polish lullaby -- Go tell it on the mountain -- Away in a manger -- From the East the donkey came -- The friendly beasts -- Here we come awassailing -- D'où viens tu, bergerè




a Christmas and perfume title wow

Love A Charlie Brown Christmas of course!

David Lanz Christmas Eve- lovely introspective piano solos.

Christmas On the Bandstand- a fun one featuring Big Bands of way back when.

Thanks Chenas for mentioning my favourite Christmas song. I love the Poges and the dearly missed Kirsty McCall. The words to song always make me laugh.

Barry

My fave Xmas song - don't know the name of it, maybe one of you can help me!

It's a contemporary song, narrated more than it is sung, with a storyline about a single girl at Christmas. Very cute, has a very hipster Reality Bites feel to it. Any guesses anyone? I've only listened to it in passing when I catch it on the radio, so I can't quote you a line from the song.

Our local radio station on Long Island plays ONLY Christmas songs, 24 hours a day, all the way from Thanksgiving to Christmas. That's where my radio dial is locked for those 30 days. Pathetic, I know!!! :-)

OT - Sillage, I love your dove.

I am very off the wall with Christmas music.

Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
I Wanna A Hippotopmus For Christmas(sp)
I wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day By Wizarrd
Sleigh Ride by Procougheoff(yes I know nowhere near the right spelling!!)

Another Anonymous 4 fan--I knew there was a reason I iked you, Terry!

I love that Bing Crosby album where he's got the Santa hat on on the cover--it has all the real old faves on it, and some other odd ones, like Mele Kalikimaka. Love that album.

Three Suites, Duke Ellington (jazz variation on the Nutcracker Suite--FUN!)
Santa Baby, Eartha Kitt
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Judy Garland

Goodness me, it's only November! Have you people not heard of Advent?

One of my faves is Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas is You' - it's used really well in the movie Love, Actually.

In the Southern Hemisphere, snow-related songs can be irritating, but there's a fashion for using them 'ironically' in TV ads over footage of festive outdoor summer fun (eg the one that goes 'let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..').

BUT my total all-time personal fave is Snoopy's Christmas by the Royal Guardsmen, about peace breaking out in the middle of a WWI dogfight with the Red Baron. Truly a classic. I don't remember it as a new release, and I was born in '72 - might be a 60s number. It's from the UK.

Olivia Olsen who sings this on the Love Actually Soundtrack and in the movie is such an incredible little girl (I think shes 10 years old or something) Her voice is amazing! So powerful for someone so young!! And as much as I cant stand Mariah Carey, I do love this song. Its the only one of hers I'll listen to.

Some other Christmas Music I love:
Charlie Brown's Christmas
*Nysync Christmas album (I know its hokey but i do like it)
Glenn Miller Orchestra (A tribute album the remaining memebers of his band did in his honor since Glenn Miller never got to do a Christmas Album)
Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney Album
Handel's Messiah (I used to sing the Hallelujia Chorus in High School, the best memory I have is singing that at St. Patricks Cathedral in NYC at a Saturday Mass...1,700 people just stopped while exiting the church at the end of mass while we started singing that... they all just stopped and looked up at us in the Choir Loft..it was such an amazing feeling!!)
The Nutcracker Suite
White Cristmas (Bing Crosby)
Rocking Around the Christmas Tree (Brenda Lee)
Santa Baby (Ertha Kitt)
Hannakah Song 1 & 2 (Adam Sandler)
12 Days of Christmas (the really funny Canadian guys... "and a Beer..inna Tree")


We have a radio station here in Philadelphia that starts playing NON-STOP Holiday Jingles starting NOVEMBER 1st!!! its crazy, I cant listen to it until the day after thanksgiving though or I'll go nuts!!


Dawn

How could I have forgotten 'Christmas Time' by The Darkness? ('Feigning joy and surprise, at the gifts we despise . . .')

Hilarious!

Anything that doesn't feature Jose Feliciano...Gad what an annoying creature!
Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad, prospero año y felicidad!
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas....*shot heard in the distance*

My favourite holiday song are "The power of love" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood in the extended single versions.

I kinda like "Last Christmas" by Wham. Yeah I know it's cheezy, but I like it.

Also "Little Saint Nick" by the Beach Boys. And if you've never heard "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth", a duet by David Bowie and Bing Crosby, you're missing a great song; it's fab!

I love Shawn Colvin's CD, Holiday Songs and Lullabies, especially "In The Bleak Midwinter."

Les Fleurs, you and I can keep each other company in our patheticness! I, too, have my car radio, my stereo, and my alarm clock set to this station which plays Christmas music the weekend before Thanksgiving through Christmas. :)

1) A Charlie Brown Christmas by The Vince Guaraldi Trio
2) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by some modern group and Sarah MacLachlan (I like the jazzy vibe to it.)
3) Last Christmas by Wham!
4) Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt
5) anything by Bing, Judy, Frank, Dean

Nutcracker Suite. The Pogues singing "Fairytale of New York"....has to be one of my favorites. Also the Anon.Four.

John Fahey's old solo Christmas album (literally a vinyl record of the olden times). One side is traditional carols, the other is a medley of Christmas music woven into I Sing A Song of the Saints of Old.

And I like Anonymous 4, too.


Got a CD at Starbucks a few years ago that has a wide selection of 20th century American singers and musicians. Perfect for background while cooking dinner.

I grew up with all the old English and Welsh carols and I love them still, even the more obscure ones.

Of the modern secular tunes, I love Mel Torme's Christmas Song. Also, Let It Snow, It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, and Walking in a Winter Wonderland. I have old recordings of some of these, from the 40s.

you scumbag you maggot you cheap lousy faggot happy christmas your arse i pray god it's your last .what lyrics thats what christmas is all about the pogues and kirsty mccoll . p.s if you get a chance to see the david bowie and bing crosby video to little drummer boy check out bing's expressions is it me or does he look like he doesn't have a clue what day it is or who the hell is david bowie and why am i singing with him ????????????

LOL yeah, but the song is great!

I like "Run Run Rudolph". I like the Brian Setzer Orchestra Boogie Woogie Chrismas version. This was played at an office Christmas party and provided us with the spectacle, late in the evening, of our 40 year old boss (a nice guy, BTW) in his Armani suit, duckwalking across the floor like Chuck Berry, and doing a damn fine job of it!!!

Also love the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This band splits up at this time of year and works both coasts, always coming here to play in late December, but I've never even tried to go. It is guaranteed - guaranteed by God above - even if the weather has been in the 50's all of December, if I set foot outside the door with an expensive ticket in my hand, sleet, snow, ice, and probably locusts and frogs will be falling from the sky by 4 p.m. Highways will shut down, dozens of cars will spin out of control, and there will be a major blackout in the city, guaranteed.

I always thought "O Holy Night", sung by someone with a great and huge voice (like Michael Crawford ), is a truly grand thing to hear. Heard "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" at a pageant in a big cathedral once, with a huge choir, and a gal working an enormous pipe organ, nearly blew out the stained glass windows! Rock ON !

Anything from the Guaraldi Trio Charlie Brown Xmas album -- but esp. "Snowfall"

The Xmas Song Chrissie Hinds (Pretenders) did .... its running thru my head but I can't remember the name...

By the by, I saw there's been a 40 yr Anniversary tribute cd to the Charlie Brown Xmas album -- has anyone heard this cd..... and does it even remotely come near to the brilliance of the original?

I know I listed the Pogues earlier but I've just remembered another of my favourites.

Driving Home for Christmas by Chris Rea.

(1) Joy to the World, (2) Silent Night, (3) all the traditional English and European Christmas carols, (4) all the Christmas oratorios, (5) songs like Silver Bells, Winter Wonderland, and other modern classics like the Vince Guaraldi album--nothing cute or gimmicky. I put my foot down after I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.

How about "I Saw DADDY Kisssing Santa Clause" =:D. I believe theres a whole world of Christmas parody songs out there, like "Walking in Some Women's Underwear", I always planned to download them off Napster before it became a federal offense....Has anyone mentioned "Jingle Dogs"? David Letterman always used to show a clip of himself "at home on Christmas Eve" drinking a punchbowl of eggnog while "Jingle Bells" by dogs played in the background, always cracked me up!

OK, seriously, let me nominate the lovely, catchy, and joyful Bony M, "Mary's Boy Child", a combination of gospel and Caribbean, and it's so beautiful it moves me to tears. I heard this on the radio in a traffic jam 10 years ago, never forgot it, and tracked it down ever so slowly on the internet.

http://www.stinalisa.com/NutsAtChristmas.html

My favorite Christmas song -- this link plays it, and you have the words so you can sing along!

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" - is there anyone anywhere who hasn't LIVED it? ;)

Love Vince and Charlie, Vienna boys and the German repertoire; Mario Lanza and his version of O Holy Night, Mahalia Jackson; Pav in Montreal and Nat and the Christmas song!...prefer the live ballet to the dics but have to hear the Nutcracker every year and Chantaclear are essentials chez moi.