Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Also, out of curiosity, what’s your favorite Christmas song? I like “Little Drummer Boy.”
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Meta
“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, of course.
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” are my favorite carols and, on a secular note, “Silver Bells” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” are nice too. And of course, when Bing Crosby finds his Christmas present from Rosemary Clooney and they open up the garage doors to see the snow falling and the whole cast starts singing “White Christmas”…well…sob…
O Come O Come Emmanuel
best line:
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave
It’s hard for me to decide, since I love Christmas music so much. I think I will tentatively name God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen as my favorite. (You might know it better as “tidings of comfort and joy”; not everyone realizes that isn’t the title.)
Impromptu versions of Twelve Days of Christmas are nice, too.
Baby It’s Cold Outside.
“Grandma Got Run Over by a Raindeer” which I like so much I recorded with me on lead for my chorus in prep school. “Christmas at Groundzero” by Weird Al is fun too.
I’m going to go with Won’t Be Home For Christmas by Blink 182
Fat Bottomed Girls – Qeen
Sympathy For The Devil by The Rolling Stones
Antidote for being subjected to non-stop carols while doing my shopping for the last month. Proving for all time, that shopping malls do not respect the Geneva conventions.
Merry Christmas to you too, Sir. “Ka-Ching” – and other sounds of commerce, by the Entrepreneurs. 🙂 ◄Dave►
I love renaissance Christmas music.
Gee, such scrooges! Agree with Stopped Clock, it’s almost all great, except for Shaker hymns with their awful sour harmonies. Off the top of my head, Winter Wonderland (if that’s actually it’s title) and, with Hume, Little Drummer Boy.
I am skeptical of the currently popular claim that Christianity has given us virutally every positive aspect of Western culture, but I will grant the apologists this: I cannot imagine life without the St. Matthew’s Passion–above all, the final bass aria “Mache dich, mein Herze, rein”–the B Minor Mass, Bach’s cantatas, and Mozart’s masses. One falls down on bended knee before such beauty.
That having been said, secular music gives sacred music serious competition–see Mozart’s da Ponte operas, no, make that every Mozart opera.
“Carol of the Bells”, “Holly and the Ivy”, just about any traditional choral work. Can’t stand Twelve Days.
In the pop music genre, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” done by John Mellencamp and The Kinks “Father Christmas”.
Big fan of “Greensleeves” (aka “What Child is This”). Something about the 3-3 timing and melodic resolution is just compelling.
“O Holy Night” is achingly beautiful, no matter which side of the spiritual/secular divide you stand. For purely secular songs, “We Need A Little Christmas” is toe-tappingly great.
Also, “Baby Please Come Home” by Darlene Love on Phil Spector’s album, the greatest Christmas album of all time.
Mine change from year to year. This year they are:
“I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”,
“Dominick the Donkey”
“Judea (A Virgin Unspotted)”
and “El Noi de la Mare”
Dunno the title of this one but it seems appropriate.
I’ve always wondered about Little Drummer Boy. Imagine Mary. She just got a fussy newborn to go to sleep and then this kid comes by banging on a drum. The scene is simply not going to end well.
Vince Guaraldi’s music for Charlie Brown’s Christmas is some solid holiday jazz!
Eric Cartman’s “Swiss Colony Beef Log”
I’ll vote for Little Drummer Boy and Hark, the Herald Angel sing. I used to sing the latter while driving a school bus (before I picked up my first student) at age 16, fifty years ago.
I vote for “Snoopy’s Christmas” — there’s nothing like a music group from Florida with a British-style name singing a Christmas song about a WW I-era dogfight between a real-life German aristocrat and a cartoon beagle.
I’m most partial to Steven Colbert’s “Another Christmas Song”. While we’re on the topic of Christmas entertainment I thought I’d pass this along.
Some years back during my first freshman year of college, I received an email on Christmas with Republicans and Democrats. None of the email stands out except for one little difference between the two.
A Republican’s favorite Christmas movie is “It’s a wonderful life”
A Democrat’s favorite Christmas movie is “Miracle on 34th St.”
A Right-Wing Republican’s favorite Christmas movie is “Die Hard”.
Hope everyone’s having a good holiday. We took my daughter to the Mall today and got some great shots of her and her grandmother in front of the US Capital and the Capital Christmas tree. It felt like it was maybe in the high 40s, very pleasant and not overly crowded. Her temper tantrum notwithstanding it was a good day.
Cheers,
RH
The Little Drummer Boy
This atheist’s favorite Christmas song as well.
God bless the internet!
“A Republican’s favorite Christmas movie is ‘It’s a wonderful life'”
Except for the Objectivists. They think Mr. Potter is the hero.
As an avid singer of Christmas carols (door-to-door or in public gatherings especially) I’m afraid I’m no fan of “Little Drummer Boy”. It’s not well suited for group singing (even if the strong beat does let you get some clapping-or-tapping audience participation going). There’s no way to belt it out, and the whole effect seems more stagey than convivial.
That said, I do like many of the entries from the Hollywood studio era (“White Christmas”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, “Let It Snow”) as well as most of the earlier repertoire. If I had to pick only one, I suppose it would be “Joy to the World”.