Christmas carols: fave & least fave

I agree with you on "Little Drummer Boy" although as I get older, it's growing on me. Perhaps there is an age factor involved. Also totally agree on "Adeste Fidelis" (either language!) and "Oh Holy Night."
Other all time favorites: "Blue Christmas" (Elvis), "All I Want for Christmas is You" (Vince Vance or Mariah Carey--same title, two totally different songs), "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "For Unto Us a Child is Born" from Handel's Messiah.

My favorite Christmas song is "The Twelve Days of Christmas" done by the Muppets. Only that version will do (Beaker... Miss Piggy... it's too delightful for words). My least favorite is "The Little Drummer Boy." As to which person or group should cut a holiday tune disk? No one/None. There's more than enough out there.

Little Drummer Boy is also probably my very least favorite of the traditional holiday carols. A guaranteed "skip" on the CD or playlist. And for holiday pop songs, I really can't stand "Last Christmas" by WHAM. It's a plenty annoying song on its own, but it was on the store Christmas tape the year I worked at the Gap, so it is forever cemented as one that really drives me batty. Mariah Carey makes me bonkers, too.

I do love Christmas music in general, though (also being a convert to Judaism, I can't shake my love for the festivities of the season!). My favorite traditional holiday song is a well-done Carol of the Bells. And, honestly, I still love my "Christmas at St. Olaf" CD (I spent my freshman year of college there, and there's something truly magical about Christmas Fest up in Northfield, MN).

I was tickled when Barenaked Ladies came out with a holiday album a few years ago, and it's on heavy rotation. A funny Hannukah-themed one is "Hannukah Rocks" by the LeeVees (including at least one member of local favorite Guster). "Applesauce vs. Sour Cream" and "At the Timeshare" are particularly fun.

I do love most Christmas music...not going to lie. The music gives me an escape from the end of the semester stress and blues that plague students far and wide. I'd have to say my guilty pleasure is Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing Little Drummer Boy. My absolute favorite traditional song is O Holy Night, however my absolute favorite song by an artist is Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan's Gody Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings. My favorite Christmas album is either the soundtrack to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "Barenaked for the Holidays" by Barenaked Ladies.
Have to say least favorite is Last Christmas by Wham but there was a remake of the song that I do like.

O Holy Night in any incarnation is all I need!

Robin says: I think they're all about the incarnation!

Fave: "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses

Anything Josh Groban; most expecially O Holy Night, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.

Worst song ever....Christmas Shoes......

My all time favorite Christmas CD is Jethro Tull's Christmas Album. Mostly originals, a few classics, but all good. It really gets me in the Christmas spirit. My favorite Christmas song from my childhood is, "The Kitty Ate the Tinsel on the Christmas Tree," which was on an old record my parents had ("How the Grinch Stole Christmas & other Christmas Songs" which you can now buy on CD from Amazon).

"Father Christmas give us some money, We'll beat yo up if you get us annoyed"

Call me a scrooge, but other than Christmas In Sarajevo by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, they all get really old really fast. I think that part of the problem is that most of the time, it's the same 20-25 songs that get played redudantly on a daily basis. Imagine if your in an office and you hear Christmas carols all day, then go to the mall and hear more Christmas carols all day. Add to that, but if you take a song like " Jingle Bells ", how many different arrangements can one person hear of the same song ?? It could be Bing Crosby, or Ozzy doing it, if you've heard it once, you've heard it a billion times

Oh the Christmas Carols. My name is Noel because my Mom is Christmas CRAZY. The carols would come on at 8am every Saturday in December and last all day. Full volume.
SO, being named Noel, my least favorite Christmas carol is the one I'm named after. It's a beautiful song, but I've heard it ad naseum from every person I meet who thinks it's funny to sing the song to me. I also dislike "Here Comes Santa Claus", "Silent Night" and "Run run Rudolph"
I love "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues, "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey, "Santa Baby" bv Ertha Kitt, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Judy Garland, and very many off the Very Special Christmas albums, lost of modern takes on old favorites.

And who doesn't love the heat-meister and cold-meister?? They are the best!

"Little Drummer Boy" happens to be my second favorite, after "Oh Holy Night) (for the same reasons as the author's). I like the Little Drummer Boy because reminds us that Christmas is not about materialism and that true gifts come from the heart.

hate hate hate "simply having a wonderful christmas time." oh, great. now it's stuck in my head!!

I'm not sure about my least fave, but I adore anything from the soundtrack of the Charlie Brown Christmas special. The Vince Guaraldi Trio is amazing.

I wish I could see Sunday's column. When I try to get to the magazine, I can only access last week's. Anyone else having this problem?

Pretty Paper by Roy Orbison and Blue Christmas by Elvis top my list as well
as Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano. I also have to mention Gounod's Ave Maria
by Barbra Streisand and O Holy Night by Josh Groban.

My fave: the "Ukrainian Bell Carol" particularly by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
I bought two international Christmas CDs as a flavor to the season.

Nobody here for Vince Guaraldi's wonderful jazz accompaniment to the Peanuts classic?

There's a lot of great Christmas music, but at the moment I'm feeling partial to "In the Bleak Midwinter," which manages a doleful beauty without belaboring the point through heavy handed use of a minor key. And, you can't help but enjoy a Christmas song that seamlessly incorporates a reference to the apocalypse.

I'd like to see the Indigo Girls release a holiday album, but I'm a sucker for upbeat, folksy Christmas arrangements, like the Bare Naked Ladies album from a few years back. That said, despite its lugubrious tone, I still listen to that old Shawn Colvin album every year (which includes In The Bleak Midwinter)!

Anonyme, that's my favorite! The whole CD is my soundtrack for the season.

Also, I'm embarrassed to admit I now see the link to Sunday's column in the blog. Thank you, Miss Conduct! I don't know why I couldn't get there the usual way, but this is all I needed. Thanks.

Happy Holidays!

I absolutely adore "O Holy Night". You captured it exactly about the whole anticipation of the meeting with the divine that the song captures perfectly. I love the Barenaked Ladies/Sarah MacLachlan collaboration of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman/We Three Kings". For nostalgic reasons, "Christmas Time Is Here" by Vince Guaraldi as well as Thurl Ravenscroft doing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". I'm not big on "Little Drummer Boy" on its own, but I love hearing Bing Crosby/David Bowie doing the the "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy". Other less conventional faves: Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses, Fairytale of New York by The Pogues, and River by Joni Mitchell.

There are many wonderful Christmas songs, I am partial to "Lord of the Dance" from The Christmas Revels, "O Holy Night", and a few others. More modern favorites are U2's version of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and "Do They Know it's Christmas" by Band-Aid. Least favorites? Probably most anything played before Thanksgiving (I heard Christmas music on November 5!!!). Many Christmas songs are okay once, I but by the 25th time, I am done. I am loving the Straight No Chaser's "12 Days of Christmas" too. Who shouldn't record a Christmas album--REM, much as I like them, Kevin Federline shouldn't record at all.
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As for who should or

"Gabriel's Message" by Sting. He remade an old Basque folk carol into a lovely and haunting song that was on the "A Very Special Christmas" album. The video is on YouTube with the name 'U-MV 160 - Sting - Gabriel's Message'.

Another favorite of mine is "I Believe in Santa Claus" from the classic claymation special 'The Year Without a Santa Claus'. It's performed by Mickey Rooney and Ron Marshall. The video is on YouTube as well.

I love Elliott Yamin's "Let's Be Naughty", and Josh Groban's "O Holy Night" and "Ave Maria". I love Straight No Chaser " Twelve Days of Christmas". Vince Vance and the Valiants " All I Want for Christmas is You". Kelly Clarkson " My Grownup Christmas List". And Vince Gill, "Let There Be Peace on Earth".
I HATE "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer". And I'm sorry, but I am sick to death at this point of Bing Crosby and Burl Ives.

I like "I Want a Hippopotomus For Chirstmas"

Ok, I love the dogs barking Jingle Bells and you don't hear it very often. O Holy Night has wonderful childhood memories. I love Christmas Jazz- Dave Koz is wonderful.

It's Heat Miser and Snow Miser...not "Cold Miser".

Favorites? Elvis "Blue Christmas" and "Merry Christmas, Baby", Darlene Love "Baby, Please Come Home, all of the Vince Guaraldi Trio 's Charlie Brown music. and the Asylum St. Spankers version of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." I swear it sounds like Bill Murray is singing it with a cocktail in his hand. Not a Christmas song, but certainly a holiday choice - "What are you doing New Year's Eve" by Ella Fitzgerald. Least favorites? Christmas Shoes, Gramma got run over by a Reindeer. Mariah Carey simply makes me want to shoot the radio.

Dominic the Christmas Donkey makes me want to put a fist through the radio, and I'm not by nature a violent person. The "hee-HAW hee-HAW hee-HAW" is excruciating.

My favorites are, strangely enough, off Barbara Streisand's Christmas album: I Wonder As I Wander, also a favorite hymn of mine from way back, and Jingle Bells are particularly good. I also third or fourth Elvis' Blue Christmas, which is haunting in a way.

I'm another big "O Holy Night" fan. It gives me goosebumps. "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" are other favorites.

For non-religious reasons, I like hymns more than secular tunes. I guess they are less overplayed? "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" make me twitch.

I like mostly traditional Christmas carols, the kind you get sung in 8 part harmony by a boy's choir. :) I really love O Holy Night, O Come O Come Emmanuel, Adestes Fideles, Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen, Stille Nacht, Do You Hear What I Hear?, that sort of thing.

In general, I really dislike anything that gets played in a mall. I can deal with each song about once (if that) and then I'm done with it.

Oh boy do I HATE "Grandma got run over by a reindeer." Who the heck came up with that. I also hate being subjected to Christmas music in early November. I really can't get on board with it until after Thanksgiving - then I'm all for it. My favorite album right now is Natalie Cole's - it's jazzy and upbeat and she puts a nice spin on all the songs. I also love Mariah Carey's Christmas album and the Barenaked Ladies.

Also Robin - you HAVE to hear the Three Tenors do "Oh Holy NIght." You will not get rid of the chills for days!

Best Christmas songs--"Do You Hear What I Hear" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" sung by Judy Garland.

Worst--"The Little Drummer Boy" and "Deck the Halls"

As a Jewish person who grew up in a very Christian town, I know every Christmas carol by heart. Let's see.... I am really over Silent Night and Chestnuts Roasting...

Hands down my favorite by Robert Earl Keen: 'Merry Christmas From The Family'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P37xPiRz1sg

...Carve the turkey, turn the ball game on, mix margaritas when the egg nog's gone, Send somebody to the Quik Pak store, We need some ice and an extension
cord, A can of bean dip and some Diet Rites, A box of tampons, some Marlboro Lites, Hallelujah, Everybody say 'cheese, Merry Christmas from the family!!!

I love Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole at Christmastime. I also love "Gabriel's Message", "Do They Know it's Christmas," "Pat-a-Pan," "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" and "Noel Nouvelet", a traditional french carol.

I HATE "Feliz Navidad" (which I heard 3 times in 90 minutes last year), "A Very Special Christmas" (the song, not the albums), "Santa Baby," (especially the version by a male country-western singer), the dogs that bark "Jingle Bells," hip-hop versions of carols, and Mannheim Steamroller.

I also hate it when stores start playing Christmas carols too early. Last year, the Starbucks near my job rolled out the Christmas stuff November 1. This year, they waited until Veteran's Day.

My mother has a talent for finding horrible Christmas albums. Last year, she bought a panflute album (remember Zamfir?) Another year, she found a bunch of very long piano carols. In one song, the pianist messed up and started all over again. Another year, she found a bad bell choir from Quebec. Their "Carol of the Bells" was downright depressing. I wonder what she will find this year.

Ooh favorites! I love "Angels We Have Heard on High" (as far as religious tunes) and "White Christmas" (but ONLY the version from Home Alone). Currently I'm in France and I do not like any of these strange commercial Christmas "carols" that play in the stores. Back in the states I don't like "Drummer Boy" either (my dad's fave) or "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" (My mom threatens to put fake hoof marks on her back one christmas in the distant future when I have children). I As for covers... hmm... no idea. Maybe Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel could team up for something?

Your statement "The Year Without a Santa Claus turned out to be the Year the White Kids Got Rhythm at James Fenimore Cooper Elementary School in Tulsa, Oklahoma." made me laugh SO MUCH!!!!

I can find most XMas songs enjoyable, provided I only hear them once or twice. It's the repetition that destroys them for me.

Faves (depending on the incarnation unless artist is stated)

"Adeste Fidelis"
"O Holy Night"
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - Judy Garland
"Coventry Carol"
"Merry Christmas, Baby" - Etta James

"Christians and Pagans" - Dar Williams (enjoy the originality)

I prefer my holiday songs a capella, or with very little accompaniment.
"Little Drummer Boy" - bizarre fascination with this ever since I was a child and watched the Bowie/Bing duet. I remember even then thinking, "There's something wrong here..."

I have a fondness for the Miser Brothers and their song not only because of their amazing stage presence but for the sheer volume of Mother issues they brought to the program. I have HM and SM Christmas ornaments, and I'm not afraid to hang them.

And please always remember that while Tom Waits has not yet given us "White Christmas", he has brought us "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis".

One of my favorite carols is "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel," but that's because I enjoyed singing it when was in the Emmanuel College chapel choir.

The card my former college just sent me made me tear up when I heard the song.

http://www.emmanuel.edu/online/holiday_card/Christmas_Card.html

I try pretty hard to avoid places where music of any kind, especially holiday music, is playing continuously as a background.
I'd be glad to go a few years without hearing Here Comes Santa Claus, Jingle Bells, Do you hear what I hear, O Holy Night, and the Little Drummer Boy.
I like the Charlie Brown soundtrack; the Roches' Christmas album is wonderful, but the absolute desert island choice is the 1962 King's College David Willcocks recording. It's got O Little Town of Bethlehem, Personent Hodie, the Lutebook Lullaby, AND the Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols. Yum, yum.
On the secular side, I'm partial to White Christmas, but only with the intro--did you know it starts in Beverly Hills?

The favorite by far in my house is "Soul Christmas" by Graham Parker. My husband has been collecting Christmas music for a while (which used to be more challenging, pre-iTunes), so we've got some oddball stuff. The Blind Boys of Alabama Christmas album is fantastic, too. I have to admit, this years favorite for me is the Straight No Chaser version of "12 Days of Christmas." It is getting a bit too much airplay now, and my daughter insists on hearing it on CD every time we get in the car, but I'm still liking it!
The one I can't stand - "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause."

My favorite Christmas album is "Too Many Santas" by the Bobs. Also like the Barenaked Ladies album.

We have similar taste, Miss Conduct!
My absolute favorite is O Holy Night, even though I am not remotely religious. It's just a beautiful song.
I have also loved Adeste Fidelis since we sang it in choir in high school. I only remember the very beginning in Latin, though.
As I get older, I realize that my singing is going to embarrass my kids as much as my mother's embarrassed me growing up. She does have a pretty nice voice, but you don't appreciate that as a kid!

Some you did not mention that also my favorites:

Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You
Stevie Wonder's Someday at Christmas - Someday at Christmas/men won't be boys/Playing with guns/like kids play with toys

I'm partial to my old John Denver Christmas album. Last year I bought Jingle Spells for my kids - a collection of Harry Potter themed Wizard Rock original holiday tunes. It has one song on it called "Happy Christmas Day" by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls which is just great. It has a catchy chorus that goes "Happy Christmas Day, let's celebrate the wizarding way" and its about Harry wanting to take a day to relax and enjoy himself despite the monumental task ahead of him and how thankful he is for his friends. I know this year's Jingle Spells is on Itunes - maybe last year's is as well and you can check out the song.

Easy...."What Child Is This'. Makes me cry (happily) everytime I hear it. All stanzas please! And I'm not particularly religious.

Silver Bells tends to drive me nuts for some reason.

The Instrument Song and for New Years, I LOVE Auld Lang Syne. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

No one has mentioned the Christmas Shoes song! That is the worst ever. Maybe not a classic carol, but definitely on mall muzak rotation.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy did a version of the Heat Miser/Snow Miser song that is tremendous. It's been stuck in my head for two weeks! (So maybe it won't be so much fun by the time Christmas is over...)

"Same Auld Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg, the one that starts with "Met my old lover in the grocery store..." always makes me hit the dial on my radio. What makes it worse is that it's ALWAYS ON

I knew we were sisters under the skin.

I am a Jewish atheist, yet I rather like the actual religious Christmas carols (esp. "O Holy Night"). What I hate with a blinding passion are the secular Christmas carols (esp. "Sleigh Ride," gaaaaah, the earworm is slithering in already). "Frosty," "Rudolph," "Little Drummer Boy," "Santa baby," even "Winter Wonderland," I HATE THEM TO DISTRACTION. It's like sandpapering my eardrums.

I guess I don't hate all secular Christmas songs, just (as someone said above) those that are regularly played in a mall. I like "Christmas in the Trenches." And a lot of Sufjan Stevens's Christmas set.

And I am really loving the idea of a Tom Waits Christmas album.

LEAST FAVORITE: LIttle Drummer Boy, O Holy Night (when it's warbled), White Christmas (song fatigue), The First Noel

FAVORITES:
"Shiloh", a shape-note song by William Billings. A carol with these lines is not to be missed: "Exult ye oxen: low for joy, ye tenants of the stall;/ Pay your obeisance: on your knees unanimously fall"
Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols"
The Twelve Days of Christmas
The Wexford Carol
A Huron Carol

Albums: Any album by Nowell Sing We Clear (4 NY & VT singers)

3. I'll go with a previous commenter's suggestion for Tom Waits.

Really nice post that made me sentimental!

One writer already mentioned it above, but I love Sufjan Stevens' Christmas album. 5 CD's of really nice (some original!) music. Particularly, "Put the Lights on the Tree."

Neither of my parents were big fans of most of the pop-culture songs so I was literally in my twenties before I started listening to a lot of the songs you mentioned, as well as stuff like "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" or "Here comes Santa Claus." Literally, the only secular christmas-y songs I knew growing up were Jingle Bells, Rudolph, and a couple of songs from the John Denver and the Muppets christmas album. I still feel like the "real" version of that Beach Boy's song "Little Saint Nick" is actually performed by Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. We never watched any of the TV specials other than Rudolph, either, so I still don't really know the Frosty the Snowman song that well.

What we did listen to was Odetta, Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio, and other recordings of mostly religious songs performed by famous musicians, as well as lots of albums by the Boston Camerata, and lots of Christmas Revels soundtracks. Not to mention Handel's Messiah and Bach's Christmas Oratorio. The funny thing is, while my parents were and are religious, they aren't RELIGIOUS. It's just that for some reason they were never into the secular, pop-culture music, so I just wasn't exposed to it except as muzak in stores.

Interestingly, one song we DIDN'T hear was O Holy Night, because my mom hated it. I think it was just really, really popular when she was growing up, and she got sick of it. Her favorite carol/hymn is O Little Town of Bethlehem. The irony is, once I finally heard it I really came to like O Holy Night, but I strongly dislike the the usual version of O Little Town of Bethleham, as well as Away in a Manger, because to me those two songs seem really, really over done, and they tend to be soooo schmaltzy. I like those hymns when sung to the Anglican tunes, though, such as I've heard on recordings of the King's College Chapel Choir from England.

My favorite secular christmas song now-a-days is Stevie Wonder's Someday At Christmas. It really has such a pertinent message about hoping for peace on earth, which still holds true. I have too many favorite religious carols/songs to mention, but I have a soft spot for songs that betray the pre-christian roots of some of Europe's holiday traditions, such as Down in Yon Forest and the Boar's Head Carol.

The interesting thing about Christmas music is that it can bring back a memory like no other genre of music. Maybe it's because we listen to it once a year for a few weeks and then put it away. This year, I had one of those "memory" moments the first time I heard "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band-Aid. For a fleeting few seconds, I was back at that 9th grade high school dance. It was surreal. The weird thing, is that it's all over after that first listen.

I hate anything by the Carpenters. I just can't stand them. Ugh! My mom was something of a flower-child so there were no Carpenters crooning in our household.

Last year, on Chrstmas Eve Day, I remember pulling into the parking lot at work, listening to Same Old Auld Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg - and I just broke into tears. I don't know if it was because I was going into my 20th high school reunion year or what?
This year, I'm having a blast listening to 12 Days of Christmas by Straight No Chaser. And my kids love Santa Baby by Miss Piggy. I love introducing them to cool stuff that was not invented by Pixar!