Best Christmas Season Songs and Artists

[huskeroadgeek]

Wizards in Winter is cool, especially the beer commercial  using a house lit up with the music of the song changing the lights.

That was a viral internet video before it was a commercial. Someone in the Cincinnati suburbs who's a bit of a programmer set it up for Christmas of '05. The lights blinked in time and the music was broadcast over a small radio transmitter that cars on the street could tune into as they passed.

Someone in Celebration, FL did the same thing.  He has his housed wired  with thousands of lights, he has a small range FM station you tune your car radio in to and can listen to it.  He features a rare posthumous version of The Christmas Song with daughter Natalie Cole singing a duet with her late dad, Do You Here What I Hear, and Wizards of Winter to set the house lights off.

These setups are quite popular now. There are probably at least 10 of them just in Lincoln, NE where I live, and more added every year.

[1995hoo]

sounds like a fun show!  any improvisation in the songs themselves, or just the setlist?

If that question was for me, it was a great show and I wish I could have been there live. Of course, I was also seven years old at the time.

Look for the "Nassau Night" bootleg if you want to hear it. Excellent recording.

Wizards in Winter is cool, especially the beer commercial  using a house lit up with the music of the song changing the lights.

That was a viral internet video before it was a commercial. Someone in the Cincinnati suburbs who's a bit of a programmer set it up for Christmas of '05. The lights blinked in time and the music was broadcast over a small radio transmitter that cars on the street could tune into as they passed.

Someone in Celebration, FL did the same thing.  He has his housed wired  with thousands of lights, he has a small range FM station you tune your car radio in to and can listen to it.  He features a rare posthumous version of The Christmas Song with daughter Natalie Cole singing a duet with her late dad, Do You Here What I Hear, and Wizards of Winter to set the house lights off.

These setups are quite popular now. There are probably at least 10 of them just in Lincoln, NE where I live, and more added every year.

There's a house in Northern Virginia (1601 Collingwood Road) where the fellow has done that for years, but what made it really elaborate is that he had around 270,000 lights strung up around his house and the whole yard (and he has a very big lot) but with none of those tacky blow-up figures or anything like that.

Sadly, this year he decided he couldn't put it up because he couldn't take the entire month of November off work like he usually does to put up the display(!).

[DaBigE]

Least favorite hymns:  O Little Town of Bethlehem (St Louis setting)

Yay, I'm not the only one! I prefer the Forest Green tune setting much better for that hymn. Our hymnal has both, but I don't think they've ever played anything but the version with the St. Louis setting.

For any other pipe organ enthusiasts, I highly recommend the series entitled The Christmas Organ by Kenneth Abbott (still available on Amazon.com). It originated as a 4 volume release, however, Amazon seems to only have 2-4 now. All tracks are solo organ...no accompaniment.

Least favorite secular:  Last Christmas, I gave you my Heart; anything involving "singing" animals
Least favorite hymns:  all of the obscure, little-played ones in our hymnal...too many to begin to list
Favorite secular:  The 12 Pains of Christmas; Deck the Halls (Mannheim Steamroller); Carol of the Bells (Mannheim Steamroller)
Favorite hymns:  Joy to the World; Once in Royal David's City; What Child is This?; Glory to God the Angels Sing; The First Nowell; O Holy Night

[vdeane]

I just discovered the existence of Sailor Moon Christmas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq3D55dnAZ8

[jwolfer]

I grew up singing in church choir at a High Chuch Anglo-Catholic Episcopal Church... I really like a lot of the Classical Christmas songs... My favorites are "Lo, How a Rose E're Blooming" and " O Come, O Come Emmanuel" .. I really dont like "O Holy Night" because it is usually done by some 12 y/o girl who cant quite make the high notes on key/pitch... (Think Kartman on South Park)
As far as secular stuff I like "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses... 20 years ago it was on the Alternative Rock station but some Disney Channel chick did a cover and now it is over played

[kurumi]

... some Disney Channel chick did a cover and now it is over played

That's becoming the final resting place of all music.

Picture Demi Lovato doing Rush's "Subdivisions" in a straight 4/4 with all instrumental solos removed.

[english si]

High Chuch Anglo-Catholic Episcopal Church

aren't the first and third descriptors of 'church' implied by the second? OK, Episcopal is needed as helpful for those who don't know 'Anglo-Catholic', but Anglo-Catholic implies high church (bells, smells, candles and so on).

As we're divving it up this way:
Least favorite secular:

• 'Christmas' songs that have nothing to do with even the broader season, but are considered Christmassy - The Power of Love is the most obvious interloper, getting onto Christmas compliations and expensive Christmas adverts.
• Frosty the Snowman, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, variations on that trite theme (I'm a bit more tolerant of Last Christmas as it isn't any more trite than other Wham love songs and it's a classic bit of 80s cheese).
• Any one done by the Jackson 5 or similar in style to them.
• Actually, I'm half tempted to say "anything traditionally American" - I wouldn't miss Bing, or Perry, or Frank at Christmas. But I don't want to press skip as badly on the other stuff in this list.
• I feel a bit guilty saying this, but that overly preachy 'right-on' type of song: Do they know it's Christmas, War is Over, Christmas Shoes type stuff. Only one that is tolerable is Stop the Cavalry (Jona Lewie)
• Anything by Cliff Richard - the songs can often be not bad, but he ruins them right out the of the gate (Millennium Prayer excepted - words good, tune fine, together awful - but also not first sung by him. He still took a bad song and made it worse) - Mistletoe and Wine (his most secular song) would be good if someone else had done it
• And possibly worst of the actual Christmassy ones is Santa Claus is coming to Town: one big warning to be nice else creepy beardy man won't give you gifts - "you better watch out!" "you better not cry!" "he sees you when you're sleeping..." "be good for goodness sake!".

Least favorite hymns (only going to deal with ones that are commonly used):

• O Holy Night (overdone, tune that's catchy but is all over the place, lyrics even more all over the place)
• Away in a Manger just no. no no no. NO.
• Little Donkey - please note that I'm not against the types of songs sung by very young ones per se, just specific ones
• Ave Maria
• Away in a Manger so bad I've listed it twice

Favorite secular:

• Fairytale of New York (The Pogues ft Kirsty McCall) - I'm certain that this will still be charting top-10 every year in the UK Christmas single charts 50 years from now. You can't beat it
• Christmas Wrapping (The Waitresses)
• I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day (Wizzard)
• Merry Xmas Everyone (Slade)
• 2000 miles (The Pretenders)
• Ring out Solstice Bells (Jethro Tull)

Favorite hymns: (ignoring advent, rather than specifically Christmas, carols because the list will be full of them) This is more a shotgun approach, rather than a complete list - a mix of styles, moods, lyrical focusses, old and new, familiar and rare (though not that rare or niche). If I could play or sing in a competent way, this would probably be my Christmas album (though not ordered right).

• From the Squalor
• For Unto Us a Child is Born (Handel)
• Joy to the World
• Hark the Herald
• O Come all Ye Faithful
• While Shepherds Watched
• Angels from the Realms of Glory
• We Three Kings
• Sussex Carol
• See him lying on a bed of straw
• Thou Who Was Rich
• What Child is This?
• O Little Town - with the better tune I grew up with: FOREST GREEN*
• See Amid the Winter's Snow - I better stop here - I've put down rather a lot!

*When I visited my Aunt in LA for Christmas, the Episcopal church on Sunday after Christmas used the bad (and thankfully unfamiliar) tune when we were singing it, and then the retiring organ solo was FOREST GREEN - not happy. Despite that, getting to actually sing a carol (we must have done 8 or 9 during the service) the whole way through was better than the MegaChurch on Christmas Eve - we did a medley of 5 verses and 2 choruses from 5 different carols and a medley of 3 verses and 2 choruses from 2 different carols and that was it for the 90 minute service - the rest of the music was all choir pieces, which have their place, but not at the expense of being about 3 times as many of 'sit and listen' as ones where the congregation get to join in.

[vdeane]

The Power of Love - that's a Sailor Moon song, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzNLZ37ZTZs

The TSO version of What Child is This? is EPIC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c13WssowHA

[1995hoo]

.... I really dont like "O Holy Night" because it is usually done by some 12 y/o girl who cant quite make the high notes on key/pitch... (Think Kartman on South Park)
....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wofsgfQ2VSc

[Big John]

When I think of "Power of Love", it came out  in the summer of 1985. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkAVfsw5xSQ

[jwolfer]

High Chuch Anglo-Catholic Episcopal Church

aren't the first and third descriptors of 'church' implied by the second? OK, Episcopal is needed as helpful for those who don't know 'Anglo-Catholic', but Anglo-Catholic implies high church (bells, smells, candles and so on).

I shouldnt have to give the descriptors but here in the Bible Belt there is an over abundance of as my Moms Priest describes "Happy-Clappy" Episcopal Churches.

[WillWeaverRVA]

I just discovered the existence of Sailor Moon Christmas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq3D55dnAZ8

Congratulations, you have caused my brain to implode.

[Takumi]

Picture Demi Lovato doing Rush's "Subdivisions" in a straight 4/4 with all instrumental solos removed.

Saying "conform or be cast out" without a hint of irony, at that.

[english si]

When I think of "Power of Love", it came out  in the summer of 1985. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkAVfsw5xSQ

You mean the Jennifer Rush song, later covered by Celine Dion? I meant the 1984 Frankie goes to Hollywood song.

I shouldnt have to give the descriptors but here in the Bible Belt there is an over abundance of as my Moms Priest describes "Happy-Clappy" Episcopal Churches.

We do in England too. I go to one that would be considered such (it's a bit low for my liking, but either I don't stay local, go lower, or I go to 'middle-class Sunday club' liberal church where I might as well stay in bed). It is not, however, Anglo-Catholic.

All Anglo-Catholic churches are 'high' and 'Episcopalian' and while not all 'high' and/or 'Episcopalian' churches are Anglo-Catholic, you only need Episcopalian as people don't know what Anglo-Catholic means. And if they do, then they don't need to know the more niche term 'high-church' anyway (High and Low is an older thing that is only really of use now to distinguish different flavours of the liberal wing of the church - though the low liberals have pretty much died out now inside the Anglican communion - they became Methodists or Megachurch attendees).

[1995hoo]

When I think of "Power of Love", it came out  in the summer of 1985. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkAVfsw5xSQ

I think of the version by the Pinheads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP1HeThUlvw

[US81]

... I really dont like "O Holy Night" because it is usually done by some 12 y/o girl who cant quite make the high notes on key/pitch... (Think Kartman on South Park)....

As an accompanist many years ago, I was not above claiming that I could not play "O Holy Night" in a certain key but only in a certain lower key. This had the consequence of forcing a 'singer' [using the term loosely] to sing in a lower key in which she or he could actually hit the notes on pitch and with good tone. 

Now I only used this awesome power rarely - for the good of all.   


I still have a child-like enjoyment of "John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together" and "Peter, Paul and Mary: A Holiday Celebration."  I was not raised in the Jewish tradition, but my favorites from the latter are the Hannukah songs (and "A' Saolin," but that's - the nitpicker in me now surfaces - actually for All Souls' Day)

[hm insulators]

I find Christmas music annoying, but not because of my (lack of) faith; rather, because most of the classics have gotten tiresome having been heard year after year, and whenever someone comes up with a new one, it just feels like a bald attempt to become one of those old classics that gets played year after year. That, and the new ones tend to be overly treacly (cf. "Christmas Shoes") and/or insipid and badly written (the "last Christmas I gave you my heart" one that Taylor Swift did a cover of).

I would be okay with "Sleigh Ride", but it was the first piece of music written in cut time that I ever had to play, and I will never forgive it for that.

As for the next holiday, I have found out it is a tradition for the Vienna Philharmonic to ring in the new year with Strauss's "Radetzky March", which I greatly prefer over "Auld Lang Syne".

Hear! Hear!

I feel the same way about piped-in Christmas music, especially when some stores start playing it THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN, for crying out loud!

A lot of that is because for years I worked at a plant nursery whose owner for some stupid reason during Christmastime decided that all of the customers suddenly became stone-deaf somehow, so he would blast the Christmas music at about the levels of an AC/DC concert.

[vdeane]

The local Kinney's started selling Christmas stuff well before Halloween.  It was quite weird to see the Christmas decorations right next to the Halloween costumes.

[exit322]

As an accompanist many years ago, I was not above claiming that I could not play "O Holy Night" in a certain key but only in a certain lower key. This had the consequence of forcing a 'singer' [using the term loosely] to sing in a lower key in which she or he could actually hit the notes on pitch and with good tone. 

Now I only used this awesome power rarely - for the good of all.   

And for this, we all thank you.  Maybe this will persuade others to help.

[golden eagle]

"The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole.

[US81]

"The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole.

Second! Love Nat King Cole - hearing the Christmas Song ("Chestnuts Roasting on a Open Fire") or really any of his Christmas carols/songs, esp when backed by the orchestra and chorus, makes me feel ever so nostalgic.

[Molandfreak]

There is no such thing as good Christmas music.

Except maybe the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

No. That goes to thanksgiving. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSBq8geuJk0

Good Christmas music does exist. Just not as cheap knock-offs, covers of classics, and anything written since the '70s. Which says a lot.

[DaBigE]

There is no such thing as good Christmas music.

Except maybe the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

No. That goes to thanksgiving. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSBq8geuJk0

You're being sarcastic, right?

[english si]

Good Christmas music does exist. Just not...anything written since the '70s.

Only on your side of the pond. Listening to a Christmas album driving to Grandparents today, I released that all the American stuff was dire, or by guys who were big in the 50s, and all the decent British stuff was more recent.

We got through the 80s still making good Christmas music, but you guys want to keep your crappy Jackson 5 tat, and overplay the 50s stuff, so there's no room at the inn for more recent British stuff.

[Molandfreak]

There is no such thing as good Christmas music.

Except maybe the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

No. That goes to thanksgiving. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSBq8geuJk0

You're being sarcastic, right?

I actually meant it is a horrible song... Thanksgiving just wasn't meant to have songs written about it.