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Sancta nox, placida nox/ Nusquam est ulla vox
I am an inveterate list-maker, so here is a list of some of my favorite Christmas songs, inspired by all of the Muzak and All Christmas All The Time radio stations I've been subjected to during my holiday shopping.
- "Carol of the Bells"
- "Sleigh Ride" - Instrumental versions only, and especially the one with horse-whinnying at the end.
- "The Nutcracker Suite" - No particular song within the suite - I pretty much like the whole thing. It's been my cookie-baking soundtrack lately.
- "O Holy Night" - Choral versions, because soloists get all divalicious and operatic about it and I would rather have either a soloist belting or a choir loudly singing the "fall on your knees" part. Choral versions seem safest from the divaliciousness.
- "Angels We Have Heard on High" - Again, choral versions. I want a big loud, festive "GlOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooooria inexpensive mayo", please.
- "Silent Night" - It's been translated into a million different languages so Alfie and I have established the tradition of taking a few pages of translated lyrics to church with us to sing instead of the 18,000 verses in English. This year: Arabic!
- "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" - For singing. Loudly. With other people so my own voice is drowned out by the crowd. I especially like a big crescendo for "Come and behold him, born the king of angels."
- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - This would not have ranked so high if it weren't for Staples using it out of season, but every time I hear it I remember that commercial and laugh.
- "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" - But only when it's snowing. Otherwise it's just depressing.
- "Santa Baby" - But only as sung by Eartha Kitt, because all other versions of Santa Baby really suck. It's a terrible song, but there's something about Eartha Kitt's version that I love, especially when she requests decorations "bought at Tiff-an-y's". I think I might kind of have a crush on Eartha Kitt. Help.
- "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon
- "Feliz Navidad" - I like things that are foreign.
- "Jingle Bells?" by Barbra Streisand - It's bizarre and pretty awful, but it doesn't seem like Christmas until I've heard it. Once. And no more, please. The same goes for Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime", which I like only because my friends hate it with a white-hot rage.
I will not get into a list of my least favorite Christmas songs - coughJingleBellRockcough - because that would be - coughDoTheyKnowIt'sChristmascough - an affront to all that is happy and good - coughAllIWantForChristmasIsMyTwoFrontTeethcough - about the Christmas spirit.
srah - Thursday, 14 December 2006 - 12:01 PM
Tags: christmas, holidays, music
Comments (20)
Dave - December 14, 2006 - 2:46 PM - ℓ
Great, now I'll forever after be thinking "inexpensive mayo" when I hear that song. You are an awful person.
My "once-and-no-more" Christmas song is good old Yogi Yorgesson's "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas." (It's foreign, too.)
I did a list like this last year, and there's some overlap with yours, but I think the glaring omissions include "Father Christmas" by The Kinks and "A Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues.
Aunt Pam - December 14, 2006 - 3:45 PM - ℓ
"Merry Christmas Darling" is one holiday song that is on my last nerve. There's also some song on the radio about wanting a hippopotamus for Christmas??? Anyone familiar with this ditty?
srahdad - December 14, 2006 - 10:29 PM - ℓ
Pam,
srahfam has "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" on CD if you want us to play it for you.
srahdad - December 14, 2006 - 10:32 PM - ℓ
There are several people at work who don't really feel that the Christmas season has officially started until the first time they hear "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" on the radio.
Aunt Pam - December 15, 2006 - 7:37 AM - ℓ
Srahdad, I would love to listen to "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"! I have just caught the end of it twice and it sounds like a very old song. John and I were cracking up when we heard it and neither of us were familiar with it.
Aunt Pam - December 15, 2006 - 7:40 AM - ℓ
Oh . . . a favorite song of mine and Andrea's is "The man who would be Santa" by Vertical Horizon. Makes me cry every time I listen to it.
Cheryl - December 15, 2006 - 8:28 AM - ℓ
I HATE WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!!!!! I of the white hot rage...
Denzylle - December 15, 2006 - 9:19 AM - ℓ
'A Fairytale of New York' is probably my favorite charting Xmas-time song, but I also like a lot of the older stuff from the 40s, 50s and 60s.
Denzylle - December 15, 2006 - 3:24 PM - ℓ
I hope you've listened to it by now.
Any Christmas song with lyrics like 'You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot, Happy Christmas, your arse...' cannae be all bad.
Denzylle Scrooge.
Cheryl - December 17, 2006 - 12:16 PM - ℓ
Christmas bells, those Christmas bells! It's about how Snoopy and the Red Baron have dropped their differences and decide not to fight that day.
srah - December 18, 2006 - 12:11 PM - ℓ
I forgot another non-mainstream Christmas song: Noël Ensemble, which is sort of the French version of Do They Know It's Christmas?, in that it was sung by a large group of singers and celebrities and the proceeds were donated to charity (this one was "the artists' collective against AIDS" or something). This one always touches me because the song is about spending Christmas together and it came out in December 2000, when I was studying abroad in France and we were scrambling at the last minute to change our Christmas plans so that I could come home and see my family when they weren't able to visit me.
Whoops! Looks like you accidentally left out 'Let it snow!' Because it WAS an accident, yes?