What is your favorite Christmas CD?

[Shirley Ujest]

I realize that my christmas music is sadly and woefully out of date.

John Denver & the Muppets.

Yeah, it is classic stuff, but I think I am in need to expand my pathetic music selection.


Post your favorite old/new albums.

[RikWriter]

Amy Grant's "A Christmas Album."

[bienville]

I always really liked the songs from the Phil Spector Christmas Album but never owned a copy. Finally, in the Holiday mood, I bought the CD then he immediately went and killed somebody!

Kinda put a damper on things, the CD didn't make me feel as Christmas-y anymore. This year I've found that I can listen to it again and still enjoy those great recordings.

[Barbarian]

My mum gave me the Amy Grant CD, and I nearly retched when I tried to listen to it.

My favourite is "A Christmas Cocktail" by Jaymz Bee, closely followed by "Yule B Swinging".

[twickster]

Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration is absolute tippy-top of the list. Patty Austin's version of But Who May Abide... blows my hair back, and you are guaranteed to get into some very serious booty-shaking on the Hallelujah.

I also like Robert Strickland's 12 Days in December: Carols for Solo Piano. He's kind of a George Winston wannabe, so if you've worn out your copy of GW's Winter, check this out.

A couple of years ago I got Amahl and the Night Visitors on CD, and I listen to that several times every solstice season.

[Annie-Xmas]

"A Broadway Christmas"--Great mix of well known and lesser known songs from Broadway shows, sung by Broadway people. Who knew "We Need A Little Christmas" has three verses? Also includes my favorite Yuletide ditty "I Don't Remember Christmas."

"Home for the Holidays"--Released in 2001 to benefit the Twin Towers Fund. Worth getting for Liza & Alan Cummings "Baby, It's Cold Outside"--Xmas ham at its best. Also Jane Krakowski's "Santa Baby" which ROCKS.

And a big plug for the six editions of "Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols for a Cure." Released every year since 1999, these songs by various Broadway casts are amazing, and it's for a good cause. The 2004 2CD volume includes "The Fruitcake Song" worth the price.

Nobody likes a fruitcake, shoo be doo doo.
Nobody likes a fruitcake, vo di oh do.
The way you pass us up leaves us disconcerted.
For once we'd like to be dessert and not deserted.

[DrMemory]

The Beatles Christmas Album

[todd33rpm]

Oh, boy! I've got a couple of suggestions because, after a few years in retail/radio, burnout on the average Christmas album is very easy to achieve.

1) The Rounder Christmas Album: Must Be Santa! - worth it for several reasons, but most especially the title track as performed by Brave Combo, a cross between polka and garage rock. Stylistically, the album's all over the map...some New Orleans, some rhythm and blues, bluegrass, you name it. Definitely not boring.

2) Bruce Cockburn's Christmas - the m.o. is that he doesn't go for your usual "commercial" Christmas music, and so the mix of traditional pieces here are interpreted in a highly original acoustic fashion. My favorite: "Mary Had A Baby" with a whole slew of well-known folk-leaning performers. This is also the song that never fails to generate phone calls when I play it on the air.

3) Windham Hill's Celtic Christmas, specifically this one, as there are multiple volumes available. This edition was the first one, and to me the best. The first half is the kind of music you can almost play all year 'round, despite the titles.

Also, if you can track down any holiday albums by the Mighty Tubadors (all tuba-based Christmas songs, almost funny until you listen and realize how good it is), any albums of silver bands doing Christmas music, and anything with music boxes/hand bells/barrel organs/etc. (there's a really good one on Musical Heritage Society whose name is escaping me at the moment; I'll try to look for it at home), you can't go wrong.

[Caprese]

I enjoy "Celtic Christmas."

Also like the Chieftains "The Bells of Dublin."
They often have cool guest performers, and on this one they have the Elvis Costello performing classic, unforgettable "St Stephen's Day Murders' as well as Jackson Browne (The Rebel Jesus) and Marianne Faithful (I Saw Three Ships.)
Good stuff.

And the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack is always a winner in our house.

[well he's back]

Please everyone check out the Christmas album that the Roches did. They are singing sisters whose arrangements of old favorites we never, never get tired of.

Has anyone else mentioned George Winston's "Winter" album? We bring that out every holiday season and love it all over again.

[brix11]

I really like Maybe This Christmas, a 2002 album with some hip artists doing both traditional and new songs. There are albums for 2003 and this year as well, but the number of stinkers for each is disproportionate to the first. That said, all of them are great if you're looking for something "fresh".

I think my favorite holiday album, however, is the Squirrel Nut Zippers Christmas Caravan. Whether or not you like the Zippers swing-style jazz, the songs are pretty awesome, especially the one based on O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi.

And for a bit of personal nostalgia, I like to listen to Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers croon together on Once Upon a Christmas. I still remember watching the TV movie which sprung from this album. My mom had the cassette and we'd listen to it whenever we went spotting for deer (a perennial rural Pennsylvania pastime) with the whole family in my grandfather's Chevy Blazer.

[AskNott]

Of my 39 Christmas albums, my favorite is Emmylou Harris's Light In The Stable. Number 2 is Larry Carlton's Christmas At My House. Patti LaBelle's This Christmas is awfully nice, too.

[Podkayne]

A Charlie Brown Christmas is also my favorite. A few years ago the grad students, who often get tasked with mysterious random things to do for mysterious reasons, were told that they were henceforth responsible for providing "Christmas" music (according to the dictatorial e-mail) for the department holiday party. A flurry of e-mails among grads@astro resulted, expressing varying degrees of annoyance, particularly from the non-Christian grads@astro. Numerous schemes were launched for bringing in multicultural holiday music, but most were vetoed due to lack of representation in the CD collections of even in the most indigant of grads@astro. We finally settled on A Charlie Brown Christmas, because it's just darn good jazz, and sufficiently festive and Chrismassy to serve as holiday party music.

I also like the Toys soundtrack, which has some somewhat holiday-related stuff (or at least stuff that I associate with holidays.)

I also like Francis Poulenc's Four Motets for Christmas. It doesn't really sound like Christmas, but I really like it, and it adds a touch of classical to my Christmas Mix.

The Muppets also rock. "FIIIIIVE GOOOOOLLLLLDDDD RIIIIINGGGGS! BA-dum-bum-bum . . ." We had that on tape when I was a kid. Hafta see if I can get that on CD!

[Yllaria]

You have John Denver and the Muppets, what more do you need? I know I'm not trendy, but I've got two solid day's worth of Christmas music, and that album is still my favorite.

Although since I'm slowly shifting to CDs, I need to get a CD of Christmas bagpipe music. You'd be surprised how much of it is out there. It's a real change of pace, although it will make some people look at you strangely.

[kelly5078]

I hate Christmas songs, from "Rudolph" to "Silver Bells" to "Jingle Bell Rock." But I love Christmas hymns and carols. My favorite is a long out-of-print LP, aptly named "Christmas Hymns and Carols," by the Robert Shaw Chorale. There were two volumes, but I've only ever found the first.

I like sparse instrumentation in choral music, so the bombastic orchestration that a lot of albums have leave me cold.

Runnerup is "The Christmas Story" by the Waverly Consort, which is medieval/Renaissance choral music.

[Shirley Ujest]

Originally Posted by todd33rpm

Also, if you can track down any holiday albums by the Mighty Tubadors (all tuba-based Christmas songs, almost funny until you listen and realize how good it is), any albums of silver bands doing Christmas music, and anything with music boxes/hand bells/barrel organs/etc. (there's a really good one on Musical Heritage Society whose name is escaping me at the moment; I'll try to look for it at home), you can't go wrong.

See! This is what I am talking about! Tuba Music! Most Excellent!


I love the off the kilter stuff. Or the alternative/folk/whatever musicians-bands that cut an Xmas album and put a different spin on things.

[Shirley Ujest]

The Mighty Tubadours

[BrotherCadfael]

Joan Baez's Noel was excellent. I'm pleased to see that it has been released on CD.

[MissTake]

My favorite CD is a Sinatra/Crosby/Cole compilation.
I can listen to it over and over again. Which I do.

[hocow]

I love Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Eve and Other Stories. Also, I have the first Rosie Christmas CD and I think that's a fun album as well.

[Mona Lott]

1 can't narrow it down to just one favorite Christmas CD.

Bing Crosby"s White Christmas is a favorite because of the old traditional songs that are on it. Every time I hear Christmas in Killarney, it takes me back to my pre-school years. Waiting for Dad to come home from work, sitting on the couch, looking at the tree with the bubble lights on, snow falling outside. It is a wonderful memory.

My other favorite is the Carpenters Christmas Portrait. It has on it my favorite version of my favorite Christmas song, Sleigh Ride. Another favorite is Merry Christmas Darling. Karen Carpenter has an amazing voice.

[Tentacle Monster]

Jimmy Buffett, Christmas on Christmas Island. It's especially good if you're spending Christmas in a cold place, when you don't like the cold. Also good if you prefer margaritas over egg nog.

[Krokodil]

PlLAYBOY's Latin Jazz Christmas. Although Sheila E's version of "Santa Baby" was surprisingly weak...

[Sinusoidal Saurus]

My favorite is Christmas with the Rat Pack. Most of the songs are classics, there are a couple of hymns, and you can just tell that Dean Martin has the microphone in one hand and a good stiff drink in the other.

My runner-up is definitely A Charlie Brown Christmas, already mentioned by other posters.

Maisy

[JThunder]

Originally Posted by Annie-Xmas

"A Broadway Christmas"--Great mix of well known and lesser known songs from Broadway shows, sung by Broadway people.

Ditto! I found Jodi Benson's performance to be quite memorable, among others.

[Bumbazine]

I usually get sick of Christmas music pretty quickly, but I'm always happy this time of year when I can get out my copy of Frosty The Blues Man by Michael Powers, so I guess that must be my favorite.

[dangermom]

Originally Posted by kelly5078

I hate Christmas songs, from "Rudolph" to "Silver Bells" to "Jingle Bell Rock." But I love Christmas hymns and carols. ...

I like sparse instrumentation in choral music, so the bombastic orchestration that a lot of albums have leave me cold.

Hm. I appear to have a clone on the board, for I am exactly the same. (I'm willing to listen to tubas, too, as long as it isn't "Let it snow.") I'm very picky, so I only own about 8 albums so far.

My current favorite is "A timeless Christmas" by Mark Geslison and Geoff Groberg and some other people. I think it was published by an LDS music company--anyway I heard it while browsing at the local LDS bookstore and had to own it, because it has two classic Danish carols, sung properly--not easy to come by. It's a mixture of sung and instrumental carols in a variety of languages and styles, and just really pleasant to listen to.

I'm also listening to "Wolcum Yule" by the Anonymous 4 and Loreena McKennitt's "A winter garden."

[Shirley Ujest]

These are great!

I am looking for fun.

[jsc1953]

Mormon Tabernacle Choir's The Holly and the Ivy. And Phil Spector's Christmas Gift for You.

I'm eclectic.

[drm]

There's a Harry Belafonte Christmas record that my parents have, I love the mans voice. I don't normally like carols all that much but I like 'em when he sings 'em.

[Chefguy]

David Benoit's Christmas album. The one with "Christmas Time Is Here".

[ivylass]

Manheim Steamroller.

'nuff said.

[Biggirl]

Salsoul Orchestra Christmas Jollies.


That wouldn't really update you. It's still one of my favorite Christmas CDs.

[todd33rpm]

Originally Posted by Shirley Ujest

The Mighty Tubadours

Hot dog! I have a very abused copy of their Christmas album on vinyl...so glad to see it made it onto CD (augmented, no less - my album only had 20 songs). Thanks for the link, Shirley!

Enchanted Carols: A Feast Of Christmas Music is the one I couldn't remember. Quite often, the pieces as listed will include segues of the same songs into different formats, so you may here "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing"

[todd33rpm]

(sigh...)

Continuing...

Quite often, the pieces as listed will include segues of the same songs into different formats, so you may here "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing" as rendered by a street piano, cutting into different versions from different music boxes. Sometimes it's different music boxes synchronized to play a piece at once. It's a neat little piece of work, and a great album I come back to a lot.

[PunditLisa]

I love Amy Grant's CD with "Breath of Heaven" on it. She has another one, but it's not as good. The reason I like Amy Grant is because she has a lovely voice but her voice doesn't dominate the recording. She sings them the way you'd hear them in church: softly and humbly.

Then there are the singers who use Christmas as just another backdrop for their vocal acrobatics. Mariah and Whitney: If you can scale seven octaves with one word, that's impressive. And it has its place in pop music. But don't take a Christmas song about the humble birth of an impoverished child and pretend your version has anything to do with Him when clearly it's all about YOU.

[beagledave]

I have a fairly good collection ripped by now, latley I've been enjoying the Christmas album from The Barra MacNeils .

Some other favs include Loreena McKennitt (and here )

When it comes to crooners...can't go wrong with Nat King Cole.

[burundi]

beagledave, I was just about to recommend Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song. It's the only Christmas album I really like. I can't hear his version of "O Holy Night" without tearing up.

[pokey]

Originally Posted by maisypjh

My favorite is Christmas with the Rat Pack. Most of the songs are classics, there are a couple of hymns, and you can just tell that Dean Martin has the microphone in one hand and a good stiff drink in the other.

I almost bought it a couple of weeks ago! Now I really want it. I have Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra doing christmas songs on other compilations but I like it best when Christmas music has a lot of swing. I guess because I have a good stiff drink in the other hand most of the time too.

[mouthbreather]

Based on searching on this board and other boards for holiday music reccomendations, I just created a new Xmas comp CD this week.

This is now my favorite Xmas album.



1. Santa Claus is coming to Town -- Joseph Spence
2. Oh come, oh come Emmanuel -- Pedro the Lion
3. O holy night -- Eric Cartman / South Park
4. 'Zat you, Santa Claus? -- Louis Armstrong
5. Chistmas (baby please come home) -- Death Cab for Cutie
6. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen -- Bright Eyes
7. Carol of the Bells -- Mr Mackey / South Park
8. Christmas Wrapping -- The Waitresses
9. Gabriel's Message -- Sting
10 Santa Claus has got the AIDS this year -- Tiny Tim
11. Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy -- David Bowie & Bing Crosby
12. Fairytale of New York -- The Pogues
13. Xmas with the Devil -- Spinal Tap
14. Dance of the Sugarplum Faries -- The Vandals
15. Kidnap the Sandy Claws -- from the Nightmare before Xmas
16. Merry Fuckin Christmas -- Mr Garrison / South Park
17. Sant Claus is coming to Town -- The Jackson 5
18. Heatmiser's Theme (I'm too Much) -- from The year without Xmas
19. Frosty the Snowman Lean Redbone and Dr John
20. Good King Wenceslaus -- Butthole Surfers
21. Little Drummer Boy -- Low
22. Little Drum Machine Boy -- Beck
23. Merry Christmas -- Wesley Willis

[JavaMaven1]

Originally Posted by Caprese

Also like the Chieftains "The Bells of Dublin."
They often have cool guest performers, and on this one they have the Elvis Costello performing classic, unforgettable "St Stephen's Day Murders' as well as Jackson Browne (The Rebel Jesus) and Marianne Faithful (I Saw Three Ships.)
Good stuff.

I have to just second this recommendation--that CD is really the only Christmas music I'd be happy to hear several times over during the season.

[todd33rpm]

Originally Posted by mouthbreather

Based on searching on this board and other boards for holiday music reccomendations, I just created a new Xmas comp CD this week.

1. Santa Claus is coming to Town -- Joseph Spence

12. Fairytale of New York -- The Pogues

13. Xmas with the Devil -- Spinal Tap

These thrill me no end! I especially love the Joseph Spence Christmas song, as it has to be the most twisted version of the song I've ever heard, especially when he forgets the lyrics on the chorus and just does that "hnyyyyyeeeeeeaaaaaah" sound. (It's included on my first recommendation, The Rounder Christmas Album: Must Be Santa!, for anyone else trying to find it...quite simply, it has to be heard to be believed. Words fail me.)

bodypoet's 14-year-old didn't believe me when I told him that Spinal Tap did a song called "Xmas With The Devil" (unfortunately, the reissued movie didn't include it).

[gigi]

Originally Posted by twickster

Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration is absolute tippy-top of the list. Patty Austin's version of But Who May Abide... blows my hair back, and you are guaranteed to get into some very serious booty-shaking on the Hallelujah.

That would be the one!! Every time I listen (I try to restrict it to Christmas and Easter to not wear it out) I hear something new and beautiful in one or another of the songs. It's a must-hear even if I never get around to any of the other X-mas albums I have. It's groovy, soul-stirring, fun, pure wonderfulness.

[CrazyCatLady]

My personal favorite is the Asylum Street Spankers Christmas album, A Christmas Spanking. My favorite tracks are "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," "'Zat You, Santa Clause?" and "Silent Night" played on a saw.

[Priam]

The best Christmas CD I can't find: A Muppet Christmas Carol

Best single Christmas song not mentioned so far (or at least I haven't seen it): Gaudete - Mediaeval Baebes

[tremorviolet]

Originally Posted by ivylass

Manheim Steamroller.

'nuff said.

Man, I despise these. Mostly because I worked at a record and bookstore for years and they wer ein constant rotation since they're good background music. I also hate the "Very Special Christmas" ones since they used to be the only contemporary pop artist albums so we played them incessantly. Nowdays, there's amuch bigger selection so you don't have to get so bored.

My favorites? I looove the Jackson Five album. I also have an inordinate fondness for "Meowy Christmas" (yes, it'sthe one of cat meowing Christmas carols) because it came out during one of my most stressful retail seasons (I was managing a record store and tired of it) and made me giggle uncontrolably...

[BMalion]

I cannot stress just how swingin' the collection on Christmas Cocktails part one and Part two is. Lots of 1950's and 1960's groovin'.

Love them both. Cha Cha Cha.

[Magickly Delicious]

I like the album "Have Yourself a Tractors Christmas." I present you with Santa Claus is Comin' in a Boogie-Woogie Choo-Choo Train, complete with a sample mp3 link. Gotta have a little boogie-woogie in your Christmas, right?

[PunditLisa]

Not a huge fan of Mannheim Steamroller but their version of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (as a Gregorian chant) gives me chills every time I hear it.

::Lisa, rushing to find my Mannheim Steamroller c.d.::

[Sinusoidal Saurus]

I've already replied to this thread with my favorite album, but I just realized I forgot to mention my favorite Christmas song. It's not Christmas until I hear "Back Door Santa" by Clarence Carter - who knew Santa had so much fun when the kids are outside playing?!

Ho Ho Ho!

Maisy