Count me in as someone who has never consciously heard (or heard of) that tune. It may have been background music at some point, especially given the number of covers, but never a tune anyone has referenced.
From reading this thread, “Mary, did you know?” is just about the winner in terms of recent hits. I had no idea it did not predate 1991.
I cannot believe we’ve gotten to post #63 and nobody has mentioned the two by far finest Christmas songs ever written in the modern era:
*A Christmas Carol *(catchy name) by Tom Lehrer in the early 60s: - YouTube
The (much improved) *Twelve Days of Christmas *by Bob & Doug McKenzie in the IIRC 70s: Twelve Days of Christmas performed by Bob and Doug McKenzie - YouTube
I wish “A Holy Thing” by Victoria Williams would get covered more and get popular. Even if you don’t like her voice, I can’t see how anyone would deny that it’s a gorgeous song.
Other songs written for this same Christmas concert*, which mostly features traditional songs. I wish they too were more popular:
Jane Siberry - “Are You Burning Little Candle”
Mary Margaret O’Hara - “Never No”
- This was originally a radio broadcast, which had a couple of songs not included on the CD.
I’ve heard a lot of versions of My Grown-up Christmas List which I think is pretty new.
If I ever get a time machine, I’m going to find the pre-adolescent versions of all eight great-grandparents* of the writer of that song and sterilize them.
Right after I perform similar procedures on the forebears of the people responsible for The Christmas Shoes.
On a related topic, I’m always disappointed when another season goes by with nobody doing a cover of Green Chri$tma$. And the so-called deejays won’t play the original when I call the request line.
*look at me, blithely assuming that the writer of Last Christmas had eight great-grandparents.
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (1994) has become s classic — Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (Official Video) - YouTube
I posted this to a thread a while back, so sorry for repeating myself. I do love this catchy little song, though. 
Snow, Bluebirds of Paradise (Chrissi Poland & Ari Hest)
Yes. Not even close. The synth in Wonderful Christmas time sounds like something a lobotomized chimp would come up with. Repetitively annoying. The lyrics to Christmas shoes is maudlin and annoying but the actual music doesn’t pain me like shoving skewers into my ears.
A theory.
I, and perhaps more people that think like me, are part of the problem. I view all new Christmas music as suspect. I don’t trust its sincerity. I think of them all as cynical releases to try to make a new, if not the new, standard. But instead they are all out there flooding the airwaves with new crap. Either they are too secular, too corny, too formula, or just trying too hard.
I do keep trying every year, though. Even so, I’d prefer a completely new song than suffer through yet another singer or band try to put their own stamp on a beloved classic (this mean YOU Bruce Springsteen. Your Santa Claus is Coming to Town is horrible! And they play it so much!)
Not to say new stuff can’t crack the classical barrier. I’ve grown to like Lennon’s Happy Xmas, and although I hate McCartney’s example, I can see how people can like it.
Squirrel Nut Zipper’s cd ‘Christmas Caravan’, released 1998, has two of my favorites: Christmas in Carolina, and Winter Weather (not restricted to Christmas, good all season long). My daughter was 6 when the cd came out, and thinks Christmas in Carolina is a traditional Christmas song - always surprised when no one else has heard of it!
For comic relief, I love the Bob Rivers parodies of traditional Christmas music. Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire, and his version of the Chipmunk song especially. Who knew that Little Town of Bethlehem could be sung to the tune of House of the Rising Sun?
In addition to this, a large part of the Christmas song appeal is sentimentality. Most people’s favorite carols are the ones they grew up listening to as children, making it hard to achieve “instant classic” status. Fast forward 50 years, and there’ll be a lot of old people reminiscing about Mariah Carey, wondering why all this new junk is so commercial and formulaic.
Not at all surprising. There’s a very long list of songs that can be sung to each others’ tunes, and House of the Rising Sun is on it. I think it’s called ballad meter?
To add to that list, there’s also Amazing Grace, Stairway to Heaven, the Gilligan’s Island theme, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and everything ever written by Emily Dickinson.
Come to think of it, Greensleeves/What Child is This is on that list, too.
Has anybody re-done those dogs barking “Jingle Bells”?
I came into the thread to mention this one - a true classic (and released well after my childhood, to boot, and I’m post Baby-boom). A Christmas song for adults. 
Seems like Rule 34 applies to Christmas music now. NOOOooooo :eek: