We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. As I was reading this thread the radio here at work was playing B.S. passing that song straight through her nose like it was chili-mac at a junior high school cafeteria. Would someone tell that woman that the Virgin Mary is traditionally an instrument FROM, not OF, torment?
[Adam Sandler]
Hanukah is the Festival of Lights.
Instead of one day of presents we have eight crazy nights.
When you feel like the only kid in town
Without a Christmas tree…
Here’s a new list of people who are Jewish,
Just like you and me.
Wynona Ryder drinks Manischevitz wine
Then spins the dreidle with Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein…
[/Adam Sandler]
Just to set the record straight–
Jingle Bells has no connection to Christmas, not even a secular one. It’s just a song about wintertime and sleighriding. Anyone who lives in wintry climes can sing it, regardless of religious or cultural affiliation, without being accused of going over to the Dark Side or the moral equivalent.
Useless information dep’t: the composer and lyricist of Jingle Bells, James Pierpont Morgan, was also noted for writing pro-Confederacy songs during the Civil War. They were actually a good deal more popular in his day than was Jingle Bells, which did not become well known until many years after Morgan had written it–and with a somewhat different tune to boot.
Kenny G(oldstein?)
Did we mention Bob Dylan?
I still want to hear about Elvis…
;j
Bob did a CHRISTMAS ALBUM?
Whew…THERE’S one that’ll go into heavy rotation in my house this season.
*Oh, the Fat Man…flys circles…all around the block…
He asks me if I’m naughty…but he knows that I don’t talk…
And his reindeer…treat me kindly…and furnish me with tape…
When he’s deeeeep inside my chimney…I knowwwww…he can’t escape…
OHHHHHHHHHH MOMMA…can this really be the end?
To be stuck up at the North Pole
With the Xmas Bluuuuues again…
Sorry, I was led astray of the OP.
Well the Angel said to Mary you’ll be havin’ a son
Mary said, “Ange, you must be puttin’ me on.”
Ange said, “No,” Mary said “What?”
Ange said, “Mary you can do what you want,
But the next time you see wise men comin’ you better run.”
Mary said "Where you want this birthin’ done?
Ange said “Out in Bethlehum.”
Well he did have that period of being a very devout Christian…
**
[/QUOTE]
Eve - I’m a singer. O.K., I’m not really a singer, I’m just a Jew who loves to sing more than anything in the world despite my mediocre talent. Some of my earliest and best memories of singing are of being part of a choir that sang Christmas carols on the steps of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, going to a nursing home to sing Christmas carols with the Girl Scouts, and performing a Christmas concert that included the Credo Mass.
I don’t celebrate Christmas, have never had a Christmas tree nor been visited by Santa. I’m no fan of Barbra, but if I had 1/10 of her talent, you can bet I’d be putting out a Christmas album just to be able to sing those songs somewhere other than my shower (where, btw, the “gloria in excelsis” part of “Angels We Have Heard On High” sounds really good).
I’ve just written a post defending Barbra Streisand and celebrating Christmas. The ways of the SDMB are mysterious indeed.
Oh, and I do have a (much smaller and less interesting) repertoire of Chanukah songs, most of them in Hebrew.
I heard this for the first time sitting in Macy’s yesterday and good lord was that awful! I’ll take the barking dogs version any day. It sounded like she had 8 double espressos then got thrown onto some dinner theater stage for an Adults with ADD convention. Terrible.
Not as unbelivable as you might think, obviously, Eve. I have a Jewish friend who was a youth choir and handbell choir director at a Lutheran church. She sang all the hymns and chorales and things… but she never sang “Amen.” To her, that made it a prayer - without it, it was just a pretty song that just happened to be about things she didn’t actually believe. 
Esprix
Actually, his name is Kenny GORELICK…no wonder he goes by Kenny G.
I bought the B.S. Christmas Album last weekend…very nice, but a little on the mellow side…I suppose it will be good to play Christmas Eve, but if you have friends over on Christmas Day, it will put the whole crew to sleep in a minute.
And as far as the nationality or race or religion or whatever of a singer…who gives a flyin’ phuque…I thought (Canadian) Celine Dion’s version of God Bless America was damn good on the 9/11 benefit, despite the fact that I think she is an obnoxious little ratwoman…