Couple corrections, if I may: First, I took a wrongful stab at “hippopotamus”. Secondly, the song was actually written in 1950. Sorry about that.
For unknown reasons (though no doubt odd and subconcious) that one has always been a favourite of mine (and caused goosebumps).
My other nomination for best (perhaps just from happy childhood memories) is Snoopy’s Christmas.
Worst: Most of the Christmas drek that gets pumped through the malls… although there is something amusing about sweltering heat and people in summer clothes thinking of beaches and BBQs and in the background they’re playing “Let it snow” or “Winter Wonderland”. 
Madonna’s Wanna-be-Marilyn take on Santa Baby
Whenever I hear it, it makes me thankful, in retrospect, that there was no molten lead handy to pour into my ears to make it stop!!
I’m a big Eartha Kitt fan, FWIW-- it’s not the song, it’s that voice of Madonna’s. You know, the one that utterly convinces you there’s no God.
Best traditional songs: Angels We Have Heard on High, especially by a choir, and Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful. Carol of the Bells is up there, too. Also O Holy Night.
Best original contemporary songs: Til Santa’s Gone (Milk and Cookies and Slow as Christmas from Clint Black’s Looking for Christmas CD. All the songs on that album, in fact, but those are my top two.
Best: The John Lennon one.
Worst: The Paul McCartney one.
I also like “When a Child is Born” by Boney M.
And many others from their Christmas album.
The absolute worst is “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney. The dang song is just empty and repetitive, drab droll and monotonous, nauseating and horrifically plain. It wears away at your brain until there’s nothing left, like that carnivorous ear thing from Star Trek 2.
I swear, McCartney must have been braindead when he wrote that. Or, more likely, he let Linda write it and didn’t have the heart to tell her how GOD-FRICKIN’ AWFUL it was. You know, like her tamborine playing.
Good King Wenceslas is my favorite. Great tune, Great message. Go out and do something for the poor, and do it yourself, don’t sit at home in your comfy castle and send others out.
Worst is Rudolf the red nose reindeer. Message:It is ok to make fun of those who are different and if you are different, just make yourself useful. Like telling a story about a kid who needs those metal crutches and leg braces, and he is made fun of and excluded and that it is ok because eventually he is accepted because he can serve as their TV antenna because of all the metal.
I think you’ve got this one wrong. Those other reindeer mocked Rudolph, but in the end they were humbled because they realized they needed him. It’s not that their tauntings weren’t wrong in the first place, it’s that they didn’t realize it until they saw the value of Rudolph’s individuality. They needed that lesson, because they wouldn’t have realized it otherwise.
The message of the song is that our differences and unique features are not inferior, but rather that this diversity is beneficial. Sure, the other reindeer shouldn’t have laughed and called Rudolph names, and their behaviour was wrong even had it turned out that Rudy’s nose was utterly useless. But the song goes a step further and actually shows Rudolph’s difference as making him superior in some situations, and rubbing that fact in the other reindeers’ noses, so to speak 
Would you have liked it better had Rudolph shunned the acceptance of his peers gained by the song’s end, because they had been mean to him before? Should he have held himself aloof and hold the other reindeer retroactively to his standards of behaviour? I suppose he could have, and perhaps those naughty reindeer would have been taught an even better lesson…but would that have made Rudolph happy? In the long run, probably not. The song teaches that being different or unique can be a special thing, not a badge of shame. Isn’t that a good enough lesson in your opinion?
Interesting responses. It appears that even songs that are widely disliked are nonetheless liked by others. Am I mistaken, or is there a more varied response to “what’s good” than in standard vocals?
Myself, I moderately like “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”. It’s a family favorite.
And I don’t find the Lennon/Ono Christmas songs much better than the McCartney: they’re both all right.
“Rudolf the Rednosed Reindeer” I always thought was a little artificial, but not objectionable.
“Santa Baby” is kinda cute – and I loathe Madonna.
The negative comment about “Silver Bells” kinda floors me. True, it’s very modern, but it seems honest nonetheless.
Least favs are: Beach Boys “Little Saint Nick” – lame, and out of the holiday spirit. “Feed the World” – is that what it’s called? The most stupid, Hollywood, culturally insensitive song ever written – “Do they know it’s Christmas time at all”? No, you zombies, they mostly AREN’T Christian. That song REALLY irritates me. Gag a Hollywood star today and make the world a better place. Remind me that there are idiots who think we can solve world hunger by shipping central Africa our surplus grain one year.
From the traditional stuff the song that goes – I’m trying not to bring it to mind – “So to honor him, rat-a-pan-pan, me and my drum”.
Favorite songs? White Christmas ain’t hay. O Holy Night. A good part of “The Messiah”, or does that count? Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing still gets me sometimes, even after innumerable repetitions.
I can’t really defend the song too much, but a couple of things. Hollywood had nothing to do with it - the ‘Band Aid’ (and later ‘Live Aid’) record was started by Irish musician Bob Geldof (of the Boomtown Rats) and the song was recorded by primarily UK artists. American artists then did a similar project with USA for Africa.
The song itself has a LOT of irony and sarcasm in it, especially the line about “Do they know it’s Christmas”. It’s Bob Geldolf, after all, and he’s a pretty sharp tack. I think he’s aware that the people in question weren’t Christian. I think he’s also aware of how the people who were Christians didn’t give a damn about them, and felt that doing nothing was okay because the problem couldn’t be solved. They didn’t end world hunger, but they gave some hungry people some food, which is more than I did.
Obviously I have a soft spot for the song.
"The best Christmas song of all time is Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” etc).
And only the Nat King Cole version. All others are at best pale imitations and at worst serious heresies (N’Sync, I’m looking at you).
Damn that song is smooth."
I vote for Mel Torme’s original version as he wrote the song, but Nat King Cole’s version will do in a pinch.
I also can listen to all of Ella Fitzgerald’s “Ella Wishes You A Swingin’ Christmas” repeatedly.
My least favorite is Barbara Streisand’s version of “Jingle Bells.” It is at a really fast pace and sounds like she’s on cocaine.
The Roches did a Christmas Album with a great version of Winter Wonderland, done with some nice NYC accents.
Best: Cool Yule by Louis Armstrong
I liked this song so much the first time I heard it, I bought a Louis Armstrong Christmas cd a few years ago and this song is on it. It’s impossible for me to hear it and not break out in a huge grin.
“…and you’re gonna flip when old St. Nick, plays a lick on a peppermint stick.”
Worst: Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer and I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who hates it. I’ll also add as close runners up, any of the Christmas songs with dogs barking or cats meowing. Though I don’t mind the cat one so much now, as I saw a video of three ladies meowing along to Jingle Bells and being attacked by a Siamese cat for their troubles. Good times.
My picks for the best?
I found the brains of Santa Clause
I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Clause
Pretty much ever other Christmas Carol is tied for worst in my book.
Best: Father Christmas - The Kinks
Worst: The Little Drummer Boy
Best serious Christmas music:
Oh Come, All Ye Faithful
Oh Holy Night
Large sections of The Nutcracker
I also have a fondness for Weird Al’s Christmas at Ground Zero
Best Christmas song ever:
Oh, Holy Night! N*Sync does a pretty good job a capella, but I still enjoy the operatic-tenor-solo style best.
Close seconds are Coventry Carol, Riu Riu Chiu, Once in Royal David’s City, and Zither Carol. What can I say? I love carols!
Worst would have to be Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas is You, or whatever it’s called.
The worst traditional song is The 12 Days of Christmas for the reasons mentioned above. The song reeks of major suckitude.
Favorite religious Christmas song: O Holy Night. I think I almost cry just about everytime I hear it.
Favorite secular Christmas song: Happy Christmas/War Is Over. It’s the only Christmas song I can listen to outside of December. It will seem especially poingnant this year, and even moreso next year, the way things seem to be going.
Worst Christmas song: Joe K, thank you for telling me the origins of Hippopotomus For Christmas. Now, when I get around to inventing my time machine, I will know how to prevent its existence. My mom has tortured me with that song every. single. year.
Also, anything off the Carpenters’ Christmas album is dreck. Utter dreck.
My favorites are traditional carols done in traditional choral arrangements. I don’t have any particular overriding favorite. Some have a bit of a special interest for me, such as “Good King Wenceslas” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. I also like “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”. Although its origin is unknown, it sounds like a good Welsh hymn tune.
I have a few exceptions to the traditional arrangements. On one album Joan Sutherland sings “What Child Is This” exquisitely to a beautiful ochestral accompaniment. Another carol she sings is “The 12 Days of Christmas”, done to a light and funny orchestral arrangement. I think even the people who say they hate it might like her version.
I have a CD of the Robert Shaw Chorale’s excellent second volume of Christmas carols. Many of the arrangements are not traditional, but the entire CD is excellent.
The best novelty songs are “The Pretty Little Dolly” by Jim Fisk (sung by Mona Abboud), and Weird Al’s “The Night Santa Went Crazy”. I also love the singing dogs and the hippopotamus song. 
(I hope nobody minds if I mention that Gayla Peevy is the big-voiced kid who sings the hippopotamus song. The composer is John Rox.)
Some Christmas songs I hate: [ul][]Anything repeated a zillion times.[]South Park’s “O Holy Night”. It’s fantastically ugly and utterly, completely vile. I simply can’t listen to it when it shows up on Dr. Demento.[/ul]