Silent Night is my favorite, but I haven’t found a good (published) version with four-part harmony, like we sing in church. Anyone have a recommendation?
My least favorite songs are joyful Christmas hymns that get turned into slow interminable dirges. Or the ones that only sing the first verse of a song over and over.
I suggest singing this instead
Don’t forget Bob Rivers’ "I am Santa Claus"
[quote=“nearwildheaven, post:47, topic:845016”]
Here’s Bob & Doug McKenzie.
[/QUOTE]Every Canadian knows this one by heart!
My personal favorite is Dropkick Murphys - “The Season’s Upon Us”
I have a soft spot for “Christmas with Nana Mouskouri” especially “Old Toy Trains” as it’s one of the few happy memories I have surrounding Christmas growing up.
I flove Feliz Navidad but only the version by Jose Feliciano. I flove Hark the Herald Angels Sing and manymany other sacred songs. I don’t love or even like the hippopotamus song, but I changed the first 2 lines for my cranky red mare Ariel who pins her ears when I brush her. I want a crankopotamus for Christmas, a small red mare named Ariel will do. I hate Last Christmas by George Michael and any other glurgy song about love . I also HATE the movie Love, Actually, except for the Bill Nighy story. I fucking hate Hugh Grant.
On the one hand, it’s awful. On the other, it really isn’t Christmas until you’ve sung along to “is a gift God wrapped in GREEN” at least once.
“I Heard the Bells…” is one of my favorite carols. That version doesn’t work for me at all (it lacks the gravity I think the words need).
I tend to like Christmas & seasonal songs - they’re fun to sing along to. I tend to like the ones that have a little more complexity, both on the secular & non-secular side.
The worst are songs that are not about the season or Christmas, but get played anyway for stupid ass reasons. I’m looking at you “My Favorite Things,” “Hallelujah,” and “Hard Candy Christmas.” (which are all perfectly good songs, but do not belong in Christmas playlists.)
I like most Christmas music so it’s hard to pick a favorite. I think it might be “Snoopy’s Christmas” by the Royal Guardsmen.
Add me to the chorus of people hating “Christmas Shoes”. It always reminds me of an incident that happened to me several years ago. I was walking home when I stopped to buy a Coke from a vending machine in front of a grocery store. A guy came up to me with some shoes telling me he had bought the shoes for his wife, but they didn’t fit. He wanted to know if I wanted to buy them and I declined. He snapped, “These shoes ain’t hot, lady!” I was like, “No, no, I’m just not interested.” That seemed to placate him and he left. That’s what I think happened to the shoes after the song takes place. There’s some adult in the kid’s life who coached him on telling a sob story about a dying mama and Jesus and whatever. The kid gets some poor sap to pay for the shoes and then the adult sells the shoes to some other poor sap in front of a grocery store.
Just heard of this yesterday. That’s a song that understands what Christmas is all about.
I really like Christmas Wrapping, too. It was fairly hard to find in the early years, so it was nice when you did find it.
For worst, what about Santa’s Souped Up Sleigh? It may not be real, but it’s certainly bad. And speaking, tangentially of Hugh Grant, I hate Love Actually as well. Blech.
Best: O Holy Night Tennessee Ernie Ford
Christmas Eve/ Sarajevo Trans Siberian Orchestra
Worst: Bruce Springsteen Santa Claus is coming to town.
I can understand why people don’t like Christmas Shoes but I enjoy it. D&R.
Was that the one from About a Boy, that made Hugh Grant’s character a trust fund baby?
Needle nardle noo! 'Tis the greatest Christmas song ever photographed inside of a mountain!
“We three kings of orient are trying to smoke a Tampa cigar”
Ms. P told me Sunday she’d rather hear me sing the Mop Challenge song.
Two things I realized listening to a lot of Christmas music this past weekend.
-Whichever beach boy sings the “he sees you when you’re sleeping” part of Santa Clause is Coming to Town really has no business being a singer
-I really, really don’t like any Christmas music by the Jackson 5
Some exceptionally beautiful traditional French carols:
Quelle est cette odeur agréable
Noel Nouvelet
A couple of German ones:
Still, Still weil’s Kindlein schlafen will
Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
And a Spanish one:
Another beautiful German carol:
Has anyone else noticed that no one complains about “Thistlehair the Christmas Bear” anymore ever since “The Christmas Shoes” started getting so much airplay?
Worst (in addition to “The Christmas Shoes”): that horrid hippo song. Whether it’s the original or the cover (who in the hell decided that this rancid thing needed covers??), it’s intolerable.
Best:
“Carol of the Bells,” except for that version that tweaks the lyrics to add more Jesus.
“O Holy Night,” but only if the singer knows his/her limits.
I finally heard the Christmas shoes song. I can tolerate the sappiness but musically and vocally it sucks. The singer cannot carry a tune.
I was hospitalized during Thanksgiving week, and spent a lot of time staring at the handwritten Nurse Notes on the white board in my room — which often led me to sing, “The Foley and the IV…”
I didn’t come up with a second line, but then, I’ve never known any additional lines in “The Holly and the Ivy”.
Since it was the week for Xmas music, I asked most of my nurses about their favorite carols.
The most educational answer was “Silent Night” by the Temptations, which I’d never heard, but has over 30 million Youtube hits. It runs six minutes, and each of the guys (from bass to falsetto) gets to solo.
Worst- I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Best: Oh Holy Night, and/or What Child is This?*
Absolutely the best: Dancing Queen. Go a caroling and sing it. People will be in tears.
The original words? You mean
Greensleeves was my delight… ?
