If your tastes run to music written earlier than 50 years ago (they had music back then? Omigod!), I recommend the Boston Camerata’s collection of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Christmas music called With Joyful Voice and the Baltimore Consort’s assortment of more folky tunes Bright Day Star. Of course, for seriously folky stuff I like Magpie Lane’s Wassail! – the alternative tune for “The Holly and the Ivy” will make you want to dance.
Plus there are some great party tunes on them: “Hey for Christmas!” by the Baltimore Consort and “Stuff Your Guts” by Magpie Lane are good fun.
I always liked (in no particular order): John Lennon - So This is Christmas Michael W. Smith - Mary Did You Know Jars of Clay - Little Drummer Boy
and Burl Ives - Holly Jolly Christmas, although the best version I ever heard of this song is when the Violent Femmes sang it live during a concert in San Francisco
“Walking 'round in Womens Underwear” always gets me in the mood for ugh…something. There was a site where you could hear that and other such songs, but I can’t find it again.
There is a hilarious song called “This Holiday Season” by Porn Orchard. It’s a parody of what it would sound like if Peter Murphy and Tom Waits wrote and sang a Christmas duet. The impressions are actually pretty good.
The original Robert Shaw Chorale from the 50s is my all-time favorite. His recordings with the RS Chamber Singers in Atlanta are very good too, but I prefer the original.
They perform the carols a capella. The first CD I listen to is a reissue of their Camden LP which contains the most common carols in mostly traditional arrangements. The sound is mediocre, but the performances are very good.
The second CD I listen to is a reissue of their mid-70s album “A Christmas Sing-in” (which itself was a reissue of an earlier LP). The sound and performances are both fantastic. I love all the tracks, but my favorites by a slight margin are the first track which is “I saw three ships” in a brilliant Shaw-Parker arrangement, “O Tannenbaum” with the men only, and “O Magnum Mysterium” by Vittoria. There are some lines of “The Carol of the Birds” that go “The kingly eagle came/to praise his holy name/in mighty proclamation” which are performed by the men only. That’s so incredibly beautiful it gives me chills.
My next favorites are carols performed by Joan Sutherland. They’re tracks from her Christmas LP on a compilation CD with various artists. (I still have the LP, but I’d love to have the whole album on CD. If it’s been reissued and gone out of print, I missed it.) On the compilation CD she does “Joy to the World”, “Good King Wenceslas”, “What Child Is This” that includes gorgeous strings, and “12 Days of Christmas” with a playful orchestral arrangement.
I also like “There Is No Rose” and “Balulalow” from Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols”.
On Christmas Eve morning I like to listen to the live Evensong service from King’s College, Cambridge.
“Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”, can’t remember the name of the artist.
“I Had Sex with Santa” Barnes and Barnes.
I get depressed around the holidays, and a bit of wickedness usually cheers me up.
I really, really love Handel’s “Messiah”.
Any version of “Little Drummer Boy” and “Do You Hear What I Hear.”
“The Ancient Prophecies Foretold”,
Actually, just about any Christmas hymn. I have a general dislike of secular Christmas music. I find it sappy and sentimental, and generally meaningless.
Seldom heard Christmas songs, a few traditional regulars and original beauties.
The thoughtful lyrics of Gene’s “First Snow” really make me think about what Christmas is all about.
The story in Cher’s “All I’ll Ask This Christmas” touch me without being too sappy and really make me think about what Christrmas is all about too!
Cher’s “The Second Sunday of December”… homesickness distilled to its essence.
The next to last track, Braham’s Lullaby/Silent Night with a scripture narritive from Luke over the first half… well, if this doesn’t move someone’s heart they are dead, dead, dead!
(uh… you can skip “Wind Through the Olive Trees” it’s actually painful!)
Thanks for all the ideas. I have a lot of trouble coming up with new tunes for my yearly Christmas CDs, and you’ve all given me a ton of places to begin.
Okay, laugh if you want to, but this year the first Christmas music I dug out was John Denver and the Muppets - A Christmas Together. I am not normally a John Denver fan, but there are several moments on this album that can reduce me to a whimpering blob of jelly…
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” with Rolf’s gruff little tenor
“The Peace Carol” sung in harmony
“A Baby Just Like You” - so much of the wonder that if parenthood is reflected in two simple lines:
“The Christmas Wish” - one of the most beautiful things Jim Henson and Kermit ever did…
and sometimes even that corny story of Alfie the Christmas tree…
We played it last night while baking brownies for the school Christmas bazaar. And I’ll play it a dozen more times before Christmas, I’m sure!
For the more irreverent among you, Something in the Chimney gets me rolling on the floor every year. It’s sung in this little girl voice that’s perfect.