# Forgotten Christmas Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 22, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736 "2005-12-22T03:19:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/21 "2005-12-22T17:49:14Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > There’s a simple test you should do before attempting to sing O Holy Night. Open your pants. If you do not see a penis, do not sing the song. . Or if you have ever seen a penis there at an earlier time. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/22 "2005-12-22T18:19:17Z")
I rarely hear any Christmas song by Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, Ray Charles, or Jim Nabors these days unless I’m listening to my iPod. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/23 "2005-12-22T20:08:09Z")
> [@Uncommon Sense](#): > > Nice. > > How 'bout ‘Suzy Snowflake’. I loved that song as a kid. > > …here comes Suzy Snowflake, dressed in a snow white gown, tap tap tapping on your window pane to tell you she’s in town… > > I think the rendition I remember was sung by Rosemary Clooney. Damn. I haven’t heard that song since I was a wee, wee, weeee stump… I think I was three or four years old. My brother was born when I was five, and I don’t remember ever hearing it after he was born, so it’s definitely been a long time. I don’t know if these songs were ever popular, but I remember songs from when I was still pretty tiny that I heard often… I don’t know the names, but some went like this: “It never snows in LA, so Santa don’t bring me a sleigh…” or “It’s the night before the night before Christmas” I don’t hear “The First Noel” as often as I once used to. Nor do I hear the version of the “Wassailing Song” that was traditionally sung in my family - I don’t know if it was ever “popular”, but it was the only version I knew until I moved here to the US. The one I hear all the time now goes something like “Here we come a-wassailing” - so that’s new to me, but to everyone else I talk to here, they say it’s quite old, and the only version they know. I don’t know what version we’ve been singing at home all these years, but it goes “Wassail, wassail all over the town/our toast it is white and our ale it is brown/Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree/With a wassailing bowl, we’ll drink to thee”. I’ve never heard that version here. I thought it was the only version for a long time, but I guess it turns out that there are many, many versions of the wassailing song. I don’t hear “Marshmallow World” very often, but that’s in the “Winter Wonderland” category, in that it isn’t really a Christmas song. Still, I’d think I’d hear it more often. There’s one fellow who sings it who makes me dissolve into giggles whenever I hear him deliver the line “Take a walk with your favourite girl” - he does something to “favourite girl” that slays me, he sounds like he’s trying to be suave. Maybe he really is. I don’t know. But it makes me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/24 "2005-12-22T20:12:36Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > “It never snows in LA, so Santa don’t bring me a sleigh…” That _might_ be Gene Autry’s “If it Doesn’t Snow on Christmas Day”. > [@](#): > > _I don’t hear “Marshmallow World” very often, but that’s in the “Winter Wonderland” category, in that it isn’t really a Christmas song. Still, I’d think I’d hear it more often. There’s one fellow who sings it who makes me dissolve into giggles whenever I hear him deliver the line “Take a walk with your favourite girl” - he does something to “favourite girl” that slays me, he sounds like he’s trying to be suave. Maybe he really is. I don’t know. But it makes me laugh._ That’s got to be Dean Martin. ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/25 "2005-12-22T21:53:19Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > “It never snows in LA, so Santa don’t bring me a sleigh…” “…I’ll leave a key by our door, 'cause there’s no chimney anymore!” That one was on the Osmonds’ album too! God, what a great song. They also had a song called “Sleigh Ride” that wasn’t the traditional song called “Sleigh Ride;” rather, it was a rock ditty about getting together with your family for sledding. And “Old Fashioned Christmas” was another good one. Wow. Love those Osmonds. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/26 "2005-12-22T22:21:42Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > That _might_ be Gene Autry’s “If it Doesn’t Snow on Christmas Day”.That’s got to be Dean Martin. I don’t think it was Gene Autry - whoever was singing sounded like a kid or kids. Now, Dean Martin, I love him, I’m just not familiar with his voice right away. I’m still learning about him and haven’t got the knack for distinguishing some of those old voices just yet. It could very well be. **Millit** - _the Osmonds_?! That’s probably exactly right. My mother loves them. I haven’t heard that song since I was teeny tiny. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/27 "2005-12-22T22:46:12Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > Now, Dean Martin, I love him, I’m just not familiar with his voice right away. I’m still learning about him and haven’t got the knack for distinguishing some of those old voices just yet. It could very well be. A sample of Dean’s take on “A Marshmallow World” can be found [here](http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=1893439). ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/28 "2005-12-22T22:47:56Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > A sample of Dean’s take on “A Marshmallow World” can be found [here](http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=1893439). That’s it! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/29 "2005-12-22T23:13:25Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > That’s it! 🆒 Well, now you know he wasn’t trying to be suave. He was just drunk. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stainz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Stainz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stainz)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/30 "2005-12-23T00:19:21Z")
Not sure if these qualify but my family loves these two songs, which almost no-one else has heard of! Honky the Christmas Goose I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (currently enjoying a bit of a revival thanks to a Telus commercial, at least here in British Columbia. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/31 "2005-12-23T00:45:18Z")
When I was a kid (12-13 yrs old), I bought a Christmas album at the local grocery store. It was kind of a generic album of tunes, no “real” hits. I did like the title track, “Sleigh Ride Jingle Bells” (not to be confused with either “Sleigh Ride” or “Jingle Bells”). ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/32 "2005-12-23T15:33:57Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > I don’t know, because I’ve never actually seen a Gene Autry album. But it’s quite possible, if he had an LP full of Xmas songs. The words go: > > _Every year, it’s just an old fashioned tree > Filled with tinsel that shone in candlelight > In the window, where neighbors all could see > How we kept our Christmas merry and bright…_ > > Does that ring a bell for you? He does indeed have an album of [Christmas songs](http://www.sonymusicstore.com/store/catalog/MerchandiseDetails.jsp?merchId=48325&skuId=48343), but I’m not sure if the one available now is the one we played as kids - the covers look different (no surprise there, I suppose). The one we had had a big Gene standing over a tiny Rudolph, if I recall correctly. **Stainz** , they’re playing it in Alberta, too, and apparently it is a big hit with the kids here. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736/33 "2005-12-23T15:43:09Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > That’s it! 🆒 And Schoeder just got blown away from his piano [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgotten-christmas-songs/336736.md?page=1)