The Mannheim Steamroller version of Veni Veni/O Come O Come Emanuel is hands-down my favorite Christmas track ever.
Bing and Bowie - Little Drummer Boy
Jussi Bjorling - O Helga Natt
Irish Rovers - The Christmas Traveller and a few others off their 'Twas a Night Like This cd ( a mix of amusing, irritating, and sentimental… )
Lots of others, but I prefer to listen when I want to. When I worked retail I gained a good appreciation for non-traditional Christmas tunes after an eight hour shift listening to the same 16 songs on replay.
This version of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
12 Pains of Christmas - Bob Rivers
Also, not really a Christmas song, but I love 30 Point Buckthis time of year. Where I’m from, deer hunting season is HUGE. (Not a hunter myself, but I know “these people”) 
I’m hoping the link works…I can’t check it from work
I hate Christmas music in general. This is for two reasons: 1) growing up, my sister would “practice” Christmas songs on our family organ year-round, which had me tired of hearing them by June of every year, and 2) hearing the goddamn songs in the malls and on commercials by late October makes me feel very, very stabby. Therefore, I avoid them with almost as much determination as I avoid country music.
Having said all that, I still have on my iPod (and enjoy) “Christmas With The Devil” by Spinal Tap and “Christmas At Ground Zero” by “Weird Al” Yankovic. 
Bing & Bowie and Band-Aid
I Believe in Father Christmas, by Greg Lake.
Not technically a Christmas song, maybe, but gets played a lot: Same Old Lang Syne, by Dan Fogelberg. The piano and that sax solo just hit my heart.
A Soldier’s Silent Night really hits home, since I’ve got a lot of family and friends associated with the military and where I’m from.
Frank Sinatra’s version of I’ll Be Home For Christmas. As well as Sarah McLachlan’s. I long to play piano like the pianist does in McLachlan’s version.
Merry Christmas, Darling is amazing. I fell in love with it the first time I heard it a few years ago, and now it’s looking like I’ll be able to relate to it this year. One of my favorites to play on piano. I wish I’d been around to appreciate Karen Carpenter while she was still with us.
These are pretty much the only Christmas songs I can think of that I actually like (and the latter only if there are no vocals). I have the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version of Carol of the Bells on one of my regular mixes, rather than waiting for Christmas. I do tend to listen to the Cast in Bronze version more often at this time of year, though.
I love Christmas music in general, so this could easily be very a long list. I do have a few favourites, though:
- Silent Night
- God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
- We Three Kings
- Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming
- What Child is This? (if only because it uses Greensleeves’ melody)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - any version, really, but Annie Lennox’ is postively eerie, and her youtube video is so gorgeous and pagan it makes me want to run out and dance around the Solstice Tree.
All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
The mention of Bob Rivers also reminded me of the best Christmas song ever:
Oh, how could I forget?
Bob & Doug’s 12 Days of Christmas!
Every year I get all excited about the Top of the Pops Christmas special – to me, it’s not Christmas without Slade, Shakin’ Stevens, or Jona Lewie – and fortunately, living in the States, I don’t get bombarded with ‘Merry Christmas, Everybody,’ ‘Merry Christmas Everyone,’ or ‘Stop the Cavalry’ except by mid December if not whenever the show goes out (usually a day or two before Christmas).
In fact, since I haven’t got a TV, don’t listen to the radio, and am pretty much a homebody, I’m able to avoid a lot of the Christmas-in-August nonsense in the US, so it’s all fresh by the time I hit Oxford and Regent Streets. (I rely on the internet, dvds, youtube, and pre-recorded music and stuff, so I’m not out of touch with the world or pop culture or anything; I just can’t stand adverts, so am quite happy to be able to tailor my entertainment, silliness, and information needs without relying on commercial TV, &c).
My partner, on the other hand, flees the house by the time TotP time rolls around each year with a wild-eyed look on his face, and me and the cats usually find him cowering in his shed a few days later.
That one’s good.
Straight No Chaser’s 12 Days Of Christmas is better, imho.
Actually, the funniest part of the Bob & Doug “12 Days” (to me) is the introductory bit they cut out for radio play, with Doug’s patronizing “…Snow, hosehead!” and the quiz on which days are the actual 12 days of Christmas (“… And three other days which I believe are the ‘mystery days’…”).
I have mixed feelings about “We Three Kings”. On the one hand, I love the symbolism in it, and the melody is wonderfully medieval. On the other hand, though, it reinforces the misconception that the magi were kings, and as a magus, I take offense at that. I’ve been trying to get “we three seers” to catch on instead, but it doesn’t seem to be working.
I’m partial to the oldies rockin Christmas kind of stuff:
Sleigh Ride- The Ronettes
Here Comes Santa Clause- Elvis
Rockin Around The Christmas Tree- Brenda Lee
This cyncal atheist loves the traditional hymns, revels in the pop standards, eats up the corny and humorous take-offs with glee.
And cringes at jingo-istic, faux patriotism.
But I can’t watch this enough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHMtgLNmiI4&feature=related
I tell myself it’s the lovely arrangement, or the perfect vocals, but it’s really the emotional/holiday spirit that makes me blubber every time.
I worked in retail at Xmas when I was a student. The answer is: the last one of the year so I don’t have to hear another for 10 months.
I’ll probably get stabbed in the face for admitting this here, but I have a deep, abiding love for Boney M’s “Mary’s Boy Child”. And I hate Xmas music.
Do we have to consider Fairytale of NY An Xmas song?