# Your best and worst holiday season songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2018, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648 "2018-12-06T02:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/61 "2018-12-15T14:00:55Z")
Favourites : _White Christmas Stop the Cavalry Last Christmas Santa Claus is Coming to Town Silent Night Driving Home for Christmas_ Not much of a fan of _Little Drummer Boy_, though. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/62 "2018-12-15T15:37:40Z")
There’s nothing in this song that denotes Xmas, but, “[Little Altar Boy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSNAGWVUFbw),” is on the Carpenters (revised) Xmas album and Karen sings the pants off it. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/63 "2018-12-15T16:03:47Z")
Not really being into that whole Christmas thing, I can only think of one choice for best: [Christmas with the Devil](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWKN-EYFxbs). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/64 "2018-12-18T04:51:34Z")
[This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0r6ocwGnMg) is my new favorite Christmas song. “Oh, yeaaahhhh.” ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/65 "2018-12-18T05:20:19Z")
I’m going against the grain, but: Worst: _Do They Know it’s Christmas?_ It’s a forced follow up to _We Are The World_ which was great and a poke in the eye to the billions of non-Christians around the world. “We’re thinking about you one day out of the year!” Edit: Best: _Merry Christmas Darling_ ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/66 "2018-12-18T06:06:05Z")
My favorite? [_Christmas in Dixie_ by Alabama](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vjGbi5nz-8A). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/67 "2018-12-18T11:56:25Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > I’m going against the grain, but: > > Worst: _Do They Know it’s Christmas?_ > > It’s a forced follow up to _We Are The World_ which was great and a poke in the eye to the billions of non-Christians around the world. Wrong way around: _Do They Know It’s Christmas?_ came first in the UK (recorded November 1984), then Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie cranked out a US version in January 1985. And they’re both terrible songs. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/68 "2018-12-18T12:51:46Z")
Best: “Carol of the Bells”. Sometimes I prefer vocalists singing a capella, sometimes I prefer a carillon with no vocals at all. Generally, I prefer traditional arrangements, with choirs and orchestras; or with one or two singers, accompanied by a few acoustic instruments. I am generally less fond of the jazz/rock/pop versions. Although “We Wanna See Santa Do the Mambo” is too jaw-droppingly silly to be offensive (to me, anyway). ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/69 "2018-12-18T21:37:55Z")
I only like ‘Baby Its Cold Outside’. WTF. And ‘O Holy Night’ by about anyone, especially Celine Dionne and Mr. Michael Crawford. I had the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on a CD in the car which literally saved my sanity on Christmases past with my horrible family - I would go out to ‘get some air’ and listen to ‘Carol of the Bells/Sarajevo’ and regain the will to live again…Oh, and ‘White Christmas’ by Mr. Clyde McPhatter still sends waves of luv through me, and Annie Lenox ‘God Bless You Merry Gentleman’ - the video! A hurdy gurdy and pagans and the horned god at the end, I watch it on youtube every year, how I love it. Just heard some shittery on a Pandora commercial, as trite as trite can be, ‘Piece of My Heart’ by Steven Maglio. Extremely stupidly boring and cliched, written with a rhyming book in one hand. . The one with some goober in a truck drivin’ on home for Christmas, I hate it so much, I can’t think of the title. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/70 "2018-12-18T21:55:04Z")
[_Jingle in the Jungle_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Yb1cxXfWI) surely fits on one of those lists. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/71 "2018-12-18T22:22:13Z")
Best - [Frosty the Snowman by Leon Redbone and Doctor John](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAtZBE5XXFo&start_radio=1&list=RDDAtZBE5XXFo&t=9), although the Jimmy Durante TV version is good also. Worst - [Tina Sinatra doing ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22TKKhucfbs). How Frank’s kid could have so little soul, rhythm and ability to sing on key is a marvel of genetics. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/72 "2018-12-20T13:27:27Z")
Last night in a restaurant, I heard a version of “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” which was sung by a grown man with perfect enunciation. 😕 Bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/73 "2018-12-21T02:56:19Z")
BEST [Wassail Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Bzbz-RXiA) [O Holy Night](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxUkjthYAR4) (when done properly) [(another O Holy Night also done properly)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNxxECYPx78) [I Wonder as I Wander](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFv-Q1TCQ3Y) [Mary, Mary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQWQj6AiM20) [Coventry Carol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lpiQ4IPzEE) WORST Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer (any version) Jingle Bells (any version) [Last Christmas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gmARGvPlI) [Ten Thousand Joys](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xumv380Brhs) [We Need a Little Christmas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb9OVjlEZho) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/74 "2018-12-21T03:04:15Z")
All-time worst: Jay North as Dennis The Menace singing [Silent Night](https://youtu.be/predMcZw-yU?t=363) Current best: Davy Jones singing [Mele Kalikimaka](https://youtu.be/Nger-J1czIE) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/75 "2018-12-22T21:38:29Z")
The best is more of a reading than an actual song, although there _is_ background music. The Mark and Brian radio show would have a Christmas special in which _The Polar Express_ would be read by a different celebrity each year-[This is a compilation of some of the best readings.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkd3MvSLpFs) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/76 "2018-12-23T00:12:24Z")
Another holiday recording I listen to every year is a half hour radio play from the Rick Emerson Show that used to air here in Portland-[_Santa Claus: Behind The Christmas_](http://www.tegsenterprises.com/rick/audio/behindthechristmas.mp3) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648/77 "2018-12-23T00:32:02Z")
I mention this most years, [Christmas Must Be Tonight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8cwDqsqN2Q) by The Band doesn’t get the play it deserves. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-and-worst-holiday-season-songs/825648.md?page=3)