Traditional: In The Bleak Mid-Winter
Modern: One I know neither the name of, nor who sings it . . . help me out here:
They said there’d be snow for Chistmas,
They said there’d be peace on Earth,
Hallelujia, Noel, be it Heaven or Hell,
The Christmas we get we deserve . . .
Jodi
Fiat Justitia
Adeste Fidelis - I like this in Latin best sung by a tenor or alto soloist.
Do You Hear What I Hear - choral versions
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen - for singing myself.
I also really like Manheim Steamroller’s stuff.
Good King Wens … Wonc … Wince …
Christmas in New York
All I want for christmas is Shane McGowan’s teeth.
The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
*
Some of my favorite music are Christmas carols:
Little Drummer Boy is now and forever has been my favorite.
Star of Bethlehem
Go Tell it on the Mountain
So many songs, so few active memory cells remaining…
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
Some very good songs posted here!
John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” is a great christmas song.
My favourite to sing is “The twelve days of Christmas”. The words are easy to remember, kids love it because it’s repetitive. When you sing it with kids, it’s fun to act out the presents for each day.
“Il est né” is very nice.
Nat King Cole does a very good version of “Oh Holy Night.”
I’ve never heard Carol of the Bells! Can someone recommend a good version of it?
The little Drummer boy: My favourite version is the David Bowie/Bing Crosby one.
But I’ll put in another plug for “Good King Wenceslas” because of the words and the message in the song (charity at Christmas time). to wit:
<TABLE BORDER=1 WIDTH=“100%”><TR><TD VALIGN=top WIDTH=“32%”>
<font size=2>1.
Good King Wenceslas looked out,
On the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
Deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night,
Tho the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gathring winter fuel.</font></P></TD><TD VALIGN=top WIDTH=“32%”>
<font size=2>2.
Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou knowst it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?
Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence,
By Saint Agnes fountain.</font></P></TD><TD VALIGN=top WIDTH=“32%”>
<font size=2>3.
Bring me flesh, and bring me wine,
Bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I will see him dine,
When we bear them thither.
Page and monarch, forth they went,
Forth they went together;
Thro the rude winds wild lament
And the bitter weather.</font></P></TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN=top WIDTH=“32%”>
<font size=2>4.
Sire, the night is darker now,
And the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
Mark my footsteps, good my page;
Tread thou in them boldly:
Thou shalt find the winters rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.</font></P></TD><TD VALIGN=top WIDTH=“32%”>
<font size=2>5.
In his masters steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
Which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor,
Shall yourselves find blessing.</font></P></TD><TD VALIGN=top WIDTH=“32%”>
</P></TD></TR></TABLE>
I’m just impressed by Arnold’s graphic…I’m lucky if I can get something to ** bold ** correctly.
I also like “Joy to the World.” There’s nothing like a church full of people, swept up in the holiday spirit, belting out “Jeremiah was a bullfrog…”
Oh come on now. Somebody had to say it! 
Jodih - I thought for the longest time I was the only person on Earth who knew that one! I got some strange looks from record store clerks…
It’s I Believe in Father Christmas by Emerson, Lake, & Palmer.
It’s on "A Rock’n’Roll Christmas compilation from PolyGram Records 1994. The ID# is 440-060 1171. (It took me 9 years to find it anywhere!)
I’ve never quite figured it out, though - When they say “the Christmas you get you deserve”, are they lightening up a little bit? Saying that if we find loneliness & bitterness then, that’s it’s only because that’s what we brought to the season? It seems so different from everything else in the song…
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Since I did a good deed, I get to list another song…
I can’t remember the name of it, but Heart has one about a space alien who comes to earth to hear an old man playing a mandolin…
Anyone know where to find that one?
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Good King Winklehoff looked out
On his feets uneven…
“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx
Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman
Oh Holy Night (and I’m a godless heathen, but this song is too beautiful to put aside)
I saw Moma kissing Santa Clause
The one from Home Alone. I don’t know the name of it.
“Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good
things.” --Edgar Degas
I can’t believe no one’s yet mentioned…
“Father Christmas” by the Kinks
The best nasty Xmas song ever.
…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
I’m not sure about the rest of it but isn’t the “Nora’s freezing on the trolley” part from Pogo? My mother had paperbacks from that comic strip - great illustrations.
But for me: I also really like Manheim Steamroller’s Christmas stuff. I play it until someone else comes in and changes the CD…
Well, if no one else will vote for ya, I will…sing it, Nat:
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost nipping at your nose…”
Sorry, I guess someone’s bound to have added this already, but no time to read all the thread…Mariah Carey…All I want for Christmas is You…awesome.
“Blue Christmas” and “Santa Claus is Back in Town,” by Elvis Presley.
“Christmas in Hollis,” Run DMC
“I Saw Three Ships,” Sting
And for the traditional…“Silent Night.”
“Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it.” - George Carlin
MAJOR – You have done your Christmas good deed – thank you very much, I’m off to order the ELP song. 
If I can vote twice, I also love Merry Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), specifically the version by the Eagles.
Jodi
Fiat Justitia
[quote]
I’m not sure about the rest of it but isn’t the “Nora’s freezing on the trolley” part from Pogo?
[quote]
This classic is all from Pogo. I can’t remember the rest of the words, guess I’ll have to dig out the Pogo compendium and refresh my memory.
Didn’t Cecil print all the lyrics to Boston Charlie in one of the books? ::going to check::
“Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it.” - George Carlin