I’m an '80s brat, so it isn’t really Christmas until I’ve heard “Christmas Wrapping” (by the Waitresses, I think).
As to Christmas albums, let me mention my favorite, THE BELLS OF DUBLIN by The Chieftains with a whole bunch of interesting guests from Elvis Costello to Ricki Lee Jones. Wonderful, gorgeous music: my wife and I trim our tree to it every year.
And I’ll second (or seventy-fifth) everyone else on “Carol of the Bells,” which is spooky and haunting in a glorious way. I also used to know all the words to “Stille Nacht” (pardon my spelling) in the original German. German gets called an ugly language a lot, but I greatly prefer it to “Silent Night” (maybe because of the simplicity of the sentiment).
…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
PCW - Is the Home Alone song you’re thinking of ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’? It’s a kind of weepy-sweet WWII era song:
“I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams…”
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
–Einstein
Winter Wonderland by The Roches. Christmas Wrapping by The Waitreses. Christmas Is Coming by John Denver w. the Muppets. Christmas At Ground Zero by Weird Al.
Sting’s version of Gabriel’s Message from the first A Very Special Christmas cd.
Mannheim Steamroller’s Deck the Halls.
Bob & Doug Mackenzie’s 12 Days of Christmas (and a beer…in a tree!)
Away in a Manger.
The Halleluja Chorus.
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. That’s my name too.
Wait, no it isn’t.
“Il e ne” is very sweet, but I’ll plump for two off-beat choices:
An English carol, “Jesus Christ, The Apple Tree” which is fairly modern and hooks into the Medieval Christian conceit that the cross upon which Christ was crucified was made from the wood of the free from which Adam and Eve ate the apple in the Garden of Eden.
“For Unto Us” from Messiah:
*For unto us a child is born.
Unto us a son is given.
And the government shall be upon his shoulders.</br>
And his name shall be call-ed
Wonderful! Counselor! The Might God!
The Everlasting Father! The Prince of Peace!
Sort of sums it all up, doesn’t it?
Actually, Cecil got it wrong about “Deck us all with Boston Charlie,” though it’s the fault of his source.
The first two verses are the original song (as reported in “Ten Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo”).
“Bark us all, etc.” was a variant verse by Beauregard, and was repudiated by the other characters. The “Tickle salty boss anchovy” version was also repudiated.
“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
My favourite is a simple one that a friend of mine did. It is “Noel” by D.C. Blue.
It uses the tune of the original and goes a little something like this:
“No L, No L, my name has No L. Or maybe it does and I just can not spell.”
Hey, what can I say. I’m easily amused.
I am not insane. I am just an average girl who enjoys the lost art of torturing small animals by duct-taping them to railroad tracks.
I’m very glad to know that there are other Mannheim Steamroller fans here! Most of the other people I know have never heard of them. A friend of mine works at a concert venue here, and worked last year’s Mannheim Steamroller Christmas show. He gave me the T-shirt.
Goofy Christmas Carol:
“Good King Sauerkraut, look out!
On your feets uneven!” (Walt Kelly)
“Grandma got run over by a reindeer”
Pagan Christmas Carol:
“Deck the Halls”
Classical Christmas Carol:
“Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming”
One I cant remember the exact title to, but it starts “Maria wandered through something-or-other, Kyrie Eleison” - anyone wanna help me out with this?
“Gesu Bambino”
Secular Christmas Carol:
“Winter Wonderland” by Harry Connick, Jr. from the “When Harry Met Sally…” soundtrack
All-Time top Favorite Christmas Carol:
“The Little Drummer Boy” - reduces me to tears no matter who’s singing it
Only on this board could we get the clarification between the canonical Pogo parody and the Beauregard parody-parody!
For me the carol proper would have to be “O Little Town of Bethlehem” – nothing else captures both the poignancy and the full meaning of the Christmas story like it does. For a “modern” Christmas song, and for quite similar reasons, it would be “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
I have “Deck the halls with Boston Charlie” on CD :D. On “A Jazz Christmas,” a collection of jazz christmas songs from CBS recors. It’s performed by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. They start with the song, go into some instrumental jazz for most of the track, then reprise the words again at the end.
It was an odd feeling, because I didn’t know this was on there until somehow the words percolated into my brain, and I realized what they were singing. Completely unexpected :).
I have loved “Jeanette Isabella” since high school when it was a choir selection for the winter concert. I think that is the only place I have heard it sung, though I have heard instrumental versions of it in canned mall music.
I was going to just list that, and
“What Child is This?”, but then Kat mentioned
“Angels We Have Heard on High” which is one of my favorites to sing, too.
Makes me want to go out Christmas caroling. Do people still do that?
Meg
