Your favourite Christmas songs

Subject: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Sooz(at work)
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 08:22 AM

If you were going to learn just one song to perform over the festive season which one would it be? I seem to half-learn two or three every year and then need to do lots of revision at this time of year. I thought that if I really learned one I would probably remember it! Problem - which song is it to be?

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 08:28 AM

it is a hard problem - my "favorite" tends to be whichever I am currently singing!

The Huron Carol is a good one - but there are so many...

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Leadfingers
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 09:15 AM

My Christmas Set is Three songs,Tom Lehrer's Christmas Carol and two from Adrian May/ Chris Leger's christmas show - 'When Father was Pantomime Dame' and 'I Hate Christmas'.Me and Ebenexer Scrooge agree- Christmas ?? Humbug !!

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Padre
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 09:44 AM

The Wexford Carol: "Good people all, this Christmastide..."

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Louie Roy
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 10:07 AM

It is hard to beat Silver Bells

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 10:10 AM

Pretty Paper
Silent Night
Grandma Got Runned over...

Soo many!!!

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Chris in Wheaton
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 10:23 AM

White Christmas lays out nice in G for finger-picking and everybody likes to sing along.
and don't forget Hot Buttered Rum - I like Rosalie's version best
My favorite Xmas/holiday record is Reilly and Maloney's.
Chris in Wheaton

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Menolly
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 12:24 PM

My favourite at the moment is "Season of Peace" by Si Kahn, closely followed by "Gaudete"

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 12:27 PM

Then there's the 'Boar's Head Carol'

and "Go tell it on the Mountain"

and "Rise up Shepherd"

and "Children go where I send thee"

and ...

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 03:12 PM

Cherry Tree Carol. Ancient, but with a characterization of men that resonates with contemporary listeners

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: mg
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 03:18 PM

if I were a performer I would do Christmas Rose (with some partners) and Jesu Bambino...I would never ever do Lo How a Rose..oh my did they make us sing a wretched version of that in high school...maybe a bluegrass type of arrangement would be OK..it sure perked up how can I keep from singing..but I like most of the standards..O Little Town of Bethlehem etc. There is some classical song from somewhere..Maria et Joseph et infantatum positum in precepio...very pretty..of course Adeste Fideles..I have never heard Catholics do Panis Angelicus for Christmas...and we sing a different tune (or used to) just for regular occasions...really good singers doing Angels we have heard on high...I remember a bunch of drunk geologists doing Silent Night in full throttle once..very moving..

mg

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 04:19 PM

"In the Bleak Mid-Winter" is my favourite. Strangely, this song somehow passed me by in my younger days. I was first made aware of it by the singing of Barbara Dickson in the great play " John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert" by the wonderful Willy Russell ( he used to perform in folk clubs).

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: DonMeixner
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 04:26 PM

Are we talking popular songs or Christmas carols or either one?

Don

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: mack/misophist
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 04:36 PM

Lyke Wake Dirge

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Amergin
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 04:42 PM

santa bloody claus...

hey santa claus you cunt where's me fucking bike?

i'm the man who slits the turkey's throats at christmas.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: s6k
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 04:52 PM

santa clause wheres my bike... lol..

Id go for John Lennon - Happy XMas

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Ely
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 08:46 PM

"Hot Buttered Rum" if that counts, and the Carol of the Bells (or whatever it's called; my fourth-grade teacher called it the Ukranian Bell Carol but nobody seems to know what I'm talking about when I call it that).

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 08:58 PM

for just musical taste, I like to hear the grandeur of "Oh Holy Night"...for general listening, I have an old tape of a radio program of British/Celtic carols and songs that are not your usual fare. (I ought to go find it and write down what's on it)

...and, as you might expect, I also like Frankie Armstrong's "Anti-Carol"

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: DonMeixner
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 09:00 PM

Bill,

Oh Holy Night is the song I measure the soloists by. My favorite Christmas Anthem. I also Like Oh, Come Emmanuel.

Don

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 09:06 PM

and here are the words and an MP3 of "Anti-Carol" sung by a fellow named Ben Weiss, who does a lot of other stuff!

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 09:44 PM

'When Father was Pantomime Dame' and 'I Hate Christmas'

sound like two interesting songs I would like to have...

Robin

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: mg
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 10:02 PM

check out Capri-Uni's solstice song that she wrote last year...it should be in the search. mg

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Kudzuman
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 11:06 PM

"Down in Yon Forest","Quem Pastores","Christ was Born in Bethelehem","Noel Nouvelet", and so many more. It's not a religious thing at all, but I can do without the modern songs, especially the gutter eighth grade humor kind. I love the season as a time of reflection and a time of stillness.....of course I haven't been to a Mall in about 15 years so I miss out on the crass commercialisation to some extent. Not disabled, just won't subject myself to the Mall mentality by choice. My shopping is finished for this year so I can relax and enjoy the season. Been doing that for about 15 years and I find it so much better that way.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: richlmo
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 11:09 PM

"Mary Did You Know", What a powerful song!
"The Christmas Song", What a classic!
"Little Sandy Sleighfoot",What an obscure memory from childhood! and
"Christmas In Carolina" (The Squirrel Nut Zippers), What a Hoot!.

I love Christmas music.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 11:40 PM

One made from a poem I got from the internet a few years ago and adapted for song by altering it a bit and setting it to music: The Ballad of Scaly Otis, The Christmas Rat.

But I always have to preface it when there are young kids around by saying it isn't true. Gave one of my nieces a nightmare once.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: PoppaGator
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 11:45 PM

At my mall-Santa job, I sometimes pick out carols and seasonal favorites on the one-octave toy xylophone during the rare moments when I'm not occupied with visitors. I don't sing, I just pick out the melodies.

"Rudolph" is of course a big fave among the kids; I always start off with the introductory "verse" since one little guy insisted that I not leave it out. ("You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen / Comet and Cupid and Donder and Blitzen / But do you recall / the most famous reindeer of all?")

"Joy to the World" fits perfectly in tht one little major-key octave. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (a personal favorite) can be faked, with a couple of notes "jumped" an octave, in the relative minor key (i.e, Am, assuming that the xylophone in tuned in C).

But my far-and-away favorite, the one tune that almost always draws a fresh supply of little kids and young mothers, is "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." This particular tune, far more than any other, really seems to have an immeidate effect whenever I play it -- I call it my "subliminal advertising." One slow Saturday morning last year, nice and early, before the masses descended upon us, I picked up my little mallet and got about two measures into this one when my photographer co-worker piped up: "Don't summon them!"

I went ahead and called them on in; what the hell, Christmas comes but once a year, right?

************************

You traditionalists: anyone know this old one, that my late father passed along to us from his Irish-immigrant parents?

"Christmas is coming / the goose is getting fat
Who'll put a penny in the old man's hat?
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you!"

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,anastasia
Date: 14 Nov 03 - 12:05 AM

what is a good idea for buddhists to sing. I'm not against christmas, but does any one know any christmas songs that are more compataible with buddhism?

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Joybell
Date: 14 Nov 03 - 12:08 AM

I'm with the mystery Guest - "The Cherry Tree Carol". I love the image of Joseph being chastised by the unborn Baby Jesus! Poor man he just ventured to point out that the baby wasn't his. It was obviously on his mind and he was very pissed off!
The other favourite of mine was also a great favourite of the Victorians - "The Mistletoe Bough". Creepy!

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Mary Katherine
Date: 14 Nov 03 - 12:20 AM

Stan Rogers' "First Christmas Away From Home" and John McCutcheon's "Christmas In the Trenches."

Mary Katherine

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Cluin
Date: 14 Nov 03 - 04:18 PM

Yeah, trot those two out when everyone's feeling too happy. Then do Jethro Tull's "A Christmas Song" or "Jack Frost and The Hooded Crow".

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Dramatist
Date: 14 Nov 03 - 04:19 PM

I love the 'Gloucestershire Wassail'
(Wassail, wassail all over the town,
Our toast it is white, our ale it is brown,
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree,
With our wassailing bowl we'll drink health to thee.)

My other standards - with guitar - are 'Silent Night' (which was originally composed for guitar), 'The Twelve days of Christmas', 'The Little Drummer Boy' and for a bit of frivolous fun, Tom Lehrer's 'Christmas Carol'.
Jonathan. (UK)

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Sooz
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 06:51 AM

Thanks for all the suggestions! At the moment I'm torn between Christmas Eve 1914 and Fairy Tale of New York but I also love First Christmas and In the Bleak Midwinter. My brain won't cope with more than one - unless I take a leaf from my daughters book. When she was two and a half she learned Away in a Manger and when Christmas was over she realised how much effort had been expended so she sang the song regularly throughout the next year, usually when sitting in the pushchair, bored while we were queuing for something!

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Midchuck
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 08:28 AM

I'm afraid mine is "The Rebel Jesus," by Jackson Browne, I think.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: John P
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 09:29 AM

Cherry Tree Carol
The Salutation of the Angel
Personet Hodie
The March of the Kings
Entre le buef et l'ane gris
Pat-a-pan
Star of the East
Veni, Veni Emanuel

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Firecat
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 03:28 PM

Not sure about traditional Christmas songs, but as far as I'm concerned, it's not Christmas till I've heard Wham!'s "Last Christmas" and Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody"! Cheesy, I know, but that's the fun thing!

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Peace
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 03:55 PM

Silent Night is it for me. I also really enjoy (The First) Noel. And, Simon and Garfunkle's Silent Night with the radio overdub gets me in the pump.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Jenny Islander
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 01:07 AM

PoppaGator--John Denver recorded "Christmas is Coming, the Goose is Getting Fat" as a round with the Muppets. Miss Piggy gets a bit too much into her part. Still cracks me up.

The Cherry Tree Carol--great proto-feminist storyline
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel--sing it for Advent in plainsong mode
Lo, How a Rose (NOT the modernized version, which scans like a lump of bread dough kicked down a flight of stairs)--a quiet, beautiful song for a Christmas Eve service
The Hills are Bare at Bethlehem--explores the metaphor of hope born in winter with minimal schmaltz (Fun Fact: we celebrate Christmas in winter, but Jesus was born at lambing time; He died and rose around lambing time too, so we had to spread the feasts around the calendar a bit, and besides people need a midwinter feast in northern latitudes, witness Saturnalia and Yule.)
Away in a Manger--always chokes me up
The Holly and the Ivy--another proto-feminist traditional carol
Last song for Christmas eve: Silent Night, softly, with candles
First song for Christmas morning: Joy To the World, with all the stops pulled out!

Feminism aside, Joseph tends to get short shrift. He made a huge leap of faith, after all, and was good to Mary even when he thought she had slept around on him--he could have humiliated her publicly but chose not to. Anybody know any good carols about Joseph?

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: denise:^)
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 03:01 AM

Gotta agree with Padre--it's the "Wexford Carol" this year...
:^)

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 04:22 AM

'Fairytale of New York'.
And 'Arthur McBride' to underline how tragic events can occur on that day like any other. Perhaps more so. Remember Afghanistan?

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: HuwG
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 10:38 AM

"Stop the Cavalry" (Jona Lewie)

Perhaps this is a bit too topical this year, so like Countess Richard I'll go with "Fairytale of New York". I'm also fond of "Ring out, Solstice Bells" (Jethro Tull / Ian Anderson), and some of the old favourite hymns, especially "O come, O come, Emmanuel".


However, and this should really be on a separate thread, I have a long list of most hateful Christmas songs, those which shops blast out non-stop from the end of October to Christmas Eve. Slade's "Merry Christmas, everybody", tops the list. Wizzard's "I wish it could be Christmas every day", trails by a nose, the Jackson 5's "Santa Claus is coming to town", is a close third. No doubt I shall add others to the list next month. It isn't necessarily that any of these songs are instrinsically bad, but if I hear the volume of Slade's ditty being turned up to drown out the Salvation Army Band again, I will be tempted to violence.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,The Vulgar Boatman
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 04:50 PM

Extremes -
Eric Bogle's "Santa Bloody Claus"(sod him, his reindeer and his elves...) for what it says about the rapacious b******s who have turned the entire calendar into one long marketing opportunity.

"Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree" for its stunning beauty, simplicity and what it says about spirituality, even though I don't purport to be a Christian.

And just about any carol which can be played, sung and danced to with its original vigour...

Keep well,
Chris

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Barb'ry
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 05:15 PM

I like the Elvis Costello one which starts 'I knew of 2 sisters whose name it was Christmas, and one was called Dawn of course....' Cant remember the title, and I also like Fairytale of New York and Rebel Jesus and for a bit of tradition, O Come O come Emmanuel.
I only know one verse of a particularly rude song which makes me laugh 'ho, ho fuckin' ho, what a crock of shit.....' A friend sent me an animated version with a santa with a broad Australian accent and it still cracks me up! (I'll send it on if you pm me with your email address but it is a tad rude!)

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,pdq
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 07:34 PM

Another vote for "Oh Holy Night", especially nice that it is a Christmas song and not a secular one.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 08:02 PM

I probably love the Sussex Carol best for complex reasons(!), but the Boar's Head Carol, Good King Wenceslas, The Holly and the Ivy, the Gloucestershire Wassail and the Wexford Carol all rank high on my short list as well.

Hard to believe we're *talking* about Christmas music, innit?

D.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Hrothgar
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 08:23 PM

I must be too old-fashioned, or something - it's a draw betweeh "Come, O Ye Faithful (Adeste Fidelis)" and "Silent Night."

Christmas carols at my place on Saturday 20th December.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Amergin
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 08:36 PM

youre a mean one, mr. grinch...

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: Cluin
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 08:47 PM

My take on that last one. (crappy little RealAudio sample)

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: robinia
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 10:42 PM

"Jesus, Jesus rest your head" (written by J.J. Niles) is one of my family's favorites. Ît goes on with "you has got a manger bed; all the evil folk on earth sleep in feathers at their birth . . ."
Not strictly true perhaps, but a lovely carol. . .

Subject: Lyr Add: WE'RE GONNA SING and COWBOY CHRISTMAS
From: open mike
Date: 17 Nov 03 - 01:40 AM

Connie Kaldor and Bim do one on their New songs for an old celebration
called We're Gonna Sing, which includes titles of many carols..all
rolled into one...
it goes thusly:
WE'RE GONNA SING
From Connie Kaldor and Bim
New Songs for an Old Season

If you see us coming up the walk,
Better run & open the door,
Put the shortbread on the plate,
Get the eggog ready to pour,
And get your voices ready,
Cuz you're gonna want to sing along,
When you hear those neighborhood carollers,
Sing your favorite Christmas songs.

CHORUS
We're gonna sing Joy to the World,
We're gonna sing Hark the Herald,
We're gonna sing Deck the Halls,
And It Came Upon a Midnite Clear,
We're gonna sing every Christmas Carol,
That we can remember,
We're gonna end with a Merry Christmas,
and a Happy New Year.

Some of us can sing in tune,
The others sing loud and clear,
We've got a version of We Three Kings,
You've really got to hear.

Bless the house that has welcomed us,
And shared its Christmas cheer,
Joy to all of the hearts within,
All throughout the year.
Good luck to all of us carollers,
As down the road we go,
May we be warmed by the toddy,
And the joys of the mistletoe.

CHORUS

also (this is my favorite holilday collection of music)
they do another one on teh same album:

COWBOY CHRISTMAS

BY CONNIE KALDOR AND ROY (BIM) FORBES

Christmas can be lonely for the cowboy,
The nearest neighbor is miles away,
If the night is clear you put a jingle in the harness,
And hitch old Nellie to the one horse sleigh.

    CHORUS
    So sing me Ki Yi yippee yippee yi yippee yay
    Wish me well if you are able
    Ki Yi yippee yippee yi yippee yay
    Remember that our Savior was born in a stable
    Ki Yi yippee yippee yi yippee yay
    I wish you all a Cowboy Christmas

Now when Mary and Joseph came into the city,
Rich folks didn't have room for them to stay;
So Mary had her baby in a lowly stable,
Cattle and horses wouldn't turn the Lord away.

    CHORUS

Now there's some that turn their noses up at Cowboys,
We're rowdy and we're scruffy, we're not high society,
But remember that the angels chose to sing for shepherds,
And shepherds were the cowboys of Galilee.

Subject: RE: Your favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 17 Nov 03 - 04:08 PM

Among the more common classic Christmas songs, Oh Come Emmanuel, Bleak Mid Winter, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and Here a Torch Jennette, Isabella. Some least common, Lord of the Dance, Sweet Lamb, There Was A Pig Went Out to Dig, Twas On A Night Like This, Make My Christmas Small, and Sussex Mummer's Carol. And for a good laugh during the holidays, Robert Earl Keen's "Merry Christmas From the Family" and John Williamson's "Christmas Photo"