Hey, Carly: I love the Cherry Tree Carol, too and I've heard some extremely imaginiative and refreshing versions of the Little Drummer Boy.

We've been listening to a CD of rhythm and blues artists doing Christmas songs, and it's a reminder that both the old familiar songs like Oh Holy Night, and obscure ones like What Made The Baby Cry can still be moving. What Made The Baby Cry is an unusual song done by a modern version of the Platters, suggesting that when the baby Jesus was born, he cried because he was suddenly faced with all the suffering and misery in the world.

I also love No Room At The Inn, which I sing with the Messengers. It too places the nativity scene in the most ordinary environment.
I particularly like the line :

   "The bell boy and the Porter, the waitress and the cook
    Will be witnesses up in Heaven to all the things it took."

I smile every time I sing that, wondering how they ever envisioned a bellboy and a porter in Bethlehem. The song is an old black gospel song and it's not surprising that all the "witnesses" were in jobs normally hgeld by black folks.

Jerry