Most hated Christmas music

Subject: Most hated Christjas music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 01:05 PM

All subjective of course as one man's meat etc. But I shall start the ball rolling

Compared to Eartha Kitt's version, all other renditions of 'Santa Baby' are pants.

Chris de Burgh's (known in our house as crispy burk) spaceman song just makes me shake my head in disbelief

I've hated 'Away in a Manger' with a passion after sitting through umpteen school nativity plays

Any more for any more? :-D

Subject: RE: Most hated Christjas music
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 01:31 PM

I can live without
"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus".

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 02:09 PM

Wonderful bloody Christmastime. Give over, Macca...
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (little? "LITTLE"???)
That terrible Yorkshire pub version of While Shepherds Watched
Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas - I mean, "They said there'll be snow this Christmas, they said there'll be peace on Earth - "they"? WHO said?!
Mistletoe and Wine (with children singing "Christian rhymes" fer chrissake!)

Subject: RE: Most hated Christjas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 03:23 PM

What a twat!

I'm not familiar with that one. Do you have a tune to go with it?

DC

Subject: RE: Most hated Christjas music
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 03:31 PM

And then there was
"Dear Santa, Have You Had the Measles?"

Subject: RE: Most hated Christjas music
From: Helen
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 04:03 PM

No Doug, that is Guest, Groovy's autobiographical song, based on every single comment I have read by him/her/them on Mudcat. :-D

My song for the list is Little Drummer Boy. par rump-a-pum-pum

Subject: RE: Most hated Christjas music
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 04:17 PM

Hate ‘em all - apart from this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N2o6MAxecA

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: JennieG
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 04:28 PM

Definitely "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus". Hate it with a passion.
Actually, that goes for all the mawkish over-sentimental 'happy family' Christmas songs.

Can't stand "Little drummer boy". Our son Stephen The Drummer loathes it.

"Grandma got run over by a reindeer" is another, and the various follow-ups to it as well.

Songs about winter but not about Christmas. That includes "Jingle bells", "Sleigh ride" etc. As for "Winter wonderland"....

That will do for a start. Bah humbug, and thank you for listening.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 04:39 PM

I'll offer a palate cleanser to GUEST, Ray's dreadful movie scene with a background story by David Pogue about Handel's Messiah. Though it's my impression that more people like than dislike this one.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 05:29 PM

Yes, JennieG, being in Oz it's not easy to relate to all the winter songs at Christmas.

I don't think I have ever heard anyone sing The Little Drummer Boy and manage to drag it up out of the gloomy depths. The worst renditions are sung flat, with no feeling, no sense of rhythm, and really, really painfully slo-o-o-o-o-wly. Depressing!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 05:46 PM

I once saw snow! 30-something years ago a friend moved to Cooma & the weekend I visited was the week before the snow season officially opened, so we made a day trip to one of the resorts an' I saw a snowman!, an' we threw snow balls!! wot fun. Strangely enough my Sydney winter gear wasn't warm enough, so my friend lent me a winter jacket, & my leather soled boots were good for being pulled (briefly) over the snow, more fun, then we went home to a lovely fire. My sneakers were better for walking around.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: JennieG
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 07:32 PM

Having just (finally!) gotten baby Jesus off to sleep, Mary was understandably less than thrilled when that kid turned up with his drum.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 09:00 PM

Funny! Although not funny for Mary.

Sandra, I saw snow on the ground once at the aptly named Snowy Mountains many decades ago but I didn't see it falling. We arrived after it fell.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,PHJim
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 09:31 PM

GUEST,Steve Shaw
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas is one of my favourite Christmas songs. How can you hate a song with such beautiful changes as this?

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Nora Jones

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 22 Dec 24 - 09:37 PM

Anything played in shopping outlets.
The increased prices (read profits) are bad enough without the sentimental twaddle.
Some seem to have their own specially written stuff saying how wonderful they are.
Bah humbug!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 12:52 AM

That's a nice one, PHJim. (A local girl - she went to school at the University of North Texas, known for its excellent music program).

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 04:26 AM

I must look up the Grandma got run over song. Sounds fun :-D

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Big Phil
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 04:30 AM

Any kind of Christmas music done by any "RAP" artist.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Acorn4
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 05:00 AM

Come Back, Ebenezer

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 05:35 AM

Hmm. I'd say that Nora almost made a silk purse out of a sow's ear there. All she has to do now is call in the piano tuner. ;-)

To get quasi-philosophical about all this, I suppose we should concede that Christmas wouldn't be Christmas were it not for its own particular breed of terrible music. And no-one has yet to tell me why a "little" Christmas. Perhaps "little" was the only word the songwriter could think of to make that line fit his tune. :-)

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 06:20 AM

A quick Google search comes up with several sites that say "Little Christmas" is another name for Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, on 6th January. It is celebrated by a number of different cultures around the world, sometimes as "Women's Little Christmas" (presumably because it was a well deserved rest after the busy holiday period).

..... but I suspect that Steve is right - that "little" was the only word the songwriter could think of to make that line fit his tune

DC

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 06:54 AM

I don't think you'd be singing things like "Make the Yule-tide gay" or "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough" if the song were about Epiphany on January 6, Doug. Regrettably, I had to sift through all the awful lyrics of the damned thing to pick out those adorable snippets...

Good old Irving Berlin, eh? :-( It wasn't the only awful Christmas song of his, was it? God bless America, but just remember that this land is your land...

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Sol
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 07:32 AM

Whenever any of my favourite singers release a "Christmas album", I get sick to my stomach. It's just a cheap money grabber.
I could maybe accept one Christmas song from them, but that's just me being charitable. Well, it IS Christmas ;-)

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: MudGuard
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 08:43 AM

hm. I always thought Jazz was written with two zeds, not one s.
Be it as it is: I hate everything jazz/jas song, be it Christmas or not ...

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 09:40 AM

And I hear that George Michael has bagged the UK Number One spot with his God-awful, buttock-clenching "Last Christmas." Add that to my list of shame...

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 10:39 AM

Good old Irving Berlin, eh?

I don't think you can blame Irving Berlin for "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". The songwriters were Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.

DC

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 12:17 PM

Quite right, Doug I got two lots of googles mangled. :-(

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,The Truth Will Out
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 12:29 PM

'And I hear that George Michael has bagged the UK Number One spot '

Not bad for a man who'll have been dead since 25/12/2016!

Jayz, you're a bit of a tit, Shaw.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 12:38 PM

God Messed Ye Jerry Rental Men
While Shepherds Washed their Socks by Night
No Hay in a Manger

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 01:04 PM

We three kings of Orient are,
Smoking on a big fat cigar,
It was loaded, it exploded,
Off to yonder star.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Thompson
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 01:13 PM

Saccharine takes the courses of most Christmas songs. But I like the Australian classic How to Make Gravy.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: robomatic
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 02:34 PM

My pet peeve is a 'version' of Little Drummer Boy they play at my coffee shop which has a little repetitive drum beat which hammers its way into your noggin.

But this year I've become sensitized to the lyric of "I'll be home for Christmas" which appears to be a sad shaggy dog style tale where the singer goes "you can count on me" and waxes poetic with detail but the final wods are: "if only in my dreams." which for me subtracts all the promise and hope of the entire song.

Now, for a couple of songs I really like:

"Christmas Dream" written by Andrew Loyd Weber and only available so far as I know in the opening credits of movie: The Odessa File.

Stan Rogers: "First Christmas Away From Home."

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 02:51 PM

Yeah, I'd much rather talk about Xmas/Seasonal tunes I like-
Christmas Day Ida Mornin'
Christmas Eve (Tommy Coen's Reel)
A Rovin' on a Winter's Night

to mention a few

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 03:18 PM

Yeah, Christmas Eve...

It is the song that George Michael recorded decades ago and it's made Number One again, oh Truth Will Out. That's the glory of records - they don't necessarily die with you. Perhaps the word "will" in your moniker is the operative bit. Let us know when that truth of yours finally emerges!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 04:06 PM

Chris Rea is from Middlesbrough so "Driving home for Christmas" is about being stuck on the A1 :-D

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 04:34 PM

At least he's got the sense to be FROM Middlesbrough and not IN it!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 05:14 PM

"That terrible Yorkshire pub version of While Shepherds Watched"

No doubt there are some terrible Yorkshire pubs! And, I believe, more than 30 settings of While Shepherds Watched have been collected in Yorkshire and over the border in Derbyshire.

So lots more pubs and carols to give a try! Many of them compare quite well with those found in other counties.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Dec 24 - 06:53 PM

OK! As I'm spending this fraught (in our house!) pre-Christmas being picked on for my errors (and fair dos, guv), and even bonked by the powers that be, I'll correct meself! Ahem: "That terrible version of While Shepherds Watched, as sung in some Yorkshire pubs which, in many cases, are excellent establishments..." Howzat, Henry old son?   :-)

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 03:48 AM

I’m very surprised, on a music forum on which I’d guess many of us are musicians and/or singers ourselves, to read sneery, ‘superior’ posts about a hugely successful Christmas record on which, not only did the singer write the song himself, but also played every instrument on the track.

And George Michael could actually sing, that’s not something that could be truthfully claimed about everyone who has had successful Christmas records.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 04:20 AM

Everyone, even musicians, are allowed to dislike some music! Bear in mind that the title of this thread is "most hated (not bad) Christmas music" and, in the spirit of that, give us the one you run from BWM!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 04:59 AM

... the title of this thread is "most hated (not bad) Christmas music" and, in the spirit of that, give us the one you run from ...

I know that was directed at BWM but as I have already made comments upthread but not identified my "most hated":-

I would go along with GUEST,Guest with "anything played in shopping outlets" but the one I most dislike is 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas'.

Why? Because it is the one that 'carol singers' blurt out when you open the door and they expect you to give them money. It's quite likely that they don't know the 2nd verse of any carol, if they know any other carols at all.

DC

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 05:17 AM

Anything by Gene Autry

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 05:33 AM

"And George Michael could actually sing..."

Hmm, tricky. Depends what is meant by "sing," I suppose. I love Shane McGowan more than almost any other pop/folk (etc.) singer, but I'm not getting into fights as to whether or not he could "sing." Many people revere Bob Dylan (I'm not one of 'em, not by a country mile), but ditto. Sinatra could hold a tune with exquisite timing and imbue songs with a certain character, but I can't be doing with him at all. I admire but do not remotely love those clever jazz singers who do that "scat" thing. In fact, I can't listen to that at all. If you say that "well, at least he could sing..." you're sort of implying that many others are just charlatan pretenders who couldn't, which is a bit of a shame, because the bottom line is that it's all a matter of wot lights yer personal fire...

Anyway, I'm an atheist and I love Hark The Herald and In the Deep Midwinter (the Holst one) and Maddy singing the Holly and the Ivy...

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 05:44 AM

My carefully written post last night wouldn’t send, and has now disappeared, so this is a test before I re-write it!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 05:53 AM

Ok, that sent, so here y’are:

Agreed with Keberoxu and JennyG about that awful “Mommy” song. None to partial to “Frosty the Snowman “ either.

If you think carols in December are bad, you might not like “Carols in August”, an annual workshop at Whitby Folk Week, led by Dr Ian Russell, and featuring many of the Yorkshire and Derbyshire pub carols. Massed choir, small band, just fabulous! I usually play in the band and help out the altos.

And Christmas fail: played for a “Christmas Bonanza” in our local library (ssshh!) very recently. Loads of kids present, happy to dance, and sing along with the usual stuff, but then requested “Jingle Bell Rock”: oops, not in the repertoire - yet! Project for next year.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 06:12 AM

Just for the record.
When I first asked Ian to do the Carols in August (my idea) he was against it, saying it would not work.
He took a bit of persuading but thankfully I talked him round.
We are still good friends but I do gently pull his leg about it occasionally.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 08:37 AM

TBH, Dave, I don’t ‘hate’ any Christmas song(s) - there are some I can take or leave, and some I wouldn’t necessarily choose to hear, but none I can truly say I ‘hate’. Even the ones I wouldn’t choose to hear are other people’s favourites, and their gaining pleasure from hearing them is a plus AFAIC.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 08:50 AM

Yea, hate may be too strong a word but I think everyone understands that 'hate' in this context is shorthand for ones that you would be happy to miss :-)

I always say, and I think the sentiment is well represented by all in this thread, that I try to never say any music is good ar bad - simply that I dislike it or, on occasion, do not understand it. I am told that if I want to get more out of, for instance, Jazz, I need to work at undertanding the nuances. But I have turned 70, I know what I like already and there is enough of the style of music I like to last me the rest of my life so I am reluctant to spend whatever little time I have left in trying to get to grips with something I dislike!

Anyroads, back to the thread...

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 09:05 AM

"I try to never say any music is good or bad - simply that I dislike it or, on occasion, do not understand it."

Can I borrow your Freddie and the Dreamers box set, Dave? :-)

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 09:07 AM

Hah Bumhug

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: G-Force
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 10:02 AM

No-one's mentioned that godawful Slade record.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 10:25 AM

Might that not be because a significant number (of which I'm one) do actually quite like it?

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 10:39 AM

More favorites-

Run Rudolph Run by Chuck Berry
Galician Carol by Carlos Nunez
Stella Splendens (I especially like Jordi Savali's version).

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 10:41 AM

and Don't Shoot Me Santa by The Killers

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:21 AM

Right, folks, you asked for it ---

I hereby take "hate" as "will leave the room" or "will throw the radio against the wall", and nominate White Christmas as the worst-ever earworm fodder. To me it's so repulsively dire that only the commissioning execs in Hollywood could have had the bad taste to extract it from one film and build another round it.

Hollywood in general, and said atrocity in particular, are part of the reason that English people, for whom getting snowed in is headline news, believe Something Is Wrong With The Universe if there's no snow on Christmas Day.

.... End of rant.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Groovy
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:22 AM

Helen's also a twat.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:27 AM

Oh dear, and it was going so well. There’s always one…

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:29 AM

...fly in the Christmas Punch.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Rain Dog
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:39 AM

"Yea, hate may be too strong a word"

It is but unfortunately too often found on the internet these days.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 12:10 PM

I don't know if this qualifies as Christmas music, but it is a part of the festive season. If I never hear Auld Lang Syne again, it will be too soon.

DC

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,!
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 12:17 PM

And Doug Chadwick's the biggest twat of the lot!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 12:18 PM

Flattery will get you nowhere!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 01:10 PM

Yay, DC and I have been granted a Twathood! What a lifetime achievement!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 01:14 PM

I'm going to add it to my CV.

DC

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 02:41 PM

One of the other reasons I have to leave the room when The Little Drummer Boy is played is the boring, repetitive, unimaginative melody line ("melody line", quote unquote). It is like water torture.

On the opposite side of the fence, the interesting melody, its twists and turns, and the harmonies in O Holy Night for me are sublime, IMHO.

And yes, I know some people cringe when they hear it, but it stops me in my tracks when it is beautifully performed.

IL DIVO - O Holy Night

Mahalia Jackson

And of course, again IMHO, there has to be a version with harp:
Celtic Trio and Choir - Emer Barry and Affiniti

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 04:37 PM

Robomatic - didn't Isla St Clair record "Christmas Dream" some 40+ years ago?

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 05:00 PM

Just remembered the Bob Dylan one. Well, I say remembered but my auto immune system has actually blocked out the title. All I can really remember is "Must be Santa Claus". I guess it is ironic?

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 07:11 PM

Thanks for the “Carols in August”, Malcolm!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 08:39 PM

Cheers Tattie
My favourite modern festive song incidentally is
Nat King Cole's chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Best wishes to all!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 05:26 AM

"That terrible version of While Shepherds Watched, as sung in some Yorkshire pubs which, in many cases, are excellent establishments..."

Which version (of the 30-odd) have you in mind? One virtue of the multiple versions is that no brain power needs to be expended on remembering the words, so there's more brain power left for the parts.

But I do hate one that is often sung in the pubs, the one about Kris Kringle with his sleigh; largely because KK is otherwise unknown in Britain, where the person on the sleigh is Father Christmas / Santa Claus himself, not "Santa Claus's man".

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 11:46 AM

*Disagree*, Helen: O Holy Night has, much to Herself's very audible disgust, just been voted Classic FM Carol of the Year for the Nth time running (for a staggeringly large value of N). For her, that really does have the "leave the room" nature, largely through the ceaseless repetition of it right through December. But then she can't see why I complain about the endless repetition of (*akkh* *phht*) White Christmas.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 01:33 PM

MaJoC, I was betting that at least one person here would vote against O Holy Night. I recall reading that when it was first performed there was a lot of negative criticism.

There are some performers' versions that I can't listen to, but there are some others which are amazing - again, IMHO. A Canadian man who is a member of the music session group here has, on a number of occasions, tried to convince me to listen to the Celine Dion version, but I can't bring myself to do it. Also, it has taken a few years for the session group to finally get their heads around playing the tricky rhythm of the song - but they only play it for a couple of weeks before Christmas in preparation for our annual Christmas carol busking and then they forget about it for another 11 months.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 04:23 PM

Until recently I was our music session group tsar but ... well, other events have occurred. That's another story.

Anyway, a few years ago I managed to impose my choice of Christmas carols on the busking list:

Hark the Herald Angels Sing, While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks (aka Washed Their Socks), We Three Kings of Orient Are, Ding Dong Merrily on High, Good King Wenceslas, O Little Town of Bethlehem (to the Lewis Redner tune), O Come All Ye Faithful, The Holly and the Ivy, The First Nowell, O Holy Night (surprise, surprise!), and Silent Night.

I deliberately chose traditional carols and not modern songs and I left Jingle Bells and (the neverending) Twelve Days of Christmas off the list.

I would have liked to add a couple more, e.g. Once in Royal David's City but we had to be realistic in putting together a busking list.

Added to a previous comment I made about the BEST carol ever, i.e O Holy Night, I refuse to listen to Mariah Carey's version too. It is possible I could be pleasantly surprised by her version or Celine Dion's version, but I'm not brave enough to give it a go.

Also, I never "got" In the Bleak Midwinter, until I heard Charlotte Ritchie's gentle solo performance with piano accompaniment on the amazingly clever and funny UK TV show called Ghosts. (Even the US version of the show is amazing, mainly because the Brits assisted with the production. Normally US versions of Brit or Oz comedy get lost in translation. Sorry, that's a fight for another day!!! :-D )

So, in summary, there are some carols I absolutely love and others I can't listen to, and a big bunch in between, and mostly my response to them is dictated by the musical interpretation of the performers.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 07:12 PM

I love “O Holy Night” but the stand-out version for me is one that was recorded at my daughter’s school all of 30 years ago, with a senior school pupil with a very good voice taking the solo, and the school choir doing the rest, and one of the music teachers accompanying on piano. Not available commercially, but I still have the CD the school made of that and other carols, and did make it into a private video, featuring the very deep snow we had here in the winter of 2010-11. Definitely the best version!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Neil D
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 08:44 PM

I don't hate "I'll Be Home for Christmas" per se, I hate that nobody gets that it's a very sad song. It seems like a pleasant if sentimental song till the very last line which says I'll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams. You suddenly realize this is coming from a soldier in WWII (released in 1943) who will definitely not be home for Christmas. It's like a gut punch.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Pappy Fiddle
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 12:08 AM

Sometimes, a sad song helps me feel and understand the depth of sorrow I might be having trouble with. Say I'm stuck on some assignment in the Far East at Christmas time, and I miss my family back home. If I were to listen to "I'll Be Home for Christmas" it would doubtless trigger some strong sad emotion. Yeah, my situation sucks but I'm facing and feeling that fact, which gets me thru it. Sometimes bad things happen to people and they avoid the emotional impact, which can turn them into wierd, shallow people.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 12:18 AM

Home Alive by ’45

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 01:00 AM

The song that saved Christmas

The Story behind "The Little Drummer Boy"

Harry Moses Simeone "Little Drummer Boy"

Migraine headache may result

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 03:30 AM

Bert Janch does a great version of In thr bleak Midwinter but the words are wrong!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 10:35 AM

Barbara Dickson's version of that is pretty nice.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 12:16 PM

So is Breezy's rendition. Genuinely moving.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 05:05 PM

I just found the short video clip of Charlotte Ritchie singing

In the Bleak Midwinter on the UK Ghosts TV show, but my memory was incomplete. The ghosts sing with her in gentle harmony. Beautiful!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 05:20 PM

I'm partial to the version by The Lower Lights

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 05:57 PM

Helen (a year ago) said " I was betting that at least one person here would vote against O Holy Night. I recall reading that when it was first performed there was a lot of negative criticism."
She must be older than I am, which is saying something. Back in the 1950s we used to stand round grandma's piano sing it from an old book of songs.
Don't know modern versions of it, except the one our choir MD arranged for us.

I very much agree with Steve Shaw. The one that makes me cringe is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. I thought Christmas was supposed to be a big religious festival. (though not for me now).

Heard that streaming has made a difference to the Christmas Charts. People downloading their old favourites

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 06:24 PM

A year ago?

From: Helen - PM Date: 25 Dec 24 - 01:33 PM

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 08:30 PM

As you don't really have to hate Christmas music because you can just turn it off, I think that the thing to hate most could be the constant bombardment with it that starts on Dec 1. A huge culprit in that regard in the UK is Classic FM. From that date until New Year, tune to Classic FM for even just a little while and you'll hear all the recycled/regurgitated/refashioned/rejigged old Christmas chestnuts over and over again, ad nauseam. Now when I'm driving along, and Radio 3 is playing some God-awful Second Viennese School atonal string sextet or something, my resort is to retune to Classic FM for a bit. But that cannot be done in December. If my choice in December is between the Schoenberg, Classic FM or to staple my left tit to an angry beehive, the latter wins hands down every time.