My favourite Christmas songs

Subject: Lyr Add: I'M WALKING BACKWARDS FOR CHRISTMAS
From: little john cameron
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 08:03 PM

I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas

I'm walking backwards for Christmas,
Across the Irish Sea,
I'm walking backwards for Christmas,
It's the only thing for me.

I've tried walking sideways,
And walking to the front,
But people just look at me,
And say it's a publicity stunt.

I'm walking backwards for Christmas,
To prove that I love you.

An immigrant lad, loved an Irish colleen
From Dublin Galway Bay.
He longed for her arms,
But she spurned his charms
And sailed o'er the foam away

She left the lad by himself, on his own
All alone, a-sorrowing
And sadly he dreamed, or at least that's the way it seemed, buddy,
That an angel quieted him...
. An angel quieted the same.

I'm walking backwards for Christmas,
Across the Irish Sea.
I'm walking backwards for Christmas,
It's the finest thing for me.

And so I've tried walking sideways,
And walking to the front.
But people just laughed, and said,
"It's a publicity stunt".

So I'm walking backwards for Christmas To prove that I love you.

Ah noo ah;m gettin in the spirit.ljc

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: 53
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:27 PM

alvin and the chipmunks with david seville, doing all 3 parts of the chipmunks. BOB

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:42 PM

My serious choice is Carol of the Bells. I can't think of a more lovely sound.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Allan C.
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:55 PM

You can hear me sing one of my personal favorites on Ron Olesko's radio show on the afternoon of the 23rd. See this thread.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: VoxFox
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 10:27 PM

I really like the song I had on a Sesame Street Christmas record (yeah, a record) when my boys were tots, entitled "Keep Christmas with You" or something like that. I've never heard anyone else ever do it which is a shame because it is really nice. Anyone heard it and if so would you have the lyrics? Greatly appreciate it. VF

Subject: ADDPOP: Keep Christmas With You
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 10:50 PM

How's this, VoxFox?
-Joe Offer-

---

"Keep Christmas With You All Through The Year"
(from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street)

When Christmas time is over and presents put away, don't be sad
There'll be so much to treasure about this Christmas day and the fun we've had
So may happy feelings to celebrate with you
And, oh, the good time hurry by so fast,
But even when it's over there's something you can do to make Christmas last:

Keep Christmas with you
All through the year,
When Christmas is over,
You can keep it near.

Think of this Christmas day
When Christmas is far away.

Keep Christmas with you
All through the year,
When Christmas is over,
Save some Christmas cheer.
These precious moments,
Hold them very dear
And keep Christmas with you
All through the year.

Christmas means the spirit of giving
Peace and joy to you,

The goodness of loving,
The gladness of living;
These are Christmas too.

So, keep Christmas with you
All through the year,
When Christmas is over,
Save some Christmas cheer.
These precious moments,
Hold them very dear
And keep Christmas with you
All through the year.


I found it here (click)
You might be able to hear it at Live 365 Muppets Radio

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: DonMeixner
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 11:00 PM

Oh Holy Night, with out question is my favorite Christmas hymn. Besides being the benchmark for singers to aim at it has some musical dynamics that are un equalled in any other Christmas song.

Ofcourse that an opinion and opinions are what makes for grand controversy!

Don

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: VoxFox
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 11:10 PM

Joe, you are a sweetheart!!! Thank you so much. I will have a go at the music site later on tonight. I just sang it through while reading the words and I fell in love with it all over again. You are the best. Merry Christmas!! VoxFox

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Firecat At College
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 07:42 AM

My favourite is Wham "Last Christmas", closely followed by Walking In The Air. Has anyone got the lyrics for them?

Subject: ADD: Walking In The Air
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 07:59 AM

Walking In The Air

We're walking in the air
We're floating in the moonlit sky
The people far below are sleeping as we fly
I'm holding very tight
I'm riding in the midnight blue
I'm finding I can fly so high above with you


Far across the world
The villages go by like dreams
The rivers and the hills, the forests and the streams

Children gaze open mouthed
Taken by surprise
Nobody down below believes their eyes

We're surfing in the air
We're swimming in the frozen sky
We're drifting over icy mountains floating by

Suddenly swooping low
On an ocean deep
Rousing up a mighty monster from his sleep

And walking in the air
We're dancing in the midnight sky
And everyone who sees us greets us as we fly

We're walking in the air
We're walking in the air


Wham - Last Christmas

"Last Christmas"

[CHORUS:]
Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away
This year
To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

[CHORUS:]

Once bitten and twice shy
I keep my distance
But you still catch my eye
Tell me baby
Do you recognize me?
Well
It's been a year
It doesn't surprise me
I wrapped it up and sent it
With a note saying "I love you"
I meant it
Now I know what a fool I've been
But if you kissed me now
I know you'd fool me again

[CHORUS]

A crowded room
Friends with tired eyes
I'm hiding from you
And your soul of ice
My god I thought you were
Someone to rely on
Me?
I guess I was a shoulder to cry on

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man under cover but you tore me apart
Now I've found a real love you'll never fool me again

[CHORUS x2]

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man under cover buy you tore him apart
Maybe next year I'll give it to someone
I'll give it to someone special.


Hope this doesn't come out in one big block. Sorry, Joe, if it has.

Jethro Tull's Solstice Bells does it for me

Line Breaks <br> added.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: YOU'RE A MEAN ONE MR GRINCH
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 09:13 AM

Ooooh, that's a tough one. When I was small my mother had a beautiful instrumental record of "The Coventry Carol" played on recorders that I loved; I have no clue who
the artist was! Then there's several versions of "The Holly and the Ivy", the "Good King Wenceslas" on David Grisman's "Acoustic Christmas", and "The Sussex Carol" (a strong contender for #1).

Then again, there's always this beloved classic:

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel.
Mr. Grinch.

You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Grinch.

I wouldn't touch you, with a
thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile.
Mr. Grinch.

Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crocodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch.

The three words that best describe you,
are, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."

You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splot
With moldy purple spots,
Mr. Grinch.

Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch.
With a nauseous super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked horse.
Mr. Grinch.

You're a three decker sauerkraut and toadstool
sandwich
With arsenic sauce.

Cheers!
D.

Line Breaks <br> added.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: A CRADLE IN BETHLEHEM
From: GUEST,Gusty
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 09:36 AM

A Cradle in Bethlehem
(As sung by Nat King Cole. Don't know who wrote it, but it's a nice song.)
Sing sweet and low, your lullabye
While angels say amen.
A mother tonight is rocking,
A cradle in Bethlehem.

While wisemen follow through the dark
A star that beckons them,
A mother tonight is rocking,
A cradle in Bethlehem.

A little child shall lead them
The prophets said, of old.
Through storm and tempest, keep them
Until the bell is tolled.

Sing sweet and low, your lullabye
While angels say amen.
A mother tonight is rocking,
A cradle in Bethlehem.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Morticia
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 09:51 AM

The Corpus Christi Carol.....words in the DT

Subject: Lyr Add: CORN, WATER, AND WOOD
From: GUEST,vrdpkr
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 12:05 PM

Lots of favorites. I start singing this one around Thanksgiving. The song is from New Mexico and can be heard on Michael Martin Murphy's Cowboy Christmas


CORN, WATER, AND WOOD
Wendy Waldman, Carol Elliot

  
G  
I was in the arroyo, gathering strays  
                  C           
You know cowboys and cattle don't get holidays  
   G                  
I would have been finished, 'cept for one little guy  
                 D       
Who kept leading me farther away.  
  
              G             
He went up on the mesa, across the ravine  
               C       
Past the Indian ruins and a muddy red stream  
        G              
So I stopped for a spell, 'cause I was bone tired  
                                         D  
And I guess I started to dream  
  
          Em         
I saw three painted ponies, three dark-skinned men  
         C                                                                 D  
With masks made of clay, and voices like the wind  
                 G                          
Singing, "We seek the soul of all that is good  
      D        
We come bearing corn, water, and wood  
G                                           C  
Stop and behold all that is good  
         D                                                  G  
Give thanks for the corn, water, and wood."  
  
Em                    
Now I'm an old trailhound, I've always believed  
Your boots and your saddle is all that you leave  
No miracles happen, no angels appear  
But I know what I saw, standing there  
G  
I shook myself over, had I been asleep?  
That's just three Pueblo children, tending their sheep  
And they yelled, "Merry Christmas!" as they brought me my stray  
And their voices rang through the mesquite  
  
Singing, "We seek the soul of all that is good  
We come bearing corn, water and wood.  
Come and behold all that is good.  
Give thanks for the corn, water, and wood."

Line Breaks <br> added.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: BRIGHTEST AND BEST OF THE SUNS OF THE ...
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 10:20 PM

Brightest and best of the suns of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid;
Star in the east, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Cold on His cradle the dewdrops are shining,
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall.
Angels adore Him, in slumber reclining,
Maker and Monarch, and Savior of all!

Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gifts would His favor secure;
Richer by far is the heart's adoration-
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.


Jean Ritchie (Granny Catty's melody goes to this, she sang it always on her Christmas Eve, January 5th, at the fireside in our house. One verse is left out here- and the first verse given above is actually the chorus).

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Alio
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 05:43 AM

Both Wham's song and 'Walking in the Air' are on a Christmas CD I bought last year (it's called something like "The Best Christmas CD Ever") My favourite is 'In The Bleak Midwinter' - on the CD it's sung by Bert Jansch, and arranged by Ralph McTell. Beautiful! I can't find it in the database though.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 12:07 PM

Two Christmas songs I enjoy that are not sung all that much are: "Make My Present Small" and "Twas On a Night Like This". Both have been recorded by Cathy and Dave Para. They have a great Christmas recording on the Folk Legacy Label which also features the Patons. From the more usual Christmas songs O Come Emanuel, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and a second to In the Bleak Mid-Winter with Bring A Torch Jeanette, Isabella and Good King Wenceslas running close behind. Also the Friendly Beasts.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 08:30 PM

Sorry- not just one verse omitted in, Brightest and Best; also the first verse, "Hail the blest morn..." Jean

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Steve Latimer
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 09:00 PM

I've always liked "Little Drummer Boy". I especially liked the Bing Crosby, David Bowie version. I have never been able to find it on CD though.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: marty D
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 11:43 PM

The Virgin Mary Had a little baby, as sung by Pete Seeger on his Christmas album. I grew up on that record. It was played every year til it wore out.

marty

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 11:52 PM

You're a Mean One - Mr. Grinch

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 01:39 AM

"Brightest and Best," as performed on Jean's "Kentucky Christmas" album.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: TeriLu
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 12:41 AM

I Wonder As I Wander A La Nanita Il Est N'est le Divin Enfant

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 12:53 AM

Having already had my favorite mentioned, I'll simply say there are a few nice ones done here.

Spaw

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,The Burren Ranger
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 01:10 PM

'A Silent Night (Christmas 1915) sung by Jerry Lynch from his album 'The Dimming of the Day. Peace, Light and Happiness to all this Christmas, TBR

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 01:14 PM

I'll play Spaw since someone stole his cookie -

"It's Over" by Roy Orbison. *BG*

Steve

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: SharonA
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 05:00 PM

"The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."), though there's a special place in my heart for Lou and Peter Berryman's "Big Dead Bird" ("...gonna have a big dead bird for dinner on Christmas day") and The Arrogant Worms's "Oh God, I'm Santa Claus."

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 05:32 PM

For purity and reverence of sound, I second 'Oh, Holy Night'. About my least favorite is the Hallelujah Chorus. Syllables without emotion just don't do it for me. (Although I like opera; especially in a foreign language. Go figure.)

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: mzkitty
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 08:37 PM

My favorite Christmas song has to be The Little Drummer Boy. I can relate to it so well. Music is all I've ever had to give...just like that boy. I love to sing it and always get tears in my eyes from the lines

"Baby Jesu, I am a poor boy too.. I have no gift to bring That's fit to give a king... Shall I play for you on my drum?... ..I played my best for Him.. ...then He smiled at me.." Yup..that's my favorite.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Bluegrass Girl
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 11:29 PM

My favorite: "Another Silent Night" by Patrick Ashley. True story -- written for his buddy whose wife died of breast cancer, leaving two small boys.

Words tear your heart out! Available on Pat's CD of the same name; I'm pretty sure Smokey Greene has it on a tape, too.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: CapriUni
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 12:22 PM

Luckily, we have it in the digitrad The Holly and the Ivy Singing it just makes me happy! What more could you ask?

As I, personally, put more emphasis on the solstice than on Christ's birth at this time of year, I wrote some of my own lyrics for the some of the verses (chorus stays the same):

Oh the Holly tree bears a blossom
As white as any milk
And the first light of this Yule dawn
Is shimmering like the silk

Oh the Holly tree bears a berry
As green as any grass
And the growing light of these days
Reminds us that winter will pass

Oh the Holly tree bears a berry
As red as any blood
And as the year turns we all do vow
To use our lives for the good

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Mudlark
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 03:12 PM

Carol of the Bells, Bring a Torch, O Holy Night....tho I no longer sing them they were always my favs. On a more secular note, the original version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas has always torn my heart out ("Someday we all will be together, if the fates allow...and if not we'll have to muddle thru somehow...")

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 12:39 PM

O Holy Night, is my favorite to sing. Done well, it can bring tears to my eyes everytime I hear it. Merry Christmas everyone!

LL

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 10:07 PM

Nearly impossible to pick just one. The prime candidates at the moment, though, are (list subject to change without notice; offer void where prohibited by law):

O Holy Night
Christmas in the Trenches (John McCutcheon)
A Fairytale of New York (Pogues w/ Kirsty MacColl)
Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
Once In Royal David's City
O Come Emmanuel
Nothing But A Child (Steve Earle/Maria McKee)
Christmas Must Be Tonight (The Band)
Sound Over All Waters (Paul Winter Consort/Susan Osborn)
Much of "A Muppet Christmas Carol"
I Wonder As I Wander
In the Bleak Midwinter
Christmas For Cowboys (John Denver; don't know who wrote it)
The First Noel
Winter Wonderland
Let It Snow

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: SDShad
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 10:08 PM

WHOOOPS!

That last post was me, sans cookie, on a brand-spankin'-new 'puter.

Shad

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 10:15 PM

Well I love your list there Shadrack and I'm GLAD to see you!! Merry Christmas ans WITH a NEW PUTER!!!! oooo-boy

Spaw

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: SDShad
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 11:31 PM

Right back atcha, Pat! Right now I'm listening to the Kinks' "Father Christmas" on my Christmas mix--kinda fun. Can't fill up the new box with MP3s, though. Beth has all these so-called "graphics" and "animation" projects that she claims take up lots of room. :-) They're already starting a pool at her workplace for how long it'll take her to fill up 80GB....

As my foster daughter has been known to say to me at Christmas, "Feliz Nerdy Dad,"

Chris

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: allie kiwi
Date: 24 Dec 01 - 12:26 AM

"Ooooh, that's a tough one. When I was small my mother had a beautiful instrumental record of "The Coventry Carol" played on recorders that I loved; I have no clue who the artist was! Guest Desdemona"

I have an old recording of the Trapp Family singers playing that...

Allie

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Haruo
Date: 24 Dec 01 - 03:51 AM

Shad: Numerous sources say "Christmas for Cowboys" is by Steve Weisberg, and several indicate it is © 1975 by him.
Liland

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: SDShad
Date: 24 Dec 01 - 03:49 PM

Thanks, Liland. I have sheet music to it somewhere, and now you mention it, I remember that name being on it, but it was nowhere near me when I posted that list....

Chris

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 24 Dec 01 - 04:20 PM

John Lennon's So this is Christmas and Chrissie Hynde's 2000 Miles are nice "new" Christmas tunes. Of the classics, I like Mel Torme doing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and Jerry Vale's Little Altar Boy. Favorite carols would be God Rest Ye and Deck the Halls, because of their medieval tone.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,Ewen Tubridy
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 05:48 PM

I am looking for the sheet music of "Silent Night (Christmas 1915) sung by Jerry Lynch released 29th Nov., 2004.
Can you help.
Regards,
Ewen Tubridy

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 06:20 PM

Ewen

Info on the song in this thread.


LEJ

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 07:32 PM

"Red and Green Christmas", by Nadia Cattouse ( a white Xmas doesn't apply for so many of us)

Subject: Lyr Add: QUEM PASTORES
From: Padre
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 12:44 AM

'QUEM PASTORES' from a ms. of Hoenfurth, Germany c. 1410

He whom joyous shepherds praised,
Whenthe angel's song was raised,
Bidding them be not amazed,
Heaven's all-glorious King is born.

He whom sages westward faring,
Myrrh and gold and incense bearing,
Worshipped, bowing low before him,
Reigns as King this happy morn.

Now rejoice with Jesus' mother,
Praise her new-born son, our brother,
Angels vie with one another,
Praising him beyond the sky.

Sing to Christ, the King who reigneth,
Yet of Mary manhood gaineth,
Born our God; let us adore him:
Glory be to God on high.

Padre

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Scrump
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 05:33 AM

If I had to choose just one, it would definitely be Fairytale of New York. I feel I ought to choose the Christy Moore version because it's more folky; but when it comes down to it I don't think the Pogues' version with Kirsty MacColl can be beaten - so that's the one for me.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: clueless don
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:52 AM

Hard to say - I think it depends on the mood I'm in. Joe Offer already mentioned "Carol of the Bells", which is certainly a favorite. I'm also quite fond of "He is Born, Holy Child Divine".

For "secular seasonal songs", I have always thought that "Winter Wonderland" holds up well on repeated listening (but without that abominable added verse about pretending that the snowman is a circus clown, which the older kids then knock down - awful!)

Don

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: Scrump
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 09:11 AM

The worst Christmas songs tend to be those issued by pop or rock stars cashing in on the festive season - the logic seems to be 'any old crap will do, the fans will buy it in droves anyway'.

Sadly, many of these songs tend to reappear year after year on these awful compilation CDs that get advertised on TV. Who buys them every year? Do these people forget they already have all these songs on last year's CD?

Some of the worst IMO:

Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
Elton John - Step Into Christmas
Denis Waterman & George Cole - What Are We Gonna Get For 'Er Indoors
etc., etc.

Does anyone else have any most hated Christmas songs?

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 09:43 AM

For best I'm leaning towards the Secret of Christmas (or Spirit of Christmas some call it).

For most hated: Merry Christmas Darling, followed closely by Santa Baby.

Subject: RE: My favourite Christmas song
From: ranger1
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 10:02 AM

Hmm, tough one. I think Christ Child's Lullaby is my favorite. I've got two versions on CD, one in English by Kathy Mattea and one in Gaelic on a Green Linnet Christmas compilation. I also like Father Christmas by The Kinks and Christmas at Ground Zero by Weird Al, when I'm in the mood for something less than serious.

As for most hated: pick any of the modern crap being played in most malls. Santa Baby, Mery Christmas Baby, etc.