Christmas Music (cont'd.)

Sunny 104.5's all-Christmas-music format disproves the Falwell/O'Reilly/John Birch "war on Christmas" theory. It also proves that the Clear Channel programming directors have limited, and awful, taste.

In comments below, both Mnemosyne and Andrew mention the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" as an all-time Christmas classic. But you won't hear that in Sunny's playlist. What you will hear are endless not-so-varied variations of a dozen or so chestnuts roasting on an open fire, with a heavy emphasis on the MOR cuts from the "Very Special Christmas" collections. On the whole, it's like a bad cup of coffee -- tepid, sugary and way too white.

That's a shame, because there's a whole lot of great Christmas music out there. Pop Matters offers an Indispensable Guide to Holiday Music that rounds up the best and worst of this year's offerings. I'd particularly call your attention to the collection "A John Waters Christmas," this:

... Motley collection of obscure gems, hand-picked by the Baron of Bad Taste himself, is just about as perfect as Christmas records get. This one's got it all: old school soul sides that deserve canonical inclusion (Big Dee Irwin and Little Eva's "I Wish You a Merry Christmas" is simply divine), foulmouthed redneck swipes at the season's commercialism, doo-wop, a singing saw, Tiny Tim and religious fervor as kitsch. And then there's the collection's coup de grace: "Santa Claus Is a Black Man," a funky single that Waters tracked down on eBay after years of searching.

One of the odd things about the category of "Christmas" music is that it has come to include many songs that have nothing to do with Christmas at all. I referred to these in the previous post as "Winter songs." Examples include: "Sleigh Ride," "Jingle Bells," "Winter Wonderland," "Baby, It's Cold Outside," "Let It Snow!" and "Frosty the Snowman."

None of these mentions or even alludes to Christmas. "Frosty" is explicitly set at the other end of winter -- just before the spring thaw. And the sly pleading of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (I'm partial to the Ray Charles/Nina Simone version) seems more appropriate for Valentine's Day.

But the point here is these songs are about winter. Yet we never hear them at all after Christmas. Four days into winter and our winter songs all get mothballed for another 11 months.

I suppose Falwell and O'Reilly could try to argue that such generic seasonal songs are part of the "War on Christmas." But I think what's happening is the opposite of what they claim. These winter songs aren't taking over Christmas -- Christmas has overtaken them.

To be honest, I can do without most of them anyway -- although I do like "Winter Wonderland." (My favorite version is a mariachi rendition from Steve Taylor, accompanied by a band he hired out of the Los Angeles phone book.)

Some additional, haphazard thoughts on Christmas music:

* Mike T. mentions the Kinks' "Father Christmas" as a "lovely, bitter" Christmas classic. I agree -- we need more angry, class-conscious Christmas songs like it. This was, after all, the template established with the Very First Christmas Song ever recorded -- Mary's Magnificat. As recorded in the first chapter of Luke's Gospel, it reads like something Joe Strummer might've written:

He has brought down rulers from their thrones / but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things / but has sent the rich away empty.

* It's easy to miss, but there's a whiff of that same fervor in the classic carol "O Holy Night," which was written by a radical French socialist and translated into English by an abolitionist. Thus lines like these: "chains shall he break for the slave is our brother / and in his name all oppression shall cease." The impact of this radical hymn is usually blunted, though, by its soaring melody, which invites the worst kind of oversinging. (Celine Dion's version is getting heavy rotation on Sunny 104.5. After listening to her version, cleanse the palatte by listening to Eric Cartman's cattle-prodded rendition.)

* What is Johnny Mathis doing singing "We Need a Little Christmas?" Thank you, Mr. Mathis. You have a lovely voice, I'm just not sure you're what we had in mind for the part of Auntie Mame. We'll call you.

* Likewise, why is Sunny still playing the Jackson 5's now-creepy-seeming rendition of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus?" It makes me feel like I'm eavesdropping on a therapy session and Michael's having a breakthrough regarding some repressed memory.

* I'm not sure why "My Favorite Things" falls into the Christmas category. It's not even a winter song -- in the play/movie it's sung during a thunder storm. It does mention "snowflakes" and "brown paper packages tied up with string," but the latter doesn't really so much suggest Christmas as it does the anticipatory thrill of unexpected mail. Having said that, Coltrane's reinvention is pure genius.

* Things I'm a fan of: Christmas songs in a minor key (e.g., Sam Phillips' haunting "Midnight Clear"); inscrutable English carols (who was Good King Wenceslaus? and what the hell is the baby Jesus doing in a flotilla of three ships?); Mariah Carey's Phil-Spector-ish "All I Want for Christmas" (I offer no defense or apology for this); Danny Elfman's "Edward Scissorhands" soundtrack (not even seasonal, but somehow appropriate); anything sung by a character whose name includes the suffix "-Miser"; story-songs about World War I soldiers calling a truce to celebrate Christmas -- provided that one of those soldiers is not Snoopy.

* "Fairytale of New York," like many of the best Christmas songs, is less about the holiday itself than it is about a kind of wistful, year-end taking stock. Some songs make this explicit -- such as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" or even The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" -- but more often it's implicit, sometimes suggested only by the tone of the song. Loss and regret thus feature prominently in Christmas music.

* Consider, for example, the recurring theme of "home" as an unattainable dream, a place one cannot get to -- as in "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "Please Come Home for Christmas," "Christmas, Baby Please Come Home," "2,000 Miles." I prefer any of those to the cloyingly upbeat, "Home for the Holidays." I don't really want to hear Fezziwig singing about how much happier than me he is. I'd rather hear from Scrooge when he's outside the party, looking in. (That's part of the appeal of Vince Guaraldi's music for the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.) There's a fine line here, though. I like Randy Stonehill's "Christmas at Denny's," but it's a probably a bit too self-consciously maudlin.

* Speaking of "self-consciously maudlin," my friend BD recently explained his take on Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne." In general, I think good Christmas songs aren't so much about nostalgia for childhood innocence, but about regret for the loss of it. But that's no excuse for using bathos as a sledgehammer. Anyway, BD points out that Fogelberg really has nothing to be so depressed about. He's a successful pop star. Sure, touring is hard, but boo hoo. His poor ex, however, is going to be late getting home to her architect husband, where she'll have to explain, after three beers, that she's been parking with a rock star. That'll probably be the last straw in her already strained and loveless marriage and she'll be out on the street. In the rain. Dan Fogelberg: homewrecker.

* While I don't like "Home for the Holidays," I do like Robert Earl Keen's twist on this theme, "Merry Christmas From the Family." Some of it's a bit too Jeff-Foxworthy-ish, but some of the details are dead-on, such as the ad hoc convenience-store shopping lists:

Carve the turkey, turn the ball game on / Mix margaritas when the eggnog's gone

Send somebody to the Quickpak Store / We need some ice and an extension chord,

A can of bean dip and some Diet Rites, / A box of tampons, Marlboro Lights ...

* Does Tom Waits' "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" count as a Christmas song? Aside from the title, it never mentions Christmas. But, like so many good Christmas songs, it captures that year-end, taking-stock, regretfulness -- with just a hint of the possibility of a new beginning. (Ben Folds' desolate "Brick" is also set at Christmastime, yet somehow it isn't regarded as a holiday favorite either.)

* I've heard the Bowie & Bing "Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" duet so many times that I've almost forgotten how breathtakingly weird the whole idea of it is. I'm taking nominations in comments below for what you think should be the next odd-couple bizarre duet on a Christmas song.

Comments

[Derryl Murphy]

Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall) had a Christmas special two-three years ago where he and Joe Flaherty (SCTV) did the Bowie/Bing duet, Foley as Bowie and Flaherty as Bing. Excruciatingly funny, especially when Flaherty bangs Foley's head on the piano.

Not a duet, but my wife and I were quite enthralled last year with the Barenaked Ladies' Christmas album. There's a song kicking around in the back of my head, but I can't remember right now. If it shows up, I'll come back.

D

[Steve]

I'm not sure why "My Favorite Things" falls into the Christmas category.

Agreed. A number of years ago I was annoyed that this was on an Andy Williams Christmas album I owned...but that was it. But now, each year, I hear more and more renditions on this on the radio and in stores at Christmas time. What gives?

[dan]

My favourite Christmas song at the moment is "The Christmas Song" performed by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds live at Luther College. Or if you want schmaltz - how about "Last Christmas" by Wham?

[Linkmeister]

Not quite a duet, but the other day I was in a store and heard the most unbelievable musical seque I've ever heard in my life: from a choral version of Sleigh Ride to Touch Me by the Doors. Unless the radio guy was feeling particularly out of sorts that day, I can't imagine what he was thinking.

[Linkmeister]

Er, segue. How'd that "q" get in there?

[katster]

I'm always been strangely enchanted with the Emerson, Lake, and Palmer "I Believe in Father Christmas", because it sums up for me this whole wistful I -can't-get-back-there-from-here sort of feeling. I was surprised to see somebody noting it as a strongly atheistic christmas song, because for me it's always been about the struggle for faith. It's harder to believe after you've gone through the school of hard knocks a few times.

That said, I'm also fond of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Because Christmas carols done on electric guitar is just cool. :)

-kat

[Anthony Z.]

On the topic of non-neocon carols, I'm very fond of "It came upon the Midnight Clear" - written, I did not know this till just now - by a Bostonian. Third verse:

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.

I also love bizarre old English carols like the Coventry Carol or Adam Lay y-Bounden.

[Mike]

It's kind of embarassing, but for some reason I love "Do They Know It's Christmas" from Band Aid.

[Rix]

Benny Goodman recorded a Johnny Mercer song, "Santa Claus Came in the Spring," good tune, but I can't figure out what season it was composed for.

[Fernmonkey]

For a song that really has some quite grown-up lyrics, 'Fairytale of New York' makes it onto huge numbers of Christmas compilation albums.

This is often amusing in a retail environment.

[John]

If you don't have the Cheiftains' Bells of Dublin I think you would dig it. Like many a Cheiftains album of late, it features a bunch of guest stars, but they're well-chosen and the collaborations are delightful -- Elvis Costello's "St. Stephen's Day Murders" about a family who kill each other the day after Christmas and Jackson Browne's "The Rebel Jesus" are standout tracks.

[Jesurgislac]

I go to midnight mass at a church where a dead friend was a deacon (this was before he died...). Every year, the choir and the congregation sing "It came upon a midnight clear" - and every year it seems more appropriate.

The music for the carol "Good King Wencelas" is based on a spring carol, "Tempus adest floridum", which may explain why it never really seems to fit together.

The saint Wenceslas was Duke of Bohemia, back in the 10th century.

[mom de plume]

I dig "Father Christmas," too. In the angry, class conscious category, one of my faves has always been Bob Dorough's "Blue Xmas."

[Jeff G.]

Okay for strange duet

Marilyn Manson and... well.. anyone really. It's automatically strange at that point.

How about Toby Keith for the other half?

I have to admit that I love a wistful rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (preferably instrumental only). It can get schmaltzy if done wrong, but when right it sums up all the struggles that come out during the quiet moments at the end of a year.

[Sparticus]

"It Was Just Like Christmas" by Low is a great Christmas song for not being jolly to. It sounds as bleak as a song can be and still have sleigh bells in it. Good stuff in all.

Top Five Christmas Songs In No Particular Order
1) 2000 miles - Coldplay
2) Do They Know It's Christmas - Band Aid 20 (Just for Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood 'rocking out' at the end)
3) O Come, O Come Emmanuel - Belle and Sebastian
4) It Was Just Like Christmas - Low (which is morbid and bleak and has snow
5) I Believe In Father Christmas - Six by Seven (A rock cover of a christmas song that samples part of Lieutenant Kije by Prokofiev? Brilliant!)

[Matt Kay]

For class-consciousness, I really love Holly Cole singing "If We Make It Through December" (though I admit that's the only version of the song I've ever heard; there may be better versions).

I can't stand "Do They Know It's Christmas," though. While well-intentioned (I guess), it always strikes me as having an overly colonialist perspective. That said, the line "Well tonight thank God it's them, instead of you" always gets me.

[wintermute]

Good King Wenceslaus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus_I%2C_Duke_of_Bohemia

Not actually a king, but apparently quite good.

[Lila]

Re inscrutable English carols: We have started a tradition in my family called "The Ceremonial Reading of the Snotty Footnote". The footnote in question is in the Oxford Book of Carols and refers to "Good King Wenceslas". To wit:

This rather confused narrative owes its popularity to the delightful tune, which is that of a Spring carol, "Tempus adest floridum," No. 99. Unfortunately Neale in 1853 substituted for the Spring carol this "Good King Wenceslas," one of his less happy pieces, which E. Duncan goes so far as to call "doggerel," and Bullen condemns as "poor and commonplace to the last degree." The time has not yet come for a comprehensive book to discard it; but we reprint the tune in its proper setting ("Spring has now unwrapped the flowers"), not without hope that, with the present wealth of carols for Christmas, "Good King Wenceslas" may gradually pass into disuse, and the tune be restored to spring-time. Neale did the same kind of thing to another Spring carol, "In vernali tempore," (No. 98; cf. No. 102); but this was not popularized by Bramley and Stainer. [Oxford Book of Carols, p. 279]

I don't know about y'all, but even had I disliked "Good King Wenceslas" before reading this, I would now be prepared to champion it for the rest of my life.

Re "Santy Claus Came in the Spring"--it's a love song, it has nothing to do with either Christmas or spring.

Santy Claus came in the spring,
Santy Claus came when the skies were blue;
I heard his sleigh bells ting-a-ling
The day that I met you;

Santy Claus came in the spring,
Gliding along through the daffodils,
And I just saw him vanishing
Beyond the distant hills.

I heard his reindeer on the ground,
I thought I caught a glimpse of red,
Then suddenly I turned around
And there you were instead.

What if he hurried away?
Santy Claus came when the skies were blue,
And now it's Christmas every day
Because he brought me you.

And finally, re socially relevant Christmas music:

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

But in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men."
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (abridged)

[Kevin]

I'm a big fan of Pedro the Lion's version of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Actually, PTL has two Christmas 7-inches, both of which are quite good.

[Perry]

When it comes to Christmas songs, I'm partial to 'In Excelsis Deo'.

[The Navigator]

I rather like Sting's performance of Gabriel's Message, which is from some compilation or other. Googling turned up a useful post and comment section on this topic here:

"Oi to the World by No Doubt, which doesn't sound a whole lot like a Christmas song, but is still alright.
There's also the South Park Christmas album, which, while quite offensive at times, always gets me in the Christmas spirit.
"

[diddy]

Surprised in a room full of esoterica to see no mention of Marc Cohn's "Baby King" off his second album.

[The Navigator]

Oh, sorry, this is the odd couple nominations thread, my bad. Well, it's hard to top Marilyn Manson and Toby Keith. I wouldn't mind putting Eminem together with Mariah Carey. OK, what about Gillian Welch and David Rawlings teaming up with Linkin Park on We Three Kings? No, better: Kate Bush and the Mars Volta on Winter Wonderland.

[Merlin Missy]

(Ben Folds' desolate "Brick" is also set at Christmastime, yet somehow it isn't regarded as a holiday favorite either.)

*tries to picture "Brick" getting airplay on CLear Channel*

*head explodes*

Weird Al's "Christmas at Ground Zero" is one of my all-time favorites. When I was a kid, I couldn't get enough of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" (no clue who covered it, but I had a 45 of it that was on almost-constant replay). In high school and college, the only music I could really buckle down study to was my little stash of Christmas tapes: the songs were familiar enough to sing along with, but they weren't interesting enough to stop studying and listen to instead. (This was not an issue for Winter finals, but come May, the three-hundredth playing of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" was probably driving my various roommates to near homicide.)

[maura]

a good friend of mine has been doing a 24-hour christmas show on wprb (princeton university's station) for years now -- this year will be his 18th, and it starts at 6 p.m. on christmas eve. he always unearths some gems (and he plays a bunch of songs that have been mentioned in these threads).

here is his playlist from last year. he's also released a couple of christmas albums on his label.

[Edward Liu]

Last year, I did a last minute run on the iTunes Music Store to put together a monster tracklist of Christmas/holiday music for our holiday party. Among other things, I grabbed the Charlie Brown Christmas album, a few tracks by Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, and some Barenaked Ladies songs (including one of "Sleigh Ride" that's just them going "YAAA-daa-daa-DAAH-daaa-DA-da-da" for about a minute and a half). "Santa Claus Wants Some Loving" by Earl King was also something my wife's been seeking for a while now, and she was jazzed beyond belief that I found it.

The ones that really raised eyebrows (and are now some of our new favorites) were the reggae X-mas selections, the Run-D.M.C. "Christmas in Hollis" rap tracks, and the instrumentals by Rudy and the Surf Kings that are loaded with typically muscular California surf guitar riffs. Sometimes, a change in venue is enough to make an old chestnut interesting again.

On top of all that, I'm now into Rudy and the Surf Kings. Check out their cover of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

[lbb]

(who was Good King Wenceslaus? and what the hell is the baby Jesus doing in a flotilla of three ships?)

Wenceslas has already been answered. As for the three ships, all of the three-ships songs and variants allude to the relics of the Magi (specifically, their skulls; what is with that gruesome practice, anyway?). At some point a looong time ago, these skulls were transported to the Cathedral of St. Martin in Koln -- probably on one ship, not three, but there were three skulls (see the older song, "The Three Crawns"). The bit about Jesus and Joseph and his fair lay-dee and St. Michael being the steeres-man and all that hoo-ha is just classic old-song stuff, like a game of Telephone, not making any particular sense after it's been misrepeated five or six times.

[Samer]

You want interesting Christmas music? How about two works by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams:

* Fantasia on Christmas Carols (about 15 minutes) -- and these aren't very well known ones, either (no "Silent Night" here)

* Hodie (about an hour) -- an entire Christmas cantata, complete with a triumphant ending, and music in minor keys :)

[Rafe]

For my money, the best sad Christmas song is bluesman Charles Brown's "Bells Will Be Ringing." It was a Christmas standard where I grew up, but I'm not sure if that was a regional thing.

Bells Will Be Ringing

Bells will be ringing, the glad, glad news;
Oh, what a Christmas, to have the blues;
My baby's gone;
I have no friends;
To wish me greetings, once again;
Choirs will be singing, Silent Night
Oh, Christmas Carols, by candlelight;

Please come home for Christmas;
Please come home for Christmas;
If not for Christmas, by New Year's Night;

Friends and relations;
Send salutations;
Just as sure as the stars shine above;

This is Christmas, Christmas my dear;
The time of year to be with the one that you love;

Then will you tell me, you'll never more roam;
Christmas and New Year will find you home;
There'll be no more sorrow;
No grief or pain;
'Cause I'll be happy that it's Christmas once again

[Keith]

There's a series of excelent goth christmas albums, Dark Noel; goth, EBM and dark wave bands doing the classics. Some of the stand-outs:

Chanukkah, Oh Chanukkah - Black Tape For A Blue Girl
We Three Kings - Lycia/The Unquiet Void
A Winter Wassail - Faith And The Muse
Silent Night - Attrition
Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - The Cruxshadows

They're sorrowful, somber and cold, but with a sense of longing for hope and warmth. They put you in a contemplative mood, too.

[12xu]

I would like to take this opportunity to do a little venting about what I consider to be the worst Christmas song ever: The Little Drummer Boy. I'm old enough to remember when this was a new song, and even as a child this song always set my teeth on edge. First of all, the idea of playing a drum for a baby is just wrong. You want that kid to sleep. Mainly, though, it's the music. A song that's supposed to be joyful, it's slow, monotonous, solemn, and sad. Over and over and over and over and over.

Unfortunately, it tends to get covered by rock bands, I guess because it's got drums in it. Bob Seger, Joan Jett, Crash Test Dummies, Dandy Warhols, and every single "Christian Rock" band ever have all done versions.

[perianwyr]

A few personal favorites:

The Boar's Head Carol dates back to 1521 and is the oldest published complete carol. It's sung at Queen's College in Oxford. Essentially, a student was walking to the feasthall at Christmas when he was attacked by a wild boar. He managed to choke the thing with a volume of Aristotle he was carrying, and he then got his friends to come out and drag the boar in and cook it. This song is sung to commemorate this feat of combat and frugality.

Personet Hodie has Latin lyrics as well as two or three English versions, all of which are great to sing. The louder you sing this one the better it gets (busting out with "Satan's done, done, done, Satan's done, God has won, victory supernal" is good stuff :) )

The Huron Carol is a Canadian Christmas carol that describes the birth of Jesus as if he were a Native American. It was written by Saint Jean de Brebeuf in 1643 as a tool to teach the idea of Christ's birth to the Hurons.

[Scott]

I really love Holly Cole singing "If We Make It Through December"

My fav was the "Dark Dear Heart" album, but that's off topic.

You can't ignore this Xmas classic:

Santa baby, slip a sable under the tree, for me
I've been an awful good girl
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa baby, an out-of-space convertible too, light blue
I'll wait up for you dear
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Think of all the fun I've missed
Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed
Next year I could be oh so good
If you'd check off my Christmas list
Boo doo bee doo

Santa honey, I wanna yacht and really that's
Not a lot
I've been an angel all year
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa cutie, there's one thing I really do need, the deed
To a platinum mine
Santa cutie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa baby, I'm filling my stocking with a duplex, and checks
Sign your 'X' on the line
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Come and trim my Christmas tree
With some decorations bought at Tiffany's
I really do believe in you
Let's see if you believe in me
Boo doo bee doo

Santa baby, forgot to mention one little thing, a ring
I don't mean a phone
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight

[John]

I've always been partial to Jethro Tull's "Christmas Song," which takes off from the Anglican carol "Once in Royal David's City" (c. 1848) and ends with Ian Anderson's spoken postscript, "Hey, Santa! Pass us that bottle, will you?" But that's a sly counterpoint to the lyrics, which remind us "that Christmas spirit is not what you drink" and ask "How can you laugh when your own mother's hungry, and how can you smile when the reasons for smiling are wrong?" It's a good antidote for that bad cup of coffee.

[Lea]

I don't know about y'all, but even had I disliked "Good King Wenceslas" before reading this, I would now be prepared to champion it for the rest of my life.

Hee! Yeah. But I like it too. It's also got a bit of the social-activism thing going, as it ends thus:

"Therefore, Christian men be sure,
Wealth or rank possessing:
He who now will bless the poor
Shall himself find blessing."

Though I guess it could be taken as noblesse-oblige rather than radical.

Most of my favorite Christmas carols are weird medieval things in minor keys, like the beautiful and depressing Coventry Carol which is actually about the Slaughter of the Innocents (it derives from the mystery cycles of the fifteenth century) and the rather Gothic "Down in Yon Forest" ("Under that bed there runs a flood...the one half runs water, the other runs blood").

[Lea]

I don't know about y'all, but even had I disliked "Good King Wenceslas" before reading this, I would now be prepared to champion it for the rest of my life.

Hee! Yeah. But I like it too. It's also got a bit of the social-activism thing going, as it ends thus:

"Therefore, Christian men be sure,
Wealth or rank possessing:
He who now will bless the poor
Shall himself find blessing."

Though I guess that's more noblesse-oblige than radical.

Most of my favorite Christmas carols are weird medieval things in minor keys, like the beautiful and depressing Coventry Carol which is actually about the Slaughter of the Innocents (it derives from the mystery cycles of the fifteenth century) and the rather Gothic "Down in Yon Forest" ("Under that bed there runs a flood...the one half runs water, the other runs blood").

[Elvis]

RUN-DMC's "Christmas in Hollis" is a classic in my book.

[Jeff G.]

Personally I've always liked Little Drummer Boy despite its absurdity. The tone, when done right, is pitch perfect. But it's not joy, it's awe.

It's about a child overwhelmed by what he is seeing and, in the face of it all, trying his hardest to measure up to the moment.

Unfortunately, to be done right, it really needs a minimal instrumental, or back-up, accompaniment. And that usually doesn't mesh with the words "Rock band".

But yeah, Mary would never want some kid playing drums for a baby. :-)

[Mnemosyne]

Can I say for a minute here that I absolutely loathe and despise "Brick"? To me, it's the nadir of the emo style: "Oh, my girlfriend is having an abortion, but she's not paying enough attention to mmmeeeeee!" Suck it up, you big fucking baby! Think about someone other than yourself for two consecutive minutes!

I really, really, really hate that song.

It would be funny to hear Elvis Costello and Diana Krall do a duet, just so we can all marvel once again that she actually married him.

My favorite version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside," was one they did on "Prairie Home Companion," with Garrison Keillor taking the part of the timorous female and Kasey Jones playing the rake. Why aren't there more role-reversal versions of that song?

[LN]

I don't mind so much that lots of Christmas/Winter/Holiday/Traditional Warm Fuzzies songs are being played on the radio. That's come to be expected. What really annoys me is that Christmas songs get sung in churches during this period. Because it's not even officially the Christmas period. (That was a mistake in your previous post, Fred, Advent does not begin the Christmas period, it's the precursor to it...) Christmas songs are for Dec. 24-Jan. 6 Advent songs are for this period. And there are some amazing Advent hymns and songs, too!

[Luthe]

I have a weakness for Dar Williams's "The Christians and the Pagans." Because it is a holiday song, and it's cheerful and infectious, but it's also about, well, Christians and Pagans. Having dinner together. Can't we have that played on the radio? All the Wiccans and Pagans and heathens like me would be happy, and hey, they talk about Christians too.

Sample lyric: You find magic from your god, and we find magic everywhere

Beyond that, my current Christmas staples are things like "The Twelve Days of Star Wars" and "O Holey Knight" both by Tom Smith. Though regular carols are fine, so long as they sung by either Allison Crowe or the Barenaked Ladies. The Medieval Baebes aren't bad either.

[Tim Lehnerer]

>>Unfortunately, it tends to get covered by rock bands, I guess because it's got drums in it. Bob Seger, Joan Jett, Crash Test Dummies, Dandy Warhols, and every single "Christian Rock" band ever have all done versions.<<

Los Straitjackets' minor key surf guitar instrumental version of "Little Drummer Boy" is not only the best cover of it ever recorded, it is my favorite Christmas song of all time. It's also a buck on iTunes. What have you got to lose?

[jackd]

Nobody's mentioned Brave Combo's It's Christmas, Man!? Recorded for the Japanese market, it's got polka, ska, cumbia, and a few other styles thrown in. Mixes up originals and classics and even has "Hanukka, Oh Hanukka" done as a hora.

The John Denver and the Muppets Christmas album has some favorites of mine: John and Rolf the Dog's duet on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", and the Muppet's versions of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"* and "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

*Gonzo: "FIGGY Pudding. It's made with FIGS."
Miss Piggy: "Oh."
Gonzo: "And bacon."

[Anthony Z.]

I think that trying to restrict Christmas songs to 24/xii to 6/i is a battle that was fought and lost some time ago. Right, but defeated, rather like celebrating the Millennium in 2000-1, or betamax.

That said, I do like "O come, Emmanuel", partly because at the very traditional school I attended, when we got to sing that, it was almost the Christmas holidays!

[Vanya]

Freedy Johnston's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is excellent, one of the best versions of that song I have ever heard and not too schmaltzy.

[Ben]

12xu, I'm sorry but the worst Christmas song every is "Christmas Shoes". I don't know why, but every time it comes on it sets my teeth on edge. Maybe it's because whomever sang it is trying so hard to push every button he can. Plus it seems to go on for far too long. I'm suprised no one every mentions it in these threads.

Fred, I like the Snoopy/Red Baron Christmas song, damn it! And I'm proud, PROUD of it I say!

[bulbul]

Jesurgislac beat me to the "Good king Wenceslas" (Svatý Václav in Czech). That being said, I've always wondered what the *beep* has a Czech saint/martyr got to do with Christmas. Anybody got any idea?
Round here, the Christmas shopping season starts after All Saints' Day (November 1st), but thankfully, all the radio stations refrain from playing Christmas songs til about November 30th. So today I got my first dose of the aforementioned "Last Christmas" by Wham. I hate that song. But what I hate even more is how every DJ introduces it by translating the name and naturally gets it wrong, so I get to hear "Final Christmas" by Wham about five times a day. Eeeew. Apart from the usual English-language fare we get a lot of Czech/Slovak (the line is blurry there) traditional carols with a number of predictable rock versions. Some are good, some are bad, some are excellent.
Couple of years ago one of Slovakia's opera stars teamed up with a Slovak popstar and a Czech popstar and they recorded a Christmas song. Something about love or something. Every time I hear that schmaltzy piece of crap (which is about twice a day before December 20th, six times a day after that) I feel like shoving a nail in my eye.
My third favorite 'Christmas' song is not a Christmas song at all and does not even fall into the "winter songs" category. It's a song from a 1980 Czechoslovak movie and has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas or winter, but the movie features one of the most beautiful winter sceneries I have ever seen and it's usually shown on tv some time around Christmas. My second favorite Christmas song is "Let it snow". But nothing, not even "Silent Night", beats "Adeste fidelis / Oh Come All Ye Faithful."

[jeffk]

"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" may be fine for some, but on the topic of getting down with Santa, nothing beats "I Saw My Baby Wearing Santa's Beard", by the wonderfully bizarre and irrelevant They Might Be Giants.

Also irreverant, but wonderfully on-target, is Tom Lehrer's "A Christmas Carol".

So, is anybody going to put together a master list and/or torrent of all these favorites?

[Karen]

How about Jane Siberry's Sushan the Place: Hymns of Earth. Seems to fit around Christmas especially with her new and amazing self-determined pricing, what she calls "Dumbing Up". It's a beautiful little piece of work.

[Johnny Pi]

Someone mentioned Weird Al -- I've always enjoyed 'The Night Santa Went Crazy'. Cathartic.

'Down in the workshop all the elves were makin' toys
For the good Gentile girls and the good Gentile boys
When the boss busted in, nearly scared 'em half to death
Had a rifle in his hands and cheap whiskey on his breath
From his beard to his boots he was covered with ammo
Like a big fat drunk disgruntled Yuletide Rambo
And he smiled as he said with a twinkle in his eye,
"Merry Christmas to all - now you're all gonna die!" '