What is your favorite piece of Christmas music and why?
I love Christmas music! All kinds.
I absolutely love it when I can start playing it the day after Thanksgiving (I hold back until then).
Do you like it? Do you have a favorite? Why do you love that piece above all others?
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17 Answers
I like Carol of the Bells for the different intertwining parts, and I especially like the sound of the baritone line. When I’m fortunate enough to be with a group of people who know their parts, I take the alto. When it’s done well it sounds awesome.
Handel’s Messiah is so… magnificent. Is it not? I cannot imagine a Christmas season without hearing it all the way through at last once. Thank you You tube, I have the option of setting my own time now and the London Symphony Orchestra performs in my living room. And Beethovens 9th is evocative of different kinds of feelings that I associate with childhood and feeling safe and warm.
I love Carols and love to go caroling. The only Christmas songs I really don’t care for involve obnoxious sounding voices, again from childhood like; I saw Mommie kissing Santa Claus, and Rockin’ around the Christmas tree.
Pretty much anything else is great for me
@Trillian I love The Messiah also. My favorite is Worthy Is the Lamb (although that is more evocative of Easter than Christmas).
I also like Carol of the Bells. Here is a version by Chanticleer, one of my favorite groups.
In Dulci Jubilo. Especially Mike Oldfield’s version. (I can play it on a flute).
@marinelife That was wonderful! My dad sang in a Barbershop chorus and also a quartet when I was a kid. Growing up I had to learn lots of “tag” and songs so my dad could practice. I learned an appreciation for harmonics and cool arrangements of sons. I guess I’ll try to gt a CD or two, I’ve never heard these guys before. The soprano line was great, I didn’t hear a falsetto at all.
My favorite thing to listen to is the Trans Siberian Orchestra. I can’t wait to start playing the CD I have of theirs again (I refrain from doing so until after Thanksgiving). I love all of their music, mostly because I love the orchestra sound. :-)
My favorite song to sing is Silent Night. It was one of the first ones I learned to sing and I’ve always enjoyed it.
I prefer instrumental and orchestral renditions of traditional Christmas songs over croony Bing Crosby-ish ones. I also have a fondness for Celtic twists on Christmas tunes. I think my favorite song out of all of them is Carol of the Bells (this particular one has both a full orchestra and a Celtic twist). I like the build in the song to a powerful climax, which is stimulating and moving, and I guess I find the song to be beautiful in general.
Another one that is a definite favorite is not a traditional Christmas song. It came on a Windham Hill Celtic Christmas CD I bought fifteen years ago and practically wore out because I loved it so much. Loreena Mckennitt – Snow (hopefully, the link works)
My mom is absolutely nutso over Christmas music and plays it (and no other kind of music) from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas. It honestly gets pretty old. Between her, other people, radio stations, and store music, by the time Christmas actually rolls around, I’ve heard Christmas music constantly for a month, so if I have any control over the matter, the only time I play it is Dec. 24 and 25. :)
I am a total Xmas music junkie. I try to hold out until Thanksgiving, but because I will be doing a lot of house work today, I may just some on.
Here’s a list of my very favorites. Some of them are simply gorgeous moving songs that fill me up with the feeling of the season and some are simply songs that fill me with gratitude and joy and remembrances from my childhood and some are just the best versions of the particular songs that I love. I spent last year going through about 2,000 songs (on itunes) to narrow down my list for my Favorite Christmas CD. There were 24 songs that ended up on the CD, including these below, but I listened to multiple versions until I picked out the best of the best. It was a totally indulgent experience, but the outcome pleased most of my family members who received a copy of the CD. Now where did I put that thing???
The Holly and the Ivy by Anonymous 4 on the album Wolcum Yule
In Dulci jubilo by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
Carol of the Bells by the US Air Force Band & Singing Sergeants
Silent Night by Chris Botti
Hark the Herald Angels Sing on the soundtrack of a Charlie Brown Christmas
Skating ” ”
Christmas Time is Here ” ”
Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives
Christmas Vacation by Mavis Staples from Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation
All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey
Welcome Christmas on soundtrack of How the Grinch Stole Christmas
You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch ” ”
@Trillian I was going to say Carol of the Bells too! It’s more difficult than most other Christmas carols I think, but the music is perfect.
I like to get the Broadway Cares: Carols for a Cure CDs, which contain Christmas music (classic, original and re-interpreted) sung by casts of Broadway shows. I can’t remember which year, but the Wicked cast did a Carol of the Bells that was amazing and arranged/orchestrated so that it resembled musically the show. Most of my favorite Christmas music comes from those CDs, which raise money for the fight against AIDS.
What @mama_cakes said. The whole album is pure Christmas.
bing and frank singing god rest ye merry gentlemen ain’t bad either
I really love Holy Night the most. It’s ominous and powerful. Fall on your knees? The tree of woe? pwn
Yeah I prolly heard some of that wrong, but still, this song is so Gawth. I love The Herald Angel Sings a lot too. It’s a lot more cheery than my other…and I guess that’s what Xmas is about but I fucking hate Xmas so…but I love the lyrics. I just wish I could find a creepier version of this.
Oh, and of course, this which, to me, embodies the spirit of what I think Christmas to really be, a lot more than the traditional stuff that speaks of capitalism and Jesus lol.
But yeah that’s just me, I come from a family of dirt poor atheists and Wiccans haha.
My favorite song: Hark how the bells, that song is magical. The voices of a choir really bring that melody to life, and it carries through the range of emotions that overcome you when you feel Christmas. :)
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