Favorite Christmas song

[That Aud Smell]

I mean, it's music. Taste is inherently and stubbornly personal. There's really no objective greatness (outside of truly transcendent artists, I guess?). If you don't like it, you don't like it. Leave it there, leave it at that. Griping about how you somehow can't like the song because others like it so much is ... well, it's not a good take.

[MattPie]

Generally speak, it's non-pop covers these days. I'm so tired of the standard versions of the songs I have to tune them out.

That being said, this has quietly become elite.

Backstory: in 1988 (?) my dad purchased a CD player (fancy!) and we got "A Very Special Christmas" (great album) "for my mom". We set up the CD player and put in probably our only CD at the time, and she absolutely hates the album. It's now running joke in our family.

[That Aud Smell]

9 minutes ago, MattPie said:

Generally speak, it's non-pop covers these days. I'm so tired of the standard versions of the songs I have to tune them out.

That being said, this has quietly become elite.

Christmas in Hollis is firmly in my top-10 of winter holiday songs.

[MattPie]

Oh, this too: 

 

[Doohicksie]

I wouldn't call this a favorite.  It really isn't even that good.  But it's fun.

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by Doohickie
no time for acrimony

[Cityo'Rasmii]

Stille Nacht

[Eleven]

4 hours ago, Indabuff said:

Carol of the Bells though A Christmas Festival by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops is an excellent album all around.

Those Trans-Siberian idiots have ruined Carol of the Bells for me forever.

[That Aud Smell]

Not sure of its merits on its own, but this one still has the power to make me feel (at least a bit) like a kid again.

 

[Doohicksie]

Vince Guaraldi did some amazing music for the Charlie Brown specials.  Could you imagine those shows without *that* music?

[Broken Ankles]

Like this one, and really any on this album by "The Chairman". 

[Tondas]

MUST NOEL

Go Sabres!!!

[CallawaySabres]

1 hour ago, That Aud Smell said:

Not sure of its merits on its own, but this one still has the power to make me feel (at least a bit) like a kid again.

 

The whole album is my favorite by far at Christmas. Drummer Boy and Oh Holy Night to cap it off.....

[...]

38 minutes ago, CallawaySabres said:

The whole album is my favorite by far at Christmas. Drummer Boy and Oh Holy Night to cap it off.....

This man has it. Guaraldi wove amazing Christmas-time textures on that piano (and organ).  

I'm partial to all of the stuff out of the '40s and '50s. A lot of it is masterful music creation that has no peers, and evokes Yule Time feelings equal to Norman Rockwell's conjuring of an idyllic American past.

[Doohicksie]

18 minutes ago, ... said:

I'm partial to all of the stuff out of the '40s and '50s. A lot of it is masterful music creation that has no peers, and evokes Yule Time feelings equal to Norman Rockwell's conjuring of an idyllic American past.

Not sure if you ever heard about this, but Firestone used to put out a Christmas album every year.  I think it was just retreads (see what I did there?) of existing Christmas songs assembled into an album.  So they put out an album of all Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, etc., Christmas standards every year.  My dad would go to the Firestone at the Thruway Plaza (later Thruway Mall) and buy the album every year.  My parents had a stack of those; they might still be in my mom's basement.  To me, those albums were The Sound of Christmas when I was little (in the 1960s).

That Firestone is one of the few buildings still standing from the original Thruway Plaza.

Edited December 18, 2019 by Doohickie

[Indabuff]

2 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Vince Guaraldi did some amazing music for the Charlie Brown specials.  Could you imagine those shows without *that* music?

The Charlie Brown Christmas is my second favorite album.  It's a nice transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

[spndnchz]

Anything by Mitch Miller

[SABRES 0311]

Silent night

[Lanny]

5 hours ago, MattPie said:

Oh, this too: 

 

Superior version by No Doubt 

[BfloSabresFan]

Nat King Cole's version of "The Christmas Song"

[SwampD]

4 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Vince Guaraldi did some amazing music for the Charlie Brown specials.  Could you imagine those shows without *that* music?

I guess I was board one night 5 years ago.

 

[MattPie]

29 minutes ago, Lanny said:

Superior version by No Doubt 

I disagree, but I do like No Doubt's version. 

[davidkski]

  

Time and Again, the song voted best ever Yuletide anthem has been "Fairytale of New York"
 

Pretty hard to top a song that begins "It was Christmas Eve, Babe, in the drunk tank."
https://theweek.com/articles/595104/fairytale-new-york-how-soused-irish-punk-band-created-greatest-christmas-song-all-time

My runner up: Bing Crosby & David Bowie's duet (Peace on earth...can it be?):
 

  

[SwampD]

 

[Claude Balls]

Christmas Cannon Rock by TSO.

I'll be in the ol' downtown hockey barn watching them tonight. What an amazing show they put on. Plus, the chicks are smokin hot.

 

[shrader]

I heard Santa Baby the other day and a question suddenly popped into my head.  "How in the hell do I actually know that this is Eartha Kitt?"  She's well before my time and I really only know her as Catwoman.  And it's not a song I really care about either way.  So why did I so quickly identify her as the singer?