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You are here: Home / Music / Holiday Music!

Holiday Music!

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Is there any special holiday music you like to listen to?

I always get choked up when I sing, or hear, Let There Be Peace on Earth.

I hope you will share your favorites.   Does it matter who sings it?

Do you just like the song or piece of music, or are there memories that make it a favorite?

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  • Almost Retired
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    113Comments

    3. 3.

      WaterGirl

      If anyone finds a better version of this one, I would appreciate it.  I’m sure it’s sweet that Vince Gill’s daughter sings on this, but it sounds flat to me.  I googled a dozen versions and some were too schmaltzy, I couldn’t find one that was simple and not overdone.

      Reply
    5. 5.

      Suzanne

      Yay! I have been hoping for this thread.

      One of my favorite songs to listen to at this time of year is “Valley Winter Song” by Fountains of Wayne. We lost Adam Schlesinger to COVID in 2020 and that was a huge loss.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      khead

      Darlene Love singing “Baby Please Come Home” with Paul Schaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band on David Letterman from 1986-2014.

      Reply
    11. 11.

      Trivia Man

      One year our Unitarian choir did a whole program of “Songs about the dark”. My favorite, new to me, was In the Bleak Midwinter. Lovely song, fantastic program from top to bottom.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      mali muso

      All of them, Katie!

      No but seriously, I am a sucker for classic Xmas tunes. Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, etc. I could listen to the Charlie Brown Christmas album almost anytime of year.

      In terms of memories, my parents chosen profession took us abroad for most of my childhood, so we celebrated Christmas kind of in our own little bubble at home. We had maybe one or two cassette tapes of holiday tunes that we would play over and over. One of them was “the Lennon Sisters” and to this day, hearing their (admittedly cheesy) harmonies makes me feel cozy and festive.

      Reply
    16. 16.

      N M

      I am very partial to Julie London’s Xmas songs (no clue if they are originals of hers, or she’s just singin’ ’em): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYTo3HEiUCY&list=PL01NBH7ivWKLnr8sHaQ2iLwkvS-LY4Zif

      My personal seasonal favorites are the lead three tracks:

      • I’d like you for Christmas
      • Warm December
      • I’ve got my love to keep me warm

      In this list the 4th track is wrong (repeats track 1) but it’s also a good one.

      I also like Snowfall by Esquivel (again, not sure if it’s original or just a recording): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSlPxz-vBWY

      Call me a sucker for “Space Age Bachelor Pad” music.

      Reply
    21. 21.

      Chacal Charles Calthrop

      back when blogs were a thing, Brad deLong featured a clip of Anya singing what I’d always thought of as a generic Christmas charol that blew me away.  Lemme see if I can find it online.

      I generally prefer Tchaikovsky to English/American christmas music.  The opera crowd was always unhappy that that there was no opera comparable to the Nutcracker to persuade the family to bring the young’uns to opera for Christmas, so there has been a movement to get Mozart’s magic flute to become a Christmas staple, but unfortunately the plot features all sorts of unsavory and not particularly Christmas elements, and in the famous aria with all the high C’s the Queen of the Night is actually singing  “Hell’s vengeance boils in my heart” which makes it not the most Christmas-friendly pageant out there.

      Unless, of course, you don’t actually care what any of the characters want or what they’e singing, in which case the Magic Flute works just fine.   Which is probably true for most of the English-speaking audience watching it.

      And then there’s Handel’s Messiah featuring the lyrics referring to golden spiders.  I really don’t know what’s up with that, either.  Classical music is weird.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      Scamp Dog

      One of my favorites is Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, his jazz version of Tchaikovsky’s classic. Which reminds me, I need to find that CD before I head out to my brother’s place for the holiday.

      Reply
    24. 24.

      Yet Another Haldane

      Thanks for the memory!  In the late 60s–early 70s my Dad and I went to a teensy Unitarian congregation in a small town in northern MN.  One member had a strong, clear, rich soprano voice, and her annual showstopper was a rendition of “Let There Be Peace On Earth.”  That was the first time I heard a soprano (or any singer, really) with POWER, and the experience has stayed with me.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      Scout211

      My FM radio stations are playing Christmas music now, a couple of them are playing 100% Christmas music. I’m not sure why, but every time that this song is played, I find myself singing along and smiling.

      Wham! Last Christmas

      Check out the official video in all its 80s clothes and hairstyles galore.

      Reply
    36. 36.

      RevRick

      Holiday, (holy day) ahem.

      O Come, O Come Emmanuel

      Of the Father’s (Parent’s) Love Begotten dates back to late 4th, early 5th century

      Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

      Silent Night

      Angels We Have Heard on High

      Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

      Joy to the World

      O Little Town of Bethlehem

      Adeste Fideles

      All these carols have a huge advantage over most holiday music is that they are sung, rather than listened to.

      Today, we had to drive down to our daughter’s family home to take our SIL for a colonoscopy to see if the Skyrizi is helping with his Crohns and on the way back, MrsRev asked to listen to the Sirius XM Holiday Traditions station. So we did. They played a jazz version of Carol of the Bells that set our teeth on edge ( and she loves jazz).

      Reply
    40. 40.

      Jacel

      My most memorable Christmas music moment was singing with the New York Choral Society in Carnegie Hall with Peter, Paul & Mary in the spiritual “Children Go Where I Send Thee”. The whole performance was waves of energy the way the orchestra and our chorus would propel what PP&M were singing and playing in our director Robert De Cormier’s arrangement. But in one of the live performances there was a later verse when Mary Travers held out and played with a solo note that has suspended time for me for nearly 40 years at this point in my life. Here’s a later year’s recording (without me) that is wonderful, but doesn’t include that specific bit of musical magic.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C5HgAM6xUQ

      Reply
    51. 51.

      laura

      Charlie Brown Christmas,

      Patti Smith, Oh, Holy Night

      John Prine, Christmas in Prison

      Mel Torme, The Christmas Song

      Nick Lowe and Los Straightjackets, A Quality Holiday Revue

      Pogues, Fairytale of New York

      Run DMC, Christmas in Hollis

      Paul Simon, Homeward Bound

      Other stuff

      Reply
    53. 53.

      Salt Water

      Greg Lake “I Believe in Father Christmas” I’ve always found this to be poignant

      Mahalia Jackson “Go Tell it on the Mountain”

      Pete Seeger “Behold that Star”

      First heard these last two when I went to a Black church and have warm memories of the folks there

      Reply
    56. 56.

      prostratedragon

      @RevRick:

      I’ve always liked hymns that sound a little like chant, and there are certainly two on your list. In other forms, “Wake, Awake,” to a tune from Bach, and pretty much all the standards, including Messiah. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Silent Night,” the whole nine yards.

      Reply
    57. 57.

      stinger

      At the time around the winter solstice, I especially cherish “songs that carry us from darkness into light”, such as At the Turning of the Year.

      And yesterday my two sisters and I attended a sing-along Messiah, with a concert chorale group, a pipe organ, a small chamber string group, and four wonderful soloists. If you don’t know, a sing-along Messiah is a performance where the audience is invited to join in on the choruses, especially the Hallelujah chorus. A couple hundred voices raised in Handel’s glorious music. The rafters rang!

      Reply
    59. 59.

      FastEdD

      “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” makes me break down in tears every time, no matter where I hear it. In a store, anywhere, passersby wonder what is wrong with me. “Through the years, we all will be together, if the fates allow.” I remember Mom and Dad singing that softly. It hurts.

      Reply
    60. 60.

      Splitting Image

      A Christmas Gift For You (1963) is the best Christmas album produced by someone later convicted of murder.

      Songs by Darlene Love, the Ronettes, the Crystals, and Bob. B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans.

      Jingle Bell Jazz  (1959) is also a nice little collection. It includes contributions by Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis.

      Plus this number by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross:

      “Deck Us All with Boston Charlie”. Lyrics by Walt Kelly.

      Reply
    66. 66.

      hitchhiker

      Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, especially There Is No Rose, which I had the good luck to sing with a very good choir for a few years. There’s already something deeply wonderful about blending your voice with lots of others, but doing it with that ethereal music was like levitating, every time.

      Hearing it sung is great, too, but nothing like what happens when you sing it.

      Reply
    67. 67.

      Splitting Image

      A couple of my favourite holiday tunes are buried on obscure albums where no one can find them.

      “Jesus Christ” by Big Star, from Third. The best thing about it is that it segues into a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale”.

      “We Sing Hallelujah” by Richard and Linda Thompson, from I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight. Kate Rusby did a wonderful cover of this awhile back.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      Ninedragonspot

      Liszt, Christus – the first part.

      The opening, done up in a 19th-century imitation of 16th-century style, is one of the most gorgeous things Liszt ever wrote.  The remaining 50 minutes or so wander amiably through the reflective manger, the pastoral shepherds, and, with technicolor pomp, the arrival of the wise kings.

      Reply
    72. 72.

      Salt Water

      @Jacel: I first heard it in church. I’ve never found any other adults singing that song or on any collections. I can find several versions with kids singing but it doesn’t have the same resonance

      Reply
    79. 79.

      hotshoe

      @wenchacha:

      I love this one, because Lou Reed should always sing Christmas songs.

      https://youtu.be/3O6THRqH9Ak?si=6pVpdqOz6NGC7rAh

      All credit to Bruce Cockburn for Cry of a Tiny Baby

      I’m glad to hear that song again — I forget about it when it’s not christmas of course, but it’s one of the best religious christmas songs ever written:

      “For it isn’t to the palace that the Christ child comes
      But to shepherds and street people, hookers and bums
      And the message is clear if you have ears to hear
      That forgiveness is given for your guilt and your fears
      It’s a Christmas gift that you don’t have to buy .. ”

       

      In future I’ll stick to the version with no Lou Reed ;) Thanks anyway for reminding me to listen to Cockburn.

      Reply
    80. 80.

      Citizen Alan

      @Almost Retired: This is actually my favorite Christmas song. It starts out as a song about ironic detachment about the whole season only for the Christmas spirit to win out in the end.

      Second favorite: Nearly any arrangement of “Oh Holy Night.” Even Eric Cartman’s version!

      Unpopular opinion: There is absolutely nothing wrong with “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”

      Reply
    87. 87.

      BlueGuitarist


      The Band, Christmas must be tonight https://youtu.be/vBlLN5HQJhY?si=KNfT_5mY5I5Xse1O
      Joni Mitchell, River  https://youtu.be/OLHxxBTl71I?si=jz5MJ6zlrv9FeN2X
      James Brown, Santa Claus Go straight to the ghetto https://youtu.be/8__4hjLrvI4?si=7ceUxBeDATkdl2By
      Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Ain’t no chimneys in the projects https://youtu.be/j7nGYQrq-zk?si=J7aw6wDbQKYN9DYQ
      Poly Styrene, Black Christmas https://youtu.be/ML0cD0REC4Y?si=Z0FLtMl7mH7solmv
      Soul saints orchestra, Santa’s got a bag of soul https://youtu.be/7T-3FtRFsxw?si=04kr5yaZcLw6QdXB
      Eels, everything gonna be cool this Xmas (baby Jesus, born to rock) https://youtu.be/P0G7Cs5fQKk?si=aVpuYvzG7IEj5Cq5
      Where is The Comma in ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen’ supposed to go? https://youtu.be/sxfxy-3dGz0?si=2kMFABKf29T3fFyK
      Dap Kings guitarist
       Binky Griptite, Stone Soul Christmas (having fun with Laura Nyro’s Stone Soul Picnic) https://youtu.be/RJCp-PqX67g?si=jg_L5gmJSRErTsj6
      Tom Lehrer, Christmas Carol https://youtu.be/DtZR3lJobjw?si=hKoyAbb-G7KeNXln
      Arlo Guthrie, The pause of Mr Claus https://youtu.be/pz5P3I7btag?si=StYNvyOeZllrc2yI
      Tom Paxton, We’re gonna get Our Christmas Tree https://youtu.be/9xEG3u2oGg0?si=51_Cz3QHpEdwoZf9

      Reply
    91. 91.

      sab

      @hitchhiker: Yes. We used to sing it in choir when I was a kid, with the men and boys choir in the main choir pews and the girl’s choir in the balcony at the back of the church. My favorite was This Liile Chilld.

      Reply
    95. 95.

      Darkrose

      Growing up, my dad was one of the organists and choir members of our Episcopal church on the South Side of Chicago. Every year, before Midnight Mass proper began, the choir would perform “The Ballad of the Brown King,” a cantata from 1954 by Black composer Margaret Bonds and poet Langston Hughes, about Balthazar, one of the Three Kings who is traditionally depicted as Black. Listening to my dad practice on the piano in the living room, singing in his deep baritone, was an integral part of my childhood holiday memories.

      In the late 90s, I sang with a female choral ensemble then called the Cambridge Chorale (even though they were in Arlington). I think it was for the 2000 holiday concert that we did  one of the pieces for treble voices. Every year around this time, I turn up the bass (so I can hear the altos better) and sing along in my car, thinking of my dad.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT-h0AMtq8I

      Reply
    96. 96.

      David_C

      @RevRick: Since I sing in my church choir I definitely understand the singability of the traditional choral music. One piece I did listen to was “A Hymn to the Virgin,” by Benjamin Britten, written when he was 16. The live performance I attended had the balcony choir and everything.

      https://youtu.be/0ehnmnHCRXc?si=08RfTOssgCrp3M2P

      This Sunday is Lessons & Carols, starting with “Once in Royal Favid’s City.” We will be doing a mix of performing and congregational singing, and ending with the descant for “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”

      Christmas Eve will bring “O Come All Ye Faithful,” with the famous Willcocks chord at “Word.”

      Reply
    97. 97.

      David_C

      Here are a couple of pieces we’ve sung for Lessons & Carols. Karen Marolli’s arrangement of the Canticle of the Turning, based on The Magnificat, involves the congregation singing in certain spots. It’s all about the rich and powerful being laid low. Talk about the true meaning of Christmas.

      https://youtu.be/VnPZF-TdP5g?si=9M2kwMEsPJRFAwRV

      The other is a bit cheesy but is a thrill to sing, especially with brass.

      https://youtu.be/7QoiwvLLh8E?si=MZUhjybQvjK1siyu

      Reply
    99. 99.

      Rachel Bakes

      Partridge Family Christmas takes me back to decorating the tree and my dad pulling my mom then me into a foxtrot around the kitchen. Campy album but good, if you ignore their mahjong Frosty into a dirge (which kinda works if you grew up watching the holiday special)
      Amy Grant Home for Christmas

      Barenaked Christmas has standards and some different songs. The Elf Lament duet with Michael Buble as the elves are unionizing is a riot.

      porky Pig singing Blue Christmas

      Reply
    100. 100.

      What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

      I’m partial to the old carols sung by a choir. If I had to pick my favorite I’d probably go with Good King Wenceslas.

      My favorite album in that genre is Sir David Willcocks conducting the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir for a concert for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s called, unimaginatively, Carols for Christmas Volumes 1 and 2. Been out of print for years unfortunately so not available on streaming services.

      Love Charlie Brown. Ella Fitzgerald’s Christmas album is criminally underappreciated compared to Bing and Nat.

      Others that no one seems to have mentioned:

      Stevie Wonder’s What Christmas Means to Me

      Julian Casablancas from the Stokes did a rocked up version of a silly song Horatio Sans did on Saturday Night Live – called A Christmas Treat – that’s pretty great.

      Pretenders 2000 Miles. Great song, probably my favorite of the rock era. Has a terrible or so terrible it’s good music video depending on your perspective. Not sure anyone but Chrissy Hind could sing it.

      Otis Redding’s version of Merry Christmas Baby is great, Bruce Springsteen’s version is slightly less great but also pretty great

      Had no idea Duke Ellington did a Jazzed up version of the Nutcracker but I like the Brian Setzer Orchestra’s jazzed up Nutcracker which appears in the movie Elf during the mall decorating scene. I’ll have to check out Ellington’s.

      I could go on but I’ll stop now.

      Reply
    102. 102.

      Spanish Moss

      What a great thread! Let There Be Peace on Earth makes me tear up every time. And now I have some new Christmas songs to try.

      My favorite Christmas album is Placido Domingo’s Sacred Songs, and Kyrie is the song I love best:

      Kirie, Placido Domingo

      I first heard it on the radio while driving in my car, and I had to pull over to listen to it and find out what it was (a million years ago when you actually had to listen for the DJ to tell you).

      We also listen to George Winston’s December album repeatedly throughout December.

      I love to watch the short video, The Snowman, based on Raymond Briggs’ children’s book, it is so relaxing and fills me with peace. There are no words except at the beginning and end, just beautiful illustrations and gorgeous music, particularly this song:

      Peter Auty – Walking In The Air

      The Boston Pops commissioned a version of The Twelve Days of Christmas just for them, and it is so clever and catchy:

      Boston Pops Twelve Days of Christmas

      I was at a live performance the season that it debuted, nobody had heard it before, and the standing ovation lasted for minutes.

      I also love me some Gregorian Chants, but my husband was raised Catholic and doesn’t care for them, so I generally listen to them when he is out of the house.

      Reply
    106. 106.

      RevRick

      @David_C: That Britten piece was beautiful. What saddens me is the decline of congregational singing. I see lots of people in church just stand there during the singing of hymns.
      I suspect that it stems partly from a theological confusion about the nature of worship, something noticed by Soren Kierkegaard back in the mid 19th century. Using the analogy of a play, with a cast, a director, and an audience, many had mistakenly come to believe that they were the audience, the preacher and choir were the cast, and God was the off-stage director, when, in point of fact, the congregation is the cast, God is the audience, and those upfront are the directors.

      The act of singing is uplifting in and of itself… and when the lyrics and music resonate with something deep within, it’s transformative. For me, “We Would Be Building “ gets me.

      Reply
    107. 107.

      Just look at that parking lot

      “There’s a happy feeling

      Nothing in the world can buy

      When they pass around the coffee

      And the pumpkin pie.”

      Reply
    109. 109.

      owlbrick

      Someone else mentioned John Denver and the Muppets; also, his Rocky Mountain Christmas, a more straight up xmas album.

      Diana Krall has a nice album of standards with a low-key mellow vibe.

      Jethro Tull’s Christmas album fills a perfect niche that nothing else can fill… assuming you’re in to that sort of thing.  Which I am.

       

      edit- and yes, also seconding both Fairytale of New York and Father Christmas… both perfect expressions of the season.

      Reply
    110. 110.

      David_C

      @RevRick: Love that hymn, too! In our (Presbyterian) church, we have a set of congregational singers, but I still see people not singing. I wonder if they are self conscious, but the fact is that a lot of average voices add up to a nice ensemble of song.

      Either that, or they’re worried that they might be recruited to join the choir.

      Reply
    113. 113.

      Ann Marie

      A sad one, but still lovely, is First Christmas, by Stan Rogers, about various people having their first Christmas away from home.  I have it sung by The Black Family (Irish group).

      Reply

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