What is yours?
Could be anything!

My faves are:
Troika by Prokoviev,
Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker suite by Tchaikovsky
Midnight Mushrumps by Gryphon

Carols:
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Good King Wenceslas
Jingle bells
The Little Drummer Boy
*Traditional style; no rock, folk, gospel, country, church choirs, or high voiced children- that stuff destroys the feeling for me.

I prefer people singing to the music and letting the song do its thing rather than imposing THEIR style on the song with these Christmas tunes.

I grew up on TV Christmas specials from Andy Williams (happy holidays) to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, Nat king Cole, Bing Crosby, Burl Ives and all the Rankin Bass shows.

My all time favorite is The Christmas Song (chestnuts roasting on an open fire) by Mel Torme or White Christmas by Irving Berlin. Some versions of Jingle Bells with the often left out second and third verse are entertaining as well as the great Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters swing version.

And some versions of I'll be home for Christmas bring tears to my eyes and remind me of the time in my lufe when the holidays still meant something. Now it's just seasonal affective disorder and staying warm.

Ding Dong Merrily on High is a fave, the older ways of singing it of course.
We three Kings can be lovely when done right, especially with overlapping choruses

I've always been a big fan of Xmas tunes that aren't too Jesusy. The Jesusy ones get too preachy and remove the older fun celebratory aspect of the day in favour of the more modern Protestant Christian po-faced serious stuff.

Little Drummer Boy, We Three Kings and Good King Wenceslas are a leeeetle Jesusy by they have interesting structures and great rhythms which make them fun to sing.

I suppose that's the best thing about a good chrissy song: they're meant to be sung along to and if they have a cool structure that makes them more enjoyable- which also makes me really disappointed when people discard those structures and bang them into a standard gospel/pop/jazz/ or rock style.

I find Silent Night very moving. When sung in the original German it doesn't sound as Jesusy. It and O Tannenbaum have great stories to tell about the voice of a singer making peace in a time of war.

I really do love traditional Christmas music, and if I had to pic a fave, it's probably “O' Holy Night” (powerful versions, like Josh Groban's, not wimpy ones, as Britney Spears did once…) ‘Do you hear what I hear?’ ranks up there as well…

That said…

I absolutely love Trans-Siberian Orchestra's rock-opera spin on Christmas songs…! I suppose I'm sort of a TSO fantatic, have all their albums, seen them live many, many times (if you ever get a chance to see a concert of theirs - GO! It's incredible…)…

I tend to avoid Christmas songs. You might think I'm some kind of Grinch, but I really do like Christmas. I just have a low tolerance for song repetition. Plus I'm not really a fan of crooners.

Okay, I'll limit myself since my Xmas playlist is 300+ songs. Here's a top 10 that leaves out many great songs.

10. Sex Toys For Christmas, by Vegas DeMilo
9. A Johnny Ace Christmas, by Squirrel Nut Zippers
8. Blue Christmas Lights, Chris Hillman & Herb Pederson
7. We Wish You A Hairy Chest Wig, Ren & Stimpy
6. Deck the Stills, by Barenaked Ladies
5. Soulful Christmas, by James Brown
4. Christmas of Love, Little Isidore and The Inquisitors
3. Twelve Days of Star Wars Christmas, Tony Smith
2. Back Door Santa, Clarence Carter
1. Merry Christmas Baby (various versions: Bruce Springsteen, Elvis, The Muppets, Etta James … gotta get them all)

There are strict rules in our as to when they can be played.

I used to hate Christmas music, until I discovered the “Santastic” series of holiday mash-ups. Here are a few volumes of the collection, in case you are in need of some holiday giggles: http://santastic4.com/collection/

Are you going to ask for recording contributions from peeps and post them on a quackcast episode?

I would like to learn “Christmas Time is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas on the piano.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:

I would like to learn “Christmas Time is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas on the piano.

That's my single favorite Christmas tune, too. I'd also like to learn it on piano!

Dang, that Vince Guaraldi must have been the greatest piano player/jazz writer ever, eh? Mind blowing stuff from his trio. I don't think I'd care about Peanuts cartoons at all without that music.

Actually, stike me down one for the Charlie brown one, too.

There's this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQhuoY5h2kE

It gets better every time I watch it :D

Don't Let The Bells End, by The Darkness.

lol, bell end.

YOU'RE a bell-end! XD

Also, The Pougues, Fairytale Of New York.

If this DD meetup happens, I propose we sing.

I'm with Hawk. I really can't do Christmas music. I'm not terribly into the holidays to begin with, just because they're non-stop stress for me, but it's the repetition that gets to me. I can only stand “Frosty the snowman” so many times before becoming homicidal.

I also believe firmly that Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie ever made, so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack! <3 Definitely my favorite set to listen to, but I listen to a lot of jazz-trio stuff year-round. Same with the old standards, The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole and Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms. are probably my favorites out of those. Other favorites that have made their way to my list recently is the Brian Setzer Orchestra's take on the Nutcracker Suite and Ozzie Kotani's version of Jingle Bell Rock

lba wrote:
I also believe firmly that Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie ever made, so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Hahaha, I love throwing out the question “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” to a group of people and watching them fight it out, because inevitably there's two people in the group that feel strongly about yes/no.

OOOoooooo, I hate Jingle Bell rock…
It's neither a rock song or jingle bells. O_O

ozoneocean wrote:
OOOoooooo, I hate Jingle Bell rock…
It's neither a rock song or jingle bells. O_O

When Jingle Bell Rock came out in 1957, it was a rock song. That's what rock sounded like in 1957.

I like the Brenda Lee version myself.

bravo1102 wrote:
When Jingle Bell Rock came out in 1957, it was a rock song. That's what rock sounded like in 1957.

Uh-ugh, not really. Rock in ‘57 was still rock.
Jingle Bell Rock was more like one of those easy listening songs that tried to cash in on the rock fad by name-checking it.

I listened to a lot of ’50s music as a kid. We only had AM radio out in the country where I lived for a good few years XD
I remember a lot of songs in that style.

Favourite carols for me would be:

O Come o Ye Faithful
In the Bleak Midwinter
Do you See what I See

Songs I really like are:

It Feels like Christmas
December Child
New Year's Baby
and of course: Early Christmas Morning.

There's nothing better than Cindi Lauper at Christmas.

Marshmallow World. Darlene Love or Dean Martin or the live version with Sinatra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lPw9hkk3II

And this one is now stuck in my head forever. And I love every minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlRpGj7LWS4

And now to watch as many versions of A Christmas Carol as I can from now until Twelfth Night.