As we get closer to the holidays, perhaps it’s time to turn the mood to the positive, the festive. Because while it’s true that some things about the holiday season are trying and awful, there are always those things that get under you skin and, try as you might to not, you just love them.
Hey, c'mon. Hey. Hey, we're gonna sing 'Jingle Balls.' Hahahahaaa. 'Jingle Balls.' Haha (urp) hahaha.
Which, of course, brings us inevitably back Christmas songs. Those staples of shopping malls, high school choirs and intoxicated relatives. Because some of those songs? You just love. Can’t help it. These are Christmas songs that, though you may be reluctant to admit it, you’re excited to hear every December. Maybe you even sing along to it.
“Hey, mom and little sleeping baby! Enjoy!” BRRUM BAH BUM BAH BUM BAH BUMBADUH BUMBADUH BUMBADUH…
Some you might just love, like “Silent Night.” Some you might be embarrassed about, chagrined by their utter sincerity. Like “Little-Drummer Boy,” especially that duet version by Bing Crosby and David Bowie. I love this song and find it moving despite the fact that Crosby and Bowie surely must have hated each other, and despite the fact (okay, and a little bit because of the fact) that it’s about a kid who decides that what this newborn and exhausted mother needs is me whanging on the drums!
Then there are surprisingly good rock Christmas songs like “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues, or The Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping.” Or maybe you prefer irony and dark sarcasm, a la The Kinks’ “Father Christmas.”
Then, of course, there are the more somber, haunting spirituals. There’s a whole gamut.
So, with that in mind, this week’s Weekly Question of the Week question for the week of December 18 is: What Christmas song do you just wish you could give a big old hug and kiss on the cheek?
The Byronic Man 
December 18, 2011 at 7:10 am
So guess what song the Glee cast covered on their Christmas episode last week?! That’s right – Christmas Wrapping! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uFEyA4E2jo)
As for the Christmas song I want to cuddle… I love love LOVE James Taylor’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (my favorite Christmas song), even though it’s a little…wistful? I would also like to snuggle every John Denver and the Muppets Christmas song, but that goes without saying. My parents are to blame for my unyielding love of JT and John Denver; that’s almost all they listened to! (Okay. There was also a lot of Beatles and Van Morrison. Heck yeah!)
December 19, 2011 at 8:29 am
Your household sounds very peaceful and groovy.
December 18, 2011 at 7:20 am
The song I love best is HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS by Burl Ives. The one I love least is the latest Justin Beiber version of THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY in which he features rapper Busta Rhymes. Yeah, it’s every bit as bad as it sounds.
December 19, 2011 at 8:30 am
That Burl Ives one is great. It sounds so happy that you just really want to sing along. And, of course, have a Christmas that is both jolly, and full of holly.
December 18, 2011 at 8:13 am
I am newly obsessed with “Holy Holy Holy” by Sufjan Stevens. Brings a tiny tear to my eye. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an356WLsxJw
I also really love Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds’s “Christmas Song” because anyone who can wail about shoving the needle in the vein (“Rhyme or Reason”), and having one more one night stand (“Say Goodbye”), and then genuinely croon about the sweet baby Jesus has a range that I am frankly very jealous of. Can’t go wrong in my book. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbdylEE-0e4
Happy Christmas!!
December 19, 2011 at 8:31 am
I haven’t heard the Stevens one. Thanks for the link!
December 18, 2011 at 8:38 am
Carol of the Bells and it’s rockin’ counterpart, “Christmas Eve Sarajevo.”
December 19, 2011 at 8:33 am
I forgot about Carol of the Bells. Huh. There’s more Christmas music I like than I thought.
December 18, 2011 at 8:40 am
Whoa – I was listening to “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues just as I started reading this post.
December 19, 2011 at 8:32 am
I tried to time it that way.
December 18, 2011 at 3:42 pm
I don’t know what it is about the song, but I’ve always loved “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” sung right. In the context of this song, almost anything is “right” by me. 🙂
December 19, 2011 at 8:36 am
It’s such a classic that, perhaps, it just sounds like Christmas.
December 18, 2011 at 4:40 pm
This is pretty obscure, but when I was a kid we had a VHS tape of “A Claymation Christmas” (recorded off TV of course – should’ve given it as a gift), and we watched it every year. My father even bought a vinyl record to go with it. All that is to say “Rudolph” as performed by the California Raisins has a soft spot in my heart.
Honorable mention: Billy Squier, “Christmas is a Time to Say I Love You.” Maybe I just like the 80s a lot…
December 19, 2011 at 8:37 am
I assume you’ve heard “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses, then? They’re the band that did “I Know What Boys Like” (if that means anything to you).
December 19, 2011 at 8:47 am
Fairytale of New York is my all-time favourite christmas song… hell, it makes top 10 of my all time favourite songs in general! And this, since I was little and didn’t fully understand what the song was about.
Also love carol of the bells, though, when I was younger, I thought it was scary… possibly something to do with the version played in “Home Alone”, lol. Those people do NOT sound happy and full of good cheer!
December 19, 2011 at 10:38 am
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I know as a woman and grandma lover I’m supposed to be outraged by it or something, but that song has been cracking me up every year for the past 27 Christmases.
December 19, 2011 at 1:27 pm
“Everybody’s Waiting for The Man with the Bag” by Kay Starr. Nothing about Christmas per se. All about getting presents.
December 20, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Never tire of the Nutcracker…great background music. Usually hate “12 Days of Xmas” but John Denver recorded it with the Muppets & its awesome.
December 20, 2011 at 8:13 pm
The John Denver/Muppets rendition gets a pass on “12 Days.” No one else, though. No one else.
December 20, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt. Because of the bling, baby! 🙂
December 21, 2011 at 4:36 pm
I am slightly embarrassed that I love “Christmas in Sarajevo” so much. It just rocks and I wind up headbanging to it. And I, too, love that Bowie/Crosby version of “Little Drummer Boy” even though Bowie’s a big freak and Bing, that charmer, beat the crap out of his kids all the time. I love Frank’s “Christmas Waltz” (Iiiiiitttt’ssss thaaaaaat time of year when the world falls in love…) because I’m a fan of any song that mentions its own meter in the lyrics. Judy Garland’s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” is incomparable. Sappily, I love “Mary, Did You Know?” by (omg I can’t believe I’m typing this) Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd. And my personal, close-my-eyes-and-let-the-world-go-away favorite is the LA Master Chorale’s recording of “O Magnum Mysterium” by Morten Lauridsen. It was written in the 1990s by a guy who goes by the nickname “Skip” and lives in LA. But when you hear it (done well), you will think it was written by someone like Maurice Ravel in something like 1895 in some place near heaven. You can’t find it on YouTube. I mean, you can find recordings of it by other groups, but they’re nowhere near the LAMC version. For that, you gotta go to iTunes.
December 22, 2011 at 8:15 am
I had completely forgotten about “Christmas Waltz.” I love that song. Well, hooray – thanks for reminding me of that one.