The Holidays are here.
Christmas time with the joy of the season. Or perhaps frustration, depending on your disposition. I’ve been in an ongoing discussion with a co-worker about holiday music, and what is good or tacky. Both of us are Sufjan Stevens fans, and we’ve both acquired his compiled Songs for Christmas collection. For those who are not in ‘the know‘, Sufjan is a very ambitious and talented multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter, who has carved a niche in the ears and CD collections of the college age and hipsters alike. He has released a short Christmas EP every year for the last five years and has compiled them into a very affordable boxed set for this season.
With Sufjan’s holiday blitz in my collection, I have thought of what other holiday CDs would I like to have. Being a very slender market for selling themed music, a Christmas album is a hard sell, I figure. Why pay money for something you’d likely only listen to one month of the year? That is a very good question and is the reason why I have not bought any others.
I have a certain fondness for all the Christmas albums I’ve heard growing up, from Michael Card, to Tom Jackson, to Boney M (the ubiquitous, in my case) and the quintessential, Roger Whitaker’s The Christmas Song. All of these albums bring to mind Christmas memories, like family and cookies; presents and sweaters; Lego and cousins. It’s the only reason Boney M has a place in my heart, because it is so carefully tied to nostalgia. These are what my parents and family have all bought to help them celebrate the holiday feeling.
As I continue to grow up, I begin to think of what my musical traditions will be, that my children will recollect. I heard Barenaked for the Holidays last Christmas, and I really enjoyed it. I could see some day in the future, my own children opening their presents while Steven Page sings out about Auld Lang Syne, or them drinking Eggnog, wearing little Santa hats, hearing about Royal David’s City from the voice of Sufjan.
With contemporary singers re-working classic ’secular’ songs, and traditional ‘religious’ songs, it gives me a hazy feeling of warmth. That kind of foggy happiness at the thought that someone out there is trying to continue a tradition of song, to give to others. Setting aside the lucrative industry of Holiday, one can potentially see the warmth of giving, even through this foggy happiness.
After all that, I pose a question to you, dear reader. What are some of your favourite Christmas songs?
This is intended to be an interactive forum post, so I’ll make the criteria simple.
List for me:
1. Your favourite Traditional Christmas song or collection(be it hymn, or carol, or certain Messiah rendition. Basically something older than the last 50 years, even if it’s sung by a contemporary artist.)
2. Your favourite Contemporary Christmas song or album (that can be anything put out since 1945)
3. Your favourite Nostalgic/Kitschy/Guilty-Pleasure Christmas song or album (the kind, like Boney M, that has a place in your heart, but not in your logical head.)
With this, perhaps we can construct some kind of monster holiday song-list extravaganza.
Or at least understand some of the nuances of one another.
I always have trouble with lists of favourites, so, Tim, please permit me to answer free-form.
I’m a big fan of traditional Christmas music, generally. It sometimes bugs me to hear people complain about how they can’t stand Christmas music, because it’s overplayed at the malls, and so on. Christmas songs and good holiday memories are intertwined in my mind. Of course, there are good renditions and cheesy renditions of all these songs; on that, I can most definitely agree.
The songs “What Child is This?”, “Ukrainian Bell Carol,” and “The Little Drummer Boy” come to mind immediately as favourites, but I just took a look at Wikipedia’s carol list, and found a bunch more. I guess I tend toward the sacred tunes. Songs like “Deck the Halls” don’t have as much meaning for me.
As for contemporary Christmas songs, my brother bought me Low’s Christmas album last year, which is quite good. I’d like to hear the Sufjan collection; I’m sure it’s great.
I can’t think of any kitsch that I really love. My parents own a CD of the Three Tenors doing Christmas songs which certainly borders on kitsch — those dudes wouldn’t know subtlety if it hit them over the heads with a hammer — but they deliver a hearty performance that places them in the resepctable category, for me. One thing I will say, though, is that I don’t understand the fascination so many people share for the Boney M album. I guess it’s because apparently everyone except me grew up with it.
I do love Boney M’s Christmas Album. And I really like “A Very Special Christmas”. My “kitschiest” favourite would have to be John Denver and the Muppets’ Chrismas album. I don’t know if I have a favourite Christmas song. There’s a lot of good ones, maybe too many to mention. I too enjoy Songs for Christmas, and like it a lot.
1) What Child is This (I don’t know if it’s old enough…).
2) Song for a WInters Night- Sarah McLachlan
30 Roger Whittaker (darcy the Dragon!) and a double album my parents got from a Shell Gas Station one year. I only have a crap taped copy but I love it.
1) Maybe Silent Night, or Hark the Herold Angels Sing (are either old enough? I think they are..)
2)Rocking around the Christmas Tree (don’t judge me!!) and frosty the snowman
3) Silent night sung in German. It makes me think of the Christmas eve candle lit services we have at St. Marks (Lutheran). As a child I would just stand there and listen to my grandparents sing because they knew how to sing it. It was such a beautiful thing for them to do. To be able to sing a meaningful song in their native language.
I just want to say that Sufjan Stevens’ Christmas album(s) kick ass. That is all.
oops. But I didn’t answer your question.
1. O Come, O Come Immanuel
2. Well, since you already took Sufjan (BTW, my favorite of his traditional covers on that album is ‘the little drummer boy,” and my favorite original track is “that was the worst Christmas EVER!”), I will have to say “the Huron Carol” as performed by Tom Jackson. Tim, I bet you’re gagging. WhatEVER. I make a big ‘whatever’ sign at you with my hands. Would you rather I said “baby please come home” as performed by U2? Because I could have said that.
3. Amy Grant, “Christmas.” Yes, the whole album. But especially the Mary song.
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