Best and Worst Christmas songs

It's that time of year again. Radio stations start playing Christmas songs, and either we love the songs or hate them with a burning passion. What's the best and worst Christmas songs that you've heard?

Favorites:

• Wizards In Winter: It's the Trans Siberian Orchestra people!
• Christmas In Sarajevo: see above.
• It Feels Like Christmas

Unfavorites:

• The Christmas Shoes: everything about this song has already been said.

Do songs based on animated movies count? Because if so, I'm pretty sure I hated everything off of Rudolph and Frosty The Snowman.

Aside from that, from the songs that I've heard (going by typical radio songs, anyway), I've hated just about everything except "Feliz Navidad", "Let It Snow", and the one whose name I can't remember that was used for that Family Guy gag involving whoppers.

Best Christmas Song: The Carol of the Bells

WOOF!

To be honest, 80% of the ones that I can think of are so annoyingly overplayed that I almost can't stand them. I sweat, if I hear Santa Claus is Coming to Town one more time I think I'm going to have to punch something.

But, of course, there are a few exceptions I can think of; I've always had a soft spot for You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch. And I always thought that Sleigh Ride had a really catchy melody. Christmas, Don't Be Late (the one by Alvin & the Chipmunks) is sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. And Weird Al's The Night Santa Went Crazy will never stop being funny.

I love to learn, I love to yearn, and most of all... I love to make money.

Best: Chiron Beta Prime Worst: Nearly everything else.

:)

I still need to thank whoever first introduced me to the most insane, yet awesomest version of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" ever recorded:

In other "artists doing pretty bizarre things to Christmas songs I dislike and making me kinda like them" news, The Fall have kind of a fun version of "Jingle Bell Rock".

edited 3rd Dec '10 5:25:49 PM by MikeK

Earth is the only planet inhabitable by Nicolas Cage.

Worst songs:

• The Little Drummer Boy
• Do You Hear What I Hear

Never heard that song about shoes, so I can't comment on it.

Best songs:

• Sufjan Stevens: "Star of Wonder", "Get Behind Me, Santa!"
• John Fahey: "Russian Christmas Overture"
• Thee Spivies: "There's No Christmas on the Moon"
• Vince Guaraldi Trio: "Skating"
• Trans Siberian Orchestra: "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)"
• MAP: "Alone on Christmas"
• "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"; everyone's covered this one, but Skyline Drive's version is my favorite so far.

Best hymns:

• "Oh Holy Night"
• "Oh Come All Ye Faithful"
• "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing"
• "Angels We Have Heard on High"

edited 3rd Dec '10 5:09:55 PM by MetaFour

I didn't write any of that.

The Trans Siberian Orchestra version beats any other version EVER.

I really like Aly and A Js Greatest Time of Year. It always puts me in the Christmas spirit.

I'm also partial to Susan Boyle's version Away In a Manger. As well as Bowling For Soup's version of Frosty The Snowman, and Perry Saves Christmas.

edited 3rd Dec '10 6:11:16 PM by HopelessRomance

We're going to spread this shit like Nutella.

After a night downtown (with shitty Christmas music everywhere you turn), I hate most Christmas songs by default. I mean, the best a singer/band usually does is make it tolerable. This is just the mainstream stuff, though; for example, I've heard some Trans-Siberian Orchestra songs (even played their version of "Carol Of The Bells") and they're awesome.

There are snakes in the grass, so we'd better go hunting!

Aaaaaaaand that's why I don't listen to the radio.

I didn't write any of that.

YES, someone who agrees with me! I'd also say that their version of "Carol of the Bells" beats any other one out of the water.

Other Christmas songs I think are the best, but aren't really traditional per se:

• "Do They Know It's Christmas?" - Band Aid (yeah, it's a bit sappy, but it's simply a classic.)
• Anything by Straight No Chaser or Bob Rivers (the former is an awesome acapella group, while the latter does nothing but parody. "Chipmunks Roasting on An Open Fire" and "The 12 Pains of Christmas" are my favorites.)
• "Christmas Eve" - Tatsuro Yamashita (Japanese Christmas song that's extremely popular there during the season as it has been since the early 80s. It's a good song, too.)
• "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"
• "The Night Santa Went Crazy (Extra Gory Version)" - Weird Al Yankovic
• "Christmas At Ground Zero" - Weird Al Yankovic
• "A Christmas Carol" - Tom Lehrer
• "The Twelve Days of Christmas" parody by Bob and Doug Mc Kenzie (y'know, the one with "a beer"?)

Most of these really aren't played on the radio. I could understand for, say, Bob Rivers' output, but Straight No Chaser's omission is inexcusable...

My favorite traditional Christmas songs:

• "Santa Claus is Coming To Town" (especially the Frank Sinatra/Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen covers)
• "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"
• "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

My favorite Christmas hymns:

• "O Holy Night"
• "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
• "Silent Night"
• "Gloria"

My LEAST favorite Christmas songs:

• "Mary, Did You Know?"
• "The Christmas Shoes"
• "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" (although I really like John Lennon, Yoko Ono and a choir of small children kill this song for me.)
• "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas" (the fact that it was originally sung by a 10-year-old makes it even worse...)
• "Christmas Don't Be Late" - Alvin and the Chipmunks (on the other hand, the "Twisted Chipmunk Song" parody by Bob Rivers is amazing.)
• "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer"
• "Away In A Manger" (overplayed.)

edited 3rd Dec '10 8:04:13 PM by troperwithoutaname

"This grass feels funny," Kirby thought. "It feels like...pants."

^ You know what's even better than Band Aid's version? A bouncy techno cover version, that's what. Because obviously the original wasn't Mood Whiplash enough.

Also, the entirety of Sufjan Stevens' Songs For Christmas EP's can be streamed right there. If you don't have two-and-a-half hours to listen to the entire thing in order, I recommend starting at track 32, the beginning of the fifth and final volume.

I didn't write any of that.

Ding! Fries are done.

I didn't write any of that.

This. Weird Al can do no wrong.

There are snakes in the grass, so we'd better go hunting!

I dunno, but I stumbled upon what just might be the best Christmas album cover of all time.◊

"I could eat a knob at night" - Karl Pilkington

The twelve days of Christmas because you can add your own lyrics and play with other people.

This and this too

Edited for better versions, still relying on youtube...

edited 4th Dec '10 5:25:03 PM by Cider

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

Oh, let's see here...

• Favorite (traditional)
  • Carol of the Bells - especially Trans Siberian Orchestra, as aforementioned
  • Here We Come A-Wassailing
  • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

• Favorite (non-traditional)
  • Gothic Christmas
  • The Caroler (...can't find a better recording... grrrr)

• Unfavorite
  • Little Drummer Boy

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Chipmunks roasting on an open fire... Hot sauce dripping from their toes...

There are snakes in the grass, so we'd better go hunting!

I absolutely love:

• Tori Amos' Midwinter Graces. She picked her favorite carols and made them more secular! Plus, T wrote five new songs for the record that I absolutely adore.
• "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Well, the Tori version at least.
• "Veni Veni/O Come O Come Emmanuel". I love the versions Sufjan Stevens and Mannheim Steamroller made.
• "Carol of the Bells". I guess I should listen to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version now.
• "Greensleeves". This was a song included on a keyboard that I owned when I was a small child.
• "Feliz Navidad". Probably because I'm Latino. :3

I dislike:

• "Frosty the Snowman". Even Fiona Apple couldn't make me like this song.

If you find yourself liking Christmas carols over stuff like "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", it's because carols were originally secular songs that were popular in its time. The Church then took these songs and added Christian themes to them. Tori said that it's like the Church taking "Billie Jean" and making it into a Christian song.

Did anyone ever see the old Spitting Image song "No More Christmas Singles"? It has some entertaining lines on this topic.

edited 21st Dec '10 5:19:09 PM by TheGloomer

Holy shit. I just remembered this: Medeia's "Antichristmas". The song is average (but Christmas-themed) death metal stuff, but the video makes the whole holiday shtick worth it. Think of it this way: Metal version of "Bad Santa".

edited 5th Dec '10 5:46:57 PM by BoundByTheMoon

There are snakes in the grass, so we'd better go hunting!

I have a personal hypothesis that the rate of composition of good Christmas music is 1 song per century. The 20th century's was, of course, Fairytale of New York.

Okay, yeah, and maybe there are a few other good ones.

Side note: If you ever spend Christmas in New York, you WILL come to hate "Winter Wonderland" more than you ever thought possible.

edited 5th Dec '10 5:40:59 PM by Hsere

"If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing." -John Brunner

Angels We Have Heard On High, as sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!

I'll second "Chiron Beta Prime" for best.

edited 5th Dec '10 7:58:43 PM by Nyktos

I guess it is.

Santa Claus Has Got the AIDS by Tiny Tim for best, please.