Hey all! We thought we would start out this Christmas blogging season by talking all about our favourite Christmas songs! Hopefully, you find something new to listen to this December! It is now socially acceptable to play Christmas music 24/7 but to be honest we start sneaking in a song or two as soon as November started! We are each going to cover our top 5 Christmas songs and then also, as a bonus tell you about a few songs that drive us f&*%ing nuts!
Nancy
If anyone is around me at this time of year they will quickly learn two things – there are songs that I hate with a passion (and I will tell you), and my taste in Christmas music is extremely eclectic
It may be my age but Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade puts me in the spirit every time. [Emma’s Note: Such an underrated song!] It is the first get-ready-to-party song I think of at this time of year. It screams happy to me and someday I want to be at a Christmas event where everyone sings this out loud! And yes I do get the irony of the line about Mommy Kissing Santa (see below)
My parents had a Christmas LP that I loved to play as a kid. Possibly the most non-traditional choice on the list. But if you want peppy toe-tapping, you can’t beat Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Christmas. The tunes have been permanently tattooed on my brain and you can hear me humming them in July!
Not a particular song, but anything by a crooner – Michael Buble or Bing Crosby. I love the slow smooth baritone of Bing’s I’m dreaming of a White Christmas as I can pretend I am going to a snowy country inn on a sleigh and someone will hand me a drink and make dinner. Michale Buble has not only the smoothness of the old-time crooners but a wonderful Canadien-ness to him that is endearing, I want to adopt him and invite him to Christmas dinner
Produced in 1993/94 with Holy Cole, Jane Siberry, Rebecca Jenkins, Mary Margaret O’Hare, and Victoria Williams in a concert called “Count Your Blessings” I think everyone should listen to this CD. Their rendition of the Carol of the Bells is my favourite recording of that song.
Last but not least, did you know Jethro Tull recorded a Christmas Album? Cleverly titled The Jethro Tull Christmas Album. This one is in my car from November on. I fully admit that Songs of the Wood is my favourite album of all time so Solstice Bells is turned up loud ALL YEAR LONG! Plus a jaunty all instrumental version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
What can I say, I seem to like bells…
Now, these are the songs that make my toes curl.
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. There is no part of this song that ever needed to be written down, or recorded. I will turn off the radio No just NO.
I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus, how is this cute?
Though while reading some lists recently I found that John Denver recorded a song called Please Daddy don’t Get Drunk This Christmas – which may be worse, but thankfully I have never heard it. [Emma’s Note: I just listened to it and let me just say that it’s so bad that whoever uploaded it to Youtube disabled the comments lol]
It may be un-Canadian but I just don’t like Bob and Doug’s 12 days of Christmas. Perhaps you are sensing a theme here… I just don’t do ‘joke’ songs.
Add to that any song that is overly country or sentimental or tear-jerky—-please sing something happy!
Ring out, ring out, Ring out those solstice bells!!!
Emma
So my #1 Christmas song is effortless for me, the other 4 are a bit tougher to choose because there are so many great Christmas songs! But also, so many really bad Christmas songs.
This may be controversial but the best Christmas song in the history of the world is, no doubt in my mind, objectively: Baby Please Come Home by Darlene Love. Not only is this just a good song, but every single thing about it feels like Christmas. The big band, the sleighbells, the piano, the emotion!!!! There is a reason that Love has sung this song EVERY Christmas on the David Letterman Show (until it ended) since 1986!!!! That’s longer than I’ve been alive! Love’s All Alone on Christmas is also great. I am not a fan of U2 but their version of Baby Please Come Home is a classic in its own right.
I absolutely adore Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas: the Judy Garland Original and the Michale Buble cover but I think it’s worth saying that this song is also emotionally devastating? I’ve actually never watched Meet Me In St. Louis where the song is from, even tho I’ve watched almost every Christmas movie and I’ve heard the song 10,000 times because the song makes me cry every time I hear it so I have a feeling the movie will make my *sob.*
Favourite Christmas music is often nostalgic so mine is very heavily influenced by what my Mum liked and played when I was growing up. Therefore anything that is both Christmas + smooth jazz instantly makes me feel Christmasy. In fact, all smooth jazz kind of has that effect because it’s the only time of the year I listen to it!
Anything by Diana Krall or Holly Cole makes me feel very Christmasy because those were mum’s favs growing up. Krall’s version of Winter Wonderland is my favourite of her songs, I love the one line change to “we will frolic and play the Canadian way” which really updates the song. I think they were ahead of their time in 2005! Krall’s version of Jiggle Bells is also my prefered way to hear that song but that doesn’t count as my fourth song!
My last choice is a two-way tie for 4th and 5th place between the song everyone loves and loves to hate: All I want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carry. As overplayed as it is, instantly gets me in the Christmas mood! The other song is Last Christmas by Wham which is usually the first Christmas song I will listen to on November 1st when I’m ready to break the Christmas music seal! Before you ask, yes, I’ve seen the new Last Christmas movie and yes, you should definitely see it! But don’t look anything up before you go!
While I will start playing Christmas music the second Halloween is over (that’s when you cue up All I Want for Christmas is You!) I usually wait until the first REAL snowfall to play Baby Please Come Home, there is something about watching the snowfall while that song plays that feels so right.
Songs I hate, hate, hate, double hate, loathe entirely!
Do They Know It’s Christmas TIme – Band-Aid – I’m sorry but I hate it. I don’t like the song itself because it’s annoying and repetitive but also because of how intensely problematic the lyrics are. In fact, they already had to change a line that was “thank god it’s them instead of you” which is uhhh yeah horrifying shit. The song has raised a ton of money over the years and it’s great if they want to keep raising money but they need to do it in a way that doesn’t centre white figures, voices, and feelings–and they need to stop using a song that perpetuates negative stereotypes about Africa, and has a white saviour complex. I just can’t hear this song without cringing so hard I leave my body and become the ghost of Christmas past.
Wonderful Christmas Time – Paul McCartney – Is this the most annoying song in the history of the world? Probably. I actually like some bits of this song a lot, I always think “hey, maybe it’s not so bad” but the chorus comes along and just destroys any enjoyment completely.
Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses – This might be a contender for an even more annoying Christmas song than Wonderful Christmas time. Again, parts of it are cute and I don’t mind it, but the repetition of the “Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas but I think I’ll miss this one this year” chorus makes me want to blow my brains out when I hear it in the grocery store.
That’s it from us!
What are your fav (and least fav) songs to listen to at this time of year??
Love, Nancy and Emma ❤
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