Favorite Christmas songs?

[wilsonart1]

Really wish Rumor would put out a Christmas release. 

[wilsonart1]

On a past list one of you said Eddy Arnold"s Christmas Can't be Far Away.  What a great song!

[Ovi]

Lennon's. That one never really gets old for me.

[KDS]

Lennon's. That one never really gets old for me.

Yes!!  That's my favorite Christmas song of all time, and many times the first and last Xmas song I listen to during the season.   

[Douchepool]

I'll list a few favorites. Albums and songs.

Albums

A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records
Elvis' Christmas Album
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
Andy Williams' Christmas Album
Bing Crosby - The Voice of Christmas (compilation)
Bobby Vinton - A Very Merry Christmas
The Carpenters - Christmas Portrait
David Lanz - Christmas Eve
Dean Martin - A Winter Romance
Frank Sinatra - Christmas Songs by Sinatra
George Winston - December
Johnny Mathis - Merry Christmas
The Moody Blues - December
Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song
Ray Conniff - Christmas with Conniff and We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Straight No Chaser - Christmas Cheers
Tony Bennett - Snowfall The Christmas Album
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve and Other Stories
Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas

Songs

Barry Gordon - Nuttin' for Christmas
Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock (also Hall & Oates' version)
Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
Bruce Springsteen - Merry Christmas Baby (also Charles Brown's and Elvis' versions)
Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa
David Essex - A Winter's Tale
Donny Hathaway - This Christmas
The Drifters - White Christmas (also Otis Redding's and the Supremes' version)
The Echelons - A Christmas Long Ago (Jingle, Jingle)
Ed Ames - O Come All Ye Faithful
Greg Lake - I Believe in Father Christmas
The Jackson 5 - Give Love On Christmas Day
The Kinks - Father Christmas
Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'
Marvin Gaye - I Want to Come Home for Christmas
Mavis Staples - Christmas Vacation
The Melodeers - Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (also Gene Autry's version)
Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)
Roger Miller - Old Toy Trains
Run-D.M.C. - Christmas in Hollis
Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - Deck the Halls/Bring a Torch Jeannette Isabella
Stan Freberg - Green Chri$tma$ (not really a song, but it's a classic)
Stevie Wonder - Someday At Christmas
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Christmas All Over Again
"Weird Al" Yankovic - Christmas At Ground Zero
Wham! - Last Christmas
Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day

[KDS]

I'll list a few favorites. Albums and songs.

Albums

A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records
Elvis' Christmas Album
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
Andy Williams' Christmas Album
Bing Crosby - The Voice of Christmas (compilation)
Bobby Vinton - A Very Merry Christmas
The Carpenters - Christmas Portrait
David Lanz - Christmas Eve
Dean Martin - A Winter Romance
Frank Sinatra - Christmas Songs by Sinatra
George Winston - December
Johnny Mathis - Merry Christmas
The Moody Blues - December
Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song
Ray Conniff - Christmas with Conniff and We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Straight No Chaser - Christmas Cheers
Tony Bennett - Snowfall The Christmas Album
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve and Other Stories
Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas

Songs

Barry Gordon - Nuttin' for Christmas
Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock (also Hall & Oates' version)
Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
Bruce Springsteen - Merry Christmas Baby (also Charles Brown's and Elvis' versions)
Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa
David Essex - A Winter's Tale
Donny Hathaway - This Christmas
The Drifters - White Christmas (also Otis Redding's and the Supremes' version)
The Echelons - A Christmas Long Ago (Jingle, Jingle)
Ed Ames - O Come All Ye Faithful
Greg Lake - I Believe in Father Christmas
The Jackson 5 - Give Love On Christmas Day
The Kinks - Father Christmas
Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'
Marvin Gaye - I Want to Come Home for Christmas
Mavis Staples - Christmas Vacation
The Melodeers - Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (also Gene Autry's version)
Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)
Roger Miller - Old Toy Trains
Run-D.M.C. - Christmas in Hollis
Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - Deck the Halls/Bring a Torch Jeannette Isabella
Stan Freberg - Green Chri$tma$ (not really a song, but it's a classic)
Stevie Wonder - Someday At Christmas
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Christmas All Over Again
"Weird Al" Yankovic - Christmas At Ground Zero
Wham! - Last Christmas
Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day

I love the Slade and Wizzard songs.  I'd never heard them at all until I got a used copy of a UK CD released in 1986 called "Now That's What I Call Music - The Christmas Compact Disc." 

Those songs seem to be standards in the UK, but not so much here in the States.

Also, worth checking out, but I think it's out of print.  The Fab Four.  A Beatles tribute act what put out a 2 CD set of Xmas songs mashed up with Beatles songs.  Here's an example of a mashup of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with I Saw Her Standing There. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBTIiVdPlzE&list=PLRHO804pIjJLetePkXPRABRtp8Wt8DBbx

[Douchepool]

The Slade and Wizzard tunes are total Spectoresque awesomeness.

[Mike's Beard]

Songs
Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day
Jethro Tull - Solstice Bells
Greg Lake - I Believe in Father Christmas
Mike Oldfield - In Dulci Jubilo
Kate Bush - December Will Be Magic Again
Dennis Wilson - Morning Christmas
The Pretenders - 2000 Miles (little known fact, this song is actually about The Kinks' Ray Davies)

You can't beat the Phil Spector and Four Seasons Christmas albums. I have the two Carpenters Christmas albums en route from Amazon - can't wait.

[KDS]

Songs

The Pretenders - 2000 Miles (little known fact, this song is actually about The Kinks' Ray Davies)

That is news to me.  Interesting tidbit.  Thanks.

I'm not a big Pretenders fan, but I do really like that song. 

[Mike's Beard]

Songs

The Pretenders - 2000 Miles (little known fact, this song is actually about The Kinks' Ray Davies)

That is news to me.  Interesting tidbit.  Thanks.

I'm not a big Pretenders fan, but I do really like that song. 

You're welcome. They were married at the time and Chrissie wrote it because he was away at Christmas time on tour and she was missing him.

Now on to the X-Mas songs that make me want to smash up the radio every December...

Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody
The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)
Chris Rea - Driving Home for Christmas
John & Yoko - Merry Xmas (War is Over..)
Any version of Band Aid -  Do They Know it's Christmas?

[KDS]

Songs

The Pretenders - 2000 Miles (little known fact, this song is actually about The Kinks' Ray Davies)

That is news to me.  Interesting tidbit.  Thanks.

I'm not a big Pretenders fan, but I do really like that song. 

You're welcome. They were married at the time and Chrissie wrote it because he was away at Christmas time on tour and she was missing him.

Now on to the X-Mas songs that make me want to smash up the radio every December...

Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody
The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)
Chris Rea - Driving Home for Christmas
John & Yoko - Merry Xmas (War is Over..)
Any version of Band Aid -  Do They Know it's Christmas?

We'll have to agree to disagree on Paul, John, Slade, The Darkness, and Band Aid.

Although, I will admit that the McCartney and Band Aid songs are WAY overplayed. 

Oddly enough, this is the only time of year that The Beach Boys are featured heavily on FM radio on the Baltimore market.

[Smilin Ed H]

Dylan - It Must Be Santa and Christmas Island
Brian - Winter Symphony
Jethro Tull - Solstice Bells
Dennis - Morning Christmas
Carl - Goin' South
Paul Simon - Gettin' Ready for Christmas Day
S & G - Hazy Shade of Winter
Donald Fagen - Snowbound
Herbie Hancock and Corinne Bailey Rae - River
Aimee Mann - Winter Wonderland
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
The Roches - Hallelujah
The Boys - Our Prayer
Ron Sexsmith - Maybe This Christmas
Rufus Wainwright - Wjat are you doing New Year's Eve
Lindisfarne - Lady Eleanor (there should always be a ghost story at Christmas)

[Douchepool]

Now on to the X-Mas songs that make me want to smash up the radio every December...

Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody
The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)
Chris Rea - Driving Home for Christmas
John & Yoko - Merry Xmas (War is Over..)
Any version of Band Aid -  Do They Know it's Christmas?

Luckily, being in America, Slade escapes pretty much all airplay, so we're not inundated with Merry Xmas Everybody every year. Of course, one could probably count on one hand the amount of American Slade fans under the age of thirty.

Agree on John & Yoko and Band Aid.

[Mike's Beard]

I should clarify that I think Fairytale of New York is a great song. However, in the UK it is played an absurd amount over the Christmas period. After 30 odd years you sorta get sick of it.

[Douchepool]

Wham's Last Christmas is completely overplayed but it's one of those songs I just never get tired of. It's just a perfect pop song. Great arrangement, melody, George Michael at the beginnings of his vocal peak...classic pop music.

[Sheriff John Stone]

I went through a change of heart with overplayed Christmas songs. There was a time when I could do without every station playing "Wonderful Christmastime", "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)", Springsteen's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", Band Aid, Wham, and many of the other ones mentioned above. But, as I got older, I got more sentimental, and that's what Christmas music is about - or at least one of its qualities - sentimentality. Now I accept them and kind of embrace them. Think about it. It wouldn't really seem like Christmas if you didn't hear them!    

[KDS]

I went through a change of heart with overplayed Christmas songs. There was a time when I could do without every station playing "Wonderful Christmastime", "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)", Springsteen's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", Band Aid, Wham, and many of the other ones mentioned above. But, as I got older, I got more sentimental, and that's what Christmas music is about - or at least one of its qualities - sentimentality. Now I accept them and kind of embrace them. Think about it. It wouldn't really seem like Christmas if you didn't hear them!    

You are 100% right. 

[KDS]

Kind of a hidden gem. 

John Williams wrote a piece called Star of Bethlehem for the movie Home Alone in 1990. 

The piece is used in the score throughout the movie, and as a church hymn. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6agPlIt8uc

[KDS]

I've been listening to some Johnny Cash Christmas songs. 

I love his version of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. 

[RangeRoverA1]

Nice to see this thread active. Anyway, I listened randomly to various Christmas songs on youtube & this is new favorite not mentioned by any: Gene Autry Merry Texas Christmas Y'all

Ole fav. are the usual Shakin' Stevens' "Merry Christmas Everyone", Randy Travis' "Jingle Bell Rock", Cyndi Lauper's "Early Christmas Morning", Kirsty/Pogues, Chris Rea's "Driving Home for Christmas" etc.

[Sandy Baby]

Every once in a while, I enjoy the Mojo Nixon versions.

"We Three Kings":    http://youtu.be/Zt_xxmf_-cs
"Sleigh Ride":    http://youtu.be/DY3NPHdijcM
"Jingle Bells":    http://youtu.be/XYZW3cy7b_c

[RangeRoverA1]

Hey, thanks for mentioning Good King Wenceslas! I like this cover best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7dcxeCg6ss (by SgtTimBob. He posts here)

Ignorant me, I thought it's original song, then he said it's traditional. Either way, it is my holiday favorite.

[KDS]

Hey, thanks for mentioning Good King Wenceslas! I like this cover best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7dcxeCg6ss (by SgtTimBob. He posts here)

Ignorant me, I thought it's original song, then he said it's traditional. Either way, it is my holiday favorite.

Blackmore's Night does a good version of this. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKVU8BoKLMQ

[jeffh]

Dylan - It Must Be Santa and Christmas Island
Brian - Winter Symphony
Jethro Tull - Solstice Bells
Dennis - Morning Christmas
Carl - Goin' South
Paul Simon - Gettin' Ready for Christmas Day
S & G - Hazy Shade of Winter
Donald Fagen - Snowbound
Herbie Hancock and Corinne Bailey Rae - River
Aimee Mann - Winter Wonderland
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
The Roches - Hallelujah
The Boys - Our Prayer
Ron Sexsmith - Maybe This Christmas
Rufus Wainwright - Wjat are you doing New Year's Eve
Lindisfarne - Lady Eleanor (there should always be a ghost story at Christmas)

Someone finally mentioned The Roches. Check out their Christmas album "We Three Kings ". It's great.

[Bill30022]

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - The Annie Moses Band

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gSNEiiH-gzk