Christmas music I actually like.

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I don’t want to hear Jingle Bell Rock ,  The Little Drummer Boy, Jingle Bells, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, or Santa Baby (puke!).   If I hear these kinds of songs on the radio I will change the station immediately, but unfortunately, they’re EVERYWHERE.  Blargh.

I don’t hate all Christmas music though.  I love traditional, religious carols like these.  It has nothing to do with being religious.  Even when I was a near-atheist, I still preferred them to secular Christmas ditties.   They just seem more meaningful and reverent.

I particularly love the King’s College Choir’s “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”– I think these are two separate performances.   Check out the smiling, chubby little guy in the first video, just singing his heart out.   The boys’ voices combined with the organs give me goosebumps.  They sound like angels.

I also really like Good King Wenceslas.   You don’t hear it a lot anymore.  It’s a traditional English carol about a good king who gives to the poor, so I think it’s definitely in the right spirit for the season.

In this next video, Josh Groban sings “O Holy Night.” I think he does this song more justice than anyone else. His voice is amazing. The Nativity Story here is also cool. I like the way it captures the intimacy and emotion of the moment. Mary and Joseph here actually look Middle Eastern, not Anglo-Saxon, and Mary looks sweaty and disheveled from giving birth, which makes it more realistic.

10 thoughts on “Christmas music I actually like.”

  2. I’m with you on the “mall music” Xmas tracks (spare me!) – but I have a HUGE collection of Christmas music without a “Frosty” in the bunch.

    Check out the Clare College Choir (Cambridge) – a women’s choir under the direction of John Rutter that sings with a straight tone (like a Boy Choir). One of my very favorites at Christmas time is an old one, “Christmas from Clare.” Talk about Angels!

    Loved the Nativity video, but couldn’t get it to play smoothly enough to appreciate the singing.
    xx,
    mgh

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  4. I think my favorite is “Silent Night” and even that in limited dose – Of course, “The Messiah” is magnificent, but facing a whole month of non-stop, ubiquitous, auditory Christmas kitsch – Ugh.

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    • Yeah, I agree. Most of the stuff they play in stores is nausea inducing. It makes me angry that some of the pop stations switch to an ALL-Christmas music format for an entire month. I always wonder how anyone can stand that. I find stations that play NO Christmas music — or listen to my own music.

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