I know as a 30-something in the naughts (teens now, I guess) I should roll my eyes at the slightest hint of a jingle bell and carolers should send me into a fit of spasms, but Christmas is my favorite holiday and nothing gets me in the mood like Christmas music. Every year my husband and I buy a Christmas album to add to our collection (right now my iTounes music list is at 223 songs running 12 hours' worth of holiday bliss) and I think this years' will be Buble. I would love to share my favorites.
10. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree: I absolutely love how this song combines traditional sentiment and a get up and boogie tempo. At #10 it's obviously not the best, but it works it's way on to the list.
9. Christmas Waltz: I'm a sucker for a waltz. And this one is so beautiful, conveying the chill of winter and the warmth of the holiday.
8. Mele Kalikimaka: Forget chill of the winter. With a fun bounce and a lesson in language, this song is awesome.
7. Step Into Christmas: Christmas spirit isn't something that just comes to most people because, let's face it, Christmas means dealing with angry shoppers, keyed up family members and the search for the elusive "perfect gift." What I love about Elton John's song is it's reminder to get into the spirit.
6. Opera of the Bells - Destiny's Child: I love Opera of the Bells anyway, but this is an amazingly beautiful version. A capella music shows great mastery of music. And, really, how could Beyonce screw up Christmas?5. Sufjan Stevens' traditional hymns: You won't hear these on regular radio. And many people might not even know who Sufjan Stevens is. In honesty, his entire Christmas collection is amazing (with one exception noted below) and well worth owning.4. Linus and Lucy: You hear it come on the radio and you start dancing like your favorite Peanut's character. Admit it.
3.Baby, It's Cold Outside: I've heard lots of versions of this song, but I think the one I like the best is from the Elf soundtrack featuring Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone. I love the regret and longing in the tempo, but some versions mess that up by making it more upbeat.2. All I Want for Christmas is You: My guilty pleasure.1. Barenaked Ladies' Barenaked for the Holidays: I love this whole album which isn't common. (Even the songs I noted below.) I love that it incorporates Hanukkah, so it's really not a Christmas album. This is my favorite (favoruite?) from the album.
But not all Christmas music is created equal. There are some songs that come on and I become the raging 30-something that all my friends say I should be. These are an abomination to the holiday!
10. Put the Lights on the Tree by Sufjan Stevens: It's not easy to write original holiday music with the huge repertoire that has been created over the years. This one lost me at the line "call your grandma on the phone/if she's living all alone" implying the co-habitable grandmas don't need a phone call. You can see a cute video to this marginally bad song here.
9. Santa Baby: The materialistic mentality of the holiday season really brings me down (after years of being asked "what do you want" I've gotten stuff overload) and the debauchery of greed that comes on Christmas morning. This song is that anthem. (To note, my favorite version of this song is by Kylie Minogue.)
8. Jingle Bells: There are four notes. Ugh! Bored.
7. Greensleeves: It makes me mad that this heralded as a Christmas song, when really, it isn't. The lyrics to What Child is This? were written in 1865 and the tune predates it with lyrics unbecoming of Christ's birth.
6. Aaron Neville: His warbling vibrato makes it very, very difficult to enjoy any song he sings... most especially Christmas standards. Please Come Home for Christmas is the worst.
5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by James Taylor: I love this song. I do not love that Taylor changed the words to make it limited. Christmas is about future and opportunity. The original lyrics: "one day soon we all will be together." Taylor's: "in a year we all will be together." What??? I have to wait a whole year? He does this throughout the song.
4. Last Christmas: A song about a breakup. Just plain depressing.
3. Christmas Wrapping: Not about a breakup but a missed connection. But the song just rubs me the wrong way.
2. Twelve Days of Christmas: As far as the song per usual goes, it's not bad. But I've heard an instrumental version of this song that drove me nuts. No words makes this song repetitive and dull.
1.Christmas Shoes: Has there ever been a more depressing Christmas song??? My mom's gonna die and I want to get her one last gift. -_-
Have a Merry Christmas!
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