I hate Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Hate it will the pure and white hot hate of a trillion burning suns. Every time I go into a store that dirge is being sung, usually by someone who can´t sing to begin with.

Ever since I worked in a mall for five years, I have hated almost all sung Christmas carols. Give me instrumental ones.

I dont think there are any I really hate. I do turn up the radio for any of Karen Carpenter´s Christmas songs. If ever an angel could sing, she´s it.

I enjoy the Mannheim Steamroller versions.

Although I like listening to Rush, I absolutely hate Manheim Steamroller. It sounds like a blend of synth-pop and my late Grandma´s Octagon organ that played beats when you hit different switches. We heard it every time we visited her for Christmas back in the 1970s.

I don´t want to roast one more chestnut on any open fire, and i despise the iversung, overwrought Beyonce type versions out there now, but I do like most traditional Christmas music. Instrumental is great, but meaningful lyrics are too.

Some of my favorites- Appalachian Snowfall by Trans Siberian Orchestra...fantastic. ( but we didn´t care for TSO at all in concert, funny how that works), Mary Did You Know, by Kenny Rogers. O Holy Night, by Aaron Neville, Simple Gifts...I can´t remember who sings the version I like.

Ahhhh....ok, make that "oversung" ...it´s not me, it´s my iPad. Honest. =)

Silent Night sung by our grandkids is the top Christmas song of all time for me. Sweet little angels--each one!

I love to watch a beautiful rendition of I Wonder as I Wander by a choir from a college in Arkansas on YouTube. For some reason, choral Christmas music is the most beautiful to me. I´ll never tire of Carol of the Bells, either.

Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow. But for the older songs, nothing seems to beat the Velvet´s Frog rendition of the Christmas Song.

The author of this is just another hate-the-rich idiot. He´s insinuating that Ray Davys deserved to be shot for the sin of becoming rich.

Okay, I´ll bite. What in the world does Rush Limbaugh have to do with Mannheim Steamroller?

We have an extensive collection of Christmas music and the CD that gets played the most here ( I think we´ve worn out at least one since I bought it in 2000) is Vince Gill´s " Let There Be Peace On Earth". I don´t own any of Karen Carpenter´s (thanks for the tip) but that poster would also love Anne Murray´s contribution.

The one I absolutely can´t stand is Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Michael Jackson. I´ve heard better sounds coming from an iron rod scraping an old glass bottle.

If his voice were any higher, only dogs would be able to hear it.

Andy Williams Christmas album is a personal favorite. I will miss the yearly Christmas time interview he would give this time of year. RIP, Mr Williams.

I agree with most of the choices here. But my favorite commercial usage for a Christmas song is the commercial a few years ago from Staples advertising their back to school stuff. It´s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! by Andy Williams is a great version. Mary´s Boy Child by Boney Em(sp?) with the steel drums and Caribbean sound is one of my favorites.

My favorites include ´´Go Tell It On The Mountain´´ sung by Mahalia Jackson, ´´Old Toy Trains´´ by Roger Miller, and ´´Silent Night´´ sung by the Oakridge Boys. I love ALL Christmas music, especially the old standards and it´s played all day in my home.

It´s not Chritmas without hearing Elvis sing "I´ll Be Home for Christmas."

I destest most Christmas songs, especally "Feliz Navidad" and "And So It Is Chrstmas" by ELP. I love most true carols, as they actually have something to do with the Savior´s birth. I´ve been listening to XM channel 74 or 75 as they´ve been playing the insrumental and religious Christmas music. I got the chills listenig to the Hallelujah Chorus last night.

#12, they´re his favorite. He´s been their biggest cheerleader for years.

The Little Drummer Boy, as sung by a boy choir and no one else. Silent Night sung by Andy Williams or Perry Como or as an instrumental. And, while not really a Christmas song, Ave Maria as sung by Perry Como, who hit the high notes with great ease and was even better than Andy Williams.

#12,

He usually raves about Manheim Steamroller during the Christmas season. I´ve been too busy to listen recently, so I don´t know if he still does that.

Speaking also of And So It Is Christmas, the version I remember most is with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Ack! It´s torture to listen to that one.

#12, before his implant, when MS first appeared, he introduced their Christmas CDs as his bumper music...

For pure fun I do enjoy Bruce Springsteen´s version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Otherwise I love the German/Austrian/Scandinavian jul sanger. The Vienna Choir Boys - dreamy!

Back in the early ´90´s I bought a series of inexpensive drugstore cassette tapes, all put out by a group in Nashville. Mostly instrumentals - piano, guitar, sax, woodwinds, etc. Gorgeous instrumentation, comforting, soothing arrangements of traditional and some new Christmas music. The producer/arranger on these is John Darnall. The cassettes have been replaced with CD´s and I treasure this music. Here´s a link to the playlist of one that is my all time favorite, Midnight Clear: http://tinyurl.com/cm5etzp

All my heart rejoices-Merry Christmas everyone!

Ramona (the Pest)

My personal Christmas favorite is "My Grownup Christmas List" by Amy Grant. Beautiful song and voice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_TKNW7q_34

Any song by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Andy Williams

There´s no arguing over matters of taste, but "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" is a lovely song--bittersweet and especially lovely by Judy Garland. If memory serves, Captain Kangaroo also sang it on his children´s show, making it the song I associate with childhood Christmas memories. I´ve also grown to like "I´ve Heard The Bells" sung by Frank Sinatra.

I´ll take "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire". It sorta catches all my Christmas song irritations.

Agree with most here. I´d add to the above list, Jerry Vale and Perry Como. Years ago, in Austria, I purchased albums of amazing choirs, singing Christmas classics, love them still!

The Jerry Vale album ´He´ isn´t Christmas, but it gives one chills.

Years ago, as a child in my mother´s kitchen, while we were baking Christmas cookies, I´ll Be Home for Christmas came on the radio. She explained to me that that was written for the soldiers and their families during the war. That combination of memories (my father was a WWII)veteran makes me very nostalgic about that particular song. Imagine the soldiers across the sea, far from home in a nightmare scenario and the promise of coming home for Christmas....and the families here, waiting, hopefully, for their return.

I absolutely abhor Feliz Navidad. I hate it, man -- really.

Jose keeps repeating it, like a million fingernails on the biggest chalkboard in the solar system:

I wanna wish you a merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a merry Christmas...

Well, JUST DO IT THEN! JEEZ!

You´re the dude sitting there with the guitar -- there´s nobody here bettter qualified than you. Just get it over with so we can all split.

"Little Drummer Boy" bugs me too. By the last pahrumpa-pum-pum, I´m ready to strangle my plastic Christmas tree.

Think about it. Mary just gave birth and is exhausted, Joseph is worried about how he´s going to pay for all of this, Baby Jesus is probably hungry and crying, the cows are freaking out, and here´s this strange little kid banging on a drum. That´s more Erma Bombeck than the gospels.

Most Christmas music falls into one of three categories for me: traditional religious Christmas songs (Silent Night), nostalgic secular songs (I’ll be Home for Christmas) and fun modern stuff (Have a Holly Jolly Christmas).

I appreciate the upbeat tempo of ‘Feliz Navidad’ (Jose Feliciano version). Maybe it’s because I grew up in Texas and still have tamales for Christmas Eve dinner.

There are a few songs that really annoy me. Rap music and Christmas should never be combined…. NEVER! ‘Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer’ makes me want to hurt someone. ‘Little Drummer Boy’ is just annoyingly slow and it’s an unnecessary embellishment to the beauty of the biblical account. Otherwise, bring on the music. I need all the Christmas spirit I can muster this year.

My vote is for "Silver Bells". It is simple, easy to sing, and cheerful.

And seldom played anymore.

There is really only one "Christmas" song I absolutely hate:

So This Is Christmas/War Is Over by the Fab Four.

Whenever it comes on, I turn the channel. Without Christmas music as the wallwrapping of the season, it wouldn´t feel like Christmas at all. Flynn doesn´t know what he´s asking for.

"Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues..... best ever.

Back in 1988-92 when Rush started his nationwide show, he did not have the extensive list of sponsors he does today. So a portion of every three-hour show was commercials where Rush himself did some infomercial shilling for various products which his company sold through the mail.
Among these products were early home video cameras, and CD´s of his favorite Christmas Music- Mannheim Steamroller, a/k/a/ Chip Davis, whom had been a fellow DJ and jingle writer in Omaha, when Rush was in KC announcing baseball games for the KC Royals.
Chip had hit the big time with a series of hits based upon an ad campaign he composed for Old Home Bread where he played a trucker with the handle CJ McCall, the biggest hit being ´Convoy´.

I like them, including Feliz Navidad and the Rapapumpum. By the time it starts getting boring, the season is over.

I like most of the Christmas music except the more recent ones horribly auto tune sung by today´s "singers".

When you hear a song from say Nat King Cole or Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby or Andy Williams etc they have great voices, music. The new "artists" are just awful sounding and they use what sounds like canned synthesizer music.

Chet Atkins guitar playing with Vince Gill- start at about 4 mins in for "Santa is coming to Town"

Vince Gill Amy Grant Chet Atkins Michael McDonald (Christmas)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KgEJ9hwhSs

If you want to get the chills from the magnificence of a performance, find Martina McBride´s rendition of O Holy Night on YouTube. Both are excellent, but the a´capella version is my favorite, though it´s just one verse.

a´Capella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prQnpbxEpfY

Accompanied: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMKxqcnwwAM

If you don´t have The Carpenter´s Christmas Portrait, Perry Como´s Christmas Album(s) or the one by Jim Reeves, get them. Not a bad track on any of them.

Well, 33, you have a point. I am partial to Little Drummer Boy because my younger son was in a boy choir. I was at the rehearsal when they got the music to this song. The boys were all excited. I will admit "the ox and lamb kept time" gave me pause.

A Way In A Manger is my all time favorite, but also, love Sliver Bells, Santa Baby, and next favorite of all time is "Please Come Home For Christmas" by any body.

We LOVE Christmas music and enjoy both the familiar along with the new cantatas every year.

However, an exception was this morning on npr when the statist agitators there featured a DVD of gloomy original songs from a London with a song writer who doesn´t even like Christmas. Her songs, which were called, ´´secular,´´ Christmas music, were negative, depressing and did not reflect any understanding about Christmas joy. ...It was just another bummer segment directed against Christmas by npr at taxpayer´s expense.

"So This is Christmas" wasn´t done by the Beatles, it was the creation of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and ranks right up there with that piece of absolute garbage "Imagine".

LOVE Manheim Steamroller and have every one of their Christmas CD´s. I start playing them on December 1 and go right on through til New Year´s Eve.

Forgot to add, I absolutely loathe "Do They Know it´s Christmastime/Feed the World".

Has anyone else noticed that So This Is Christmas uses the tune from Old Stewball Was A Racehorse? They couldn´t even write an original melody.

My current favorite is TSO´s Christmas rendition of Pachelbel´s Canon. I heard Silver Bells performed by Elvis the other night; also very nice.

There are a lot of old ´folk´ carols that don´t get played much anymore, Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella, Pat-A-Pan, Coventry Carol; all nice songs that are becoming forgotten.

Just for fun I´ll throw in Where Did My Snowman Go? and - a new one for us but my son likes it - I Want An Alien For Christmas.

I´ll Be Home for Christmas