This post is more blatantly self-serving than most. Please humor me. I love Christmas music. I love it year round, though this year I haven’t really been listening to it much. I must rectify this horrible oversight. Growing up, I was forbidden to listen to Christmas music anywhere besides quietly in my room until after Thanksgiving (American Thanksgiving, not Canadian Thanksgiving). As far as I was concerned, this was a tragic limitation of great music, and as soon as I moved out, I listened year round.
So now we come to my request: I need more Christmas music.
I have about 50 Christmas music CDs, but as I was ripping them last night to load onto my iPod (my precioussss…), I realized that only half of them are really worth listening to. So, my fellow blog writers and readers, what would you suggest I acquire to improve my collection?
Since it’s only fair to offer some suggestions in trade, let me suggest the following:
Christmas with Charles Osgood, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir – I happen to like all of the MoTab Christmas CDs, though all of the others are your basic, traditional songs. This CD is a bit different, and it’s really, really good. It begins with “An American Christmasâ€, which is a little (30 minute) musical journey through the history of Christmas in American with spoken word and song. This is followed by some more non-traditional music and spoken word. I particularly adore “Magnificatâ€.
Christmas Songs, Anuna – This group sounds like a gentle, angelic choir. I find it very beautiful. (Note: Amazon doesn’t seem to have clips you can listen to, but if you have iTunes installed on your computer, you can listen to clips there.)
Christmas Eve And Other Stories, Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Most likely you’re already familiar with this group and either hate them or love them. Put me in the “love themâ€. I love the energetic electronic-rock interpretation of the music.