It’s the most wonderful time of the year, for some people…at least those who really love Christmas music.
Are you someone who listens to Christmas music as early as Thanksgiving day, or are you more inclined to listen to Christmas music in small doses?
Now is your chance to tell the Bloggernacle exactly how you feel about Christmas music. Don’t be shy.
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs and who sings it best? Which Christmas music should be left off the playlist?
[poll id=”14″]
We turned on the Christmas music when decorating the tree over Thanksgiving weekend, but I don’t like Christmas music until after Thanksgiving day.
I am fine with Christmas music in late November, but when I hear it during Halloween season I get a little cranky.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas music is welcome at any time of year, as well as individual Christmas songs on various non-Christmas albums. Other than that, I’d rather not listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving.
Amen to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. <3
Bing Crosby, Amy Grant, MoTab, and Craig Duncan are some of our favorite Christmas CDs. I think we have some Christmas LPs, but I’m not sure our old record player’s stylus won’t scratch out the high frequencies, so we don’t use it much.
Loonie Toons and Mickey Mouse (volumes I and II) Christmas CDs: please no.
Also, I can’t listen to “Baby It’s Cold Outside” anymore. Thanks a lot, Heather O.!
I don’t like Christmas music, and only listen to it when my wife or children put it on. I’d rather be listening to Weezer.
jjohnsen, your stock just went up with me! Good call on the Weezer.
When I worked in radio broadcasting, stations would start playing Christmas music as early as Halloween (irritating, I know, JA) just to get good ratings and beat the other stations to it. This is one reason I won’t listen to Christmas music until Christmas eve and Christmas day.
I also have to give a shout-out to Joyce for properly identifying any Christmas music sung (?) by Jessica Simpson as bad!! http://bit.ly/83udTV
You might as well add any song by Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) to the list. Not sure if they sang any Christmas songs, but if they did, it had to be bad.
I like Christmas music year round, though I only listen to it intermittently most of the year. I put my iPod on my Christmas mix about a month ago and haven’t listened to anything else since.
I like too many to name (though I’ve got probably 30 versions of “O Holy Night”, so that’s definitely a favorite), but there are some that make me gouge my eyes out (and thus are mercifully absent from my precious iPod). I hate all versions of “Blue Christmas”, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Jingle Bell Rock”, and “So This is Christmas”.
Oh, and one album I love even though I shouldn’t: Star Wars Christmas Album. Part of my love for this is that it brings back happy childhood memories. This was my favorite record (that’s right, record) when I was a wee beastie. Loved it! Now that I’m an adult I see that the music isn’t great, but I love it anyway. And of course part of my love is simply via the fact that I’m kind of a nerd. C-3PO singing makes me happy.
I was not raised as a Christian, so I loathed Christmas music as a youth. Now that I’ve been a Christian for some 14 years, I still loathe it. There are 2 or 3 songs that I like, the rest is tripe and makes me angry to listen to it. “Jingle Bell Rock” can produce a string of language from me that you never thought you’d hear from a Mormon.
Bah humbug.
I confess that I enjoy hearing the Christmas music start coming on the radio and even in the stores. However, I do get tired of it well before December 25.
For an alternative to all the Jingle Bell Rock silliness, check out the Taby (Sweden) Church Chamber Choir. Some friends of ours are originally from this town near Stockholm and they gave us a recording about 5 years ago as a Christmas gift. I kid you not that I listen to it on my iPod throughout the year, driving, at the gym, etc.. It’s such a simple, beautiful choir and the music is fantastic. I never tire of it.
You can listen to previews of their recording here: http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=225307
(I have no connection at all to the producers or performers other than having become a fan of their music. I hope no one minds that I linked to their CD. I just wanted to give a genuine plug for a great find.)
I voted “Thanksgiving Day or Sooner,” but technically, I usually start a day or two after Thanksgiving (but that’s still November, so the poll doesn’t help me).
Exceptions: I’ll listen to some of Sufjan’s Christmas songs year-round. My iPod rarely hits Christmas on shuffle, so I don’t listen to it much through the year.
I haven’t heard the whole album, but what I’ve heard of Tony Bennett’s Christmas album with the Count Basie Orchestra, released last year, is some of the best Christmas music you can hear (yeah, Sinatra’s fine, but put Tony with Count Basie, and you’re sure to have a classic).
After Thanksgiving doesn’t bother me much, but the switch of several of the local radio stations to all Christmas music all the time the day after Halloween I think is a first class perversion.
It is due to that kind of over exposure that I don’t feel like hearing any of the hundreds of versions of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”, “Silver Bells”, “The Little Drummer Boy”, or “Winter Wonderland” and the like ever again. The instrumentals are fine, but too much of this mostly vague mostly non-religious holiday music grates on my nerves. It would be better if radio stations didn’t switch to an all Christmas music format until perhaps two weeks prior, if that (allowing for how annoying their selections are).
http://www.web-radio.com/christmas/
I like Cheech and Chong’s “Santa Claus and his Old Lady”.