The grand finale of all my Christmas songs posts! What is your favorite Christmas song? Can be a recording, or can be a song you sing yourself.
American parents, prepare yourself for irritation. I still love Raffi!!!! We had the Raffi Christmas record when I was a kid and it was in heavy rotation. I like “On Christmas Morning” best of all.
Because, and this will shock you not at all after going through December with me, I always really was the first one out of bed! And then I had to wake up everyone else because it was CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Okay, what’s your favorite?
dontcallitbollywood 
The Queen of all Polish Carols, I’m not able to sing it, because I immediately start crying
LikeLike
Oh, and from international carols: Adeste Fideles
English carols: The First Noel and O Holy Night (It was O holy Night that made me fall in love with Chris Young)
LikeLike
All of those were staples when we went caroling when I was a kid. Except O Holy Night in a caroling group is an odd experience, because everyone chugs along together until the end, when everyone suddenly just gives up on hitting the high note and one brave voice is left to finish on their own.
On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 2:09 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Oh my! I just wiki’d it. It’s not just a carol, it was also used to crown kings? And as a national anthem briefly? Pope John Paul II gave a whole sermon on it. This is way more significant than any American carol.
On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 2:00 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Yeah, the Poles are very serious when it comes to Christmas: the carols, the food, the traditions .E .g I don’t listen to Polish carols before Christmas because I was taught that one can sing them only during the Christmas time. So before I’m all “Last Christmas” and stuff but from Christmas Eve onward Polish Carols.
LikeLike
Oh my goodness. Our family rule was no Carols until after Thanksgiving, but after that we could do whatever. Even Silent Night. We always sang it on Christmas Eve, but we were allowed to sing it at other times.
On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 2:57 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
My favorite has always been O Holy Night – sung by Luciano Pavarotti.
After that, – Amazing Grace. By bagpipes. (I love bagpipes.)
LikeLike
Huh. Somehow I never think of Amazing Grace as a Christmas Carol.
On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 5:01 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
This year my family loves We Wish You a Merrry Christmas because the demands for figgy pudding are hysterical. BRING ME FIGGY PUDDING (OR I WON’T STOP SINGING). And what is figgy pudding? Nothing my kids want to eat, which makes it all the funnier. Figgy pudding has become THE phrase, used for everything, without any real meaning, in my house.
LikeLike
Okay, I am taking back my argument that 9 is a Big Boy and 12 is practically a teenager. You’ve convinced me, you’ve just got a bunch of little boys running around the house.
On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 6:35 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
O Holy Night is just gorgeous. I think it’s my favorite too.
But I want to give an honorary mention to Silent Night. It’s not that special on its own. But it’s the one song everyone knows, the culmination of every Christmas service, the one you can’t skip in front of the tree, and that somehow makes it into the very essence of the holiday. I love that there seems to be a version in just about any language. And when you get a bunch of international people together and everyone sings the text they know – then it does become really special.
LikeLike
I guess like in this song:
That one unfailingly makes me bawl my eyes out, very cathartic, very much about the power of Christmas, but not something I can deal with on the holiday itself. So I don’t really count it as a carol.
LikeLike
I agree. It was one of the first translations I learned when I was studying German too. The words are different in German versus English, but the meaning is the same, if that makes sense. For instance, in German I think there is something about the baby having curly hair, which isn’t in English at all, but who cares? You are just singing about a baby and people around him in the middle of the night.
On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 11:11 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
I had a moment like that with Silent Night. We were in Spain for Christmas because my brother-in-law was ill, and his youngest daughter sang the Spanish version at dinner, then I sang the English version, and it was unexpectedly magical.
LikeLike
Well I love too many carols to really choose one, l just did all my Christmas prep in the kitchen listening to the service from Kings College Cambridge which l realise is a family tradition now, because l do it every year. Such a richness of carols, if not diversity of voices… but l will just mention Qui creavit coelum, which l love because it puts the Joy of the World among the beasts, and has Joseph going out to buy baby clothes… Merry Christmas from the UK
LikeLike
Merry Christmas from America!!!
I hadn’t heard of Qui creavit coelum and you got me to look it up, because I want to learn about Joseph buying baby clothes!
On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 4:50 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
What Child Is This is my all time most loved carol. I love the very old, melancholy ones – Lullay Lullay, O Come Emanuel. But really there is a long list of the traditional carols I love singing and listening to, especially choirs and vocal groups, which I still miss even though I haven’t sung in one since college. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Angels We Have Heard on High, Lo How a Rose e’re Blooming, Here We Come a Wassailing, I Saw Three Ships, Carol of the Bells, I could keep going :).
LikeLike
You should join a choir! My parents both did choir stuff in high school, and then years and years and years later joined community choirs, and they love it. There are so many community choirs, I had no idea, and it’s all free, you get to just show up for 2 hours a week and sing. And also, get away from your children.
I think Erin in another comment just mentioned Lullay Lullay but by the Latin name? I had never heard of it, but I looked it up just now and I love it. Joseph buys a clothe, Mary gives suck and kisses him, this is any young couple with their first baby.
On Fri, Dec 25, 2020 at 1:01 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
I think there might be more than one. The one I was thinking of is also called Coventry Carol. It’s a sad one, sung to the baby boys Herod had killed in his hunt for the new god child.
LikeLike
Oh, that’s really sad!
On Fri, Dec 25, 2020 at 12:45 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
I don’t know if this is my favorite Christmas song, but it does make me deliriously happy. Also, it has Sunil so it’s a present for Popka as well! Merry Christmas, Margaret!
LikeLike
This is amazing! WHY HAVE YOU NOT MENTIONED IT BEFORE???? Why was this not an option for our Christmas themed watchalongs!!!!
On Fri, Dec 25, 2020 at 4:47 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Oh oh, here is one more.
I have no excuse for forgetting about Aao Tumhe Chand Pe le Jaye (or for not suggesting Zakhmee) besides just assuming that it was not available with subtitles but it is on Einthusan! We will have to remember it for next year!
However, I think I actively blocked this song because the movie is so horribly depressing. But the song is so fun, that we can all just pretend this is all there is and be happy!
LikeLike
Blech, we don’t need a depressing movie! Keep blocking it, we won’t even do it next year.
On Sat, Dec 26, 2020 at 7:43 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Sorry, I was a clear as mud in my earlier comment. To clarify, Aao Tumhe Chand Pe Le Jaye (with Suniel and Asha) is from Zakhmee, which is super cute 70’s fun with Rakesh Roshan in a ridiculous wig! And now that I know Einthusan has it with subtitles, we should totally watch it next year!!! Or anytime we need Christmas fun.
Aata Hai Aata Hai Santa Claus Aata Hai (with Sanjeev Kumar) is from the old terribly depressing Shandaar. That one, we should not watch but we can enjoy the song because it’s fun.
LikeLike
YES! Rakesh in a wig!!!! Always a sign of a good movie.
LikeLike