8 Days of Christmas Memories

Christmas music is a very important part of most people's feelings about the season. The interesting thing to me is how much the type of music varies from family to family. Growing up, I mainly remember two records that we listened to every year: Willie Nelson's Pretty Paper and another by some group of singers whose name I can't remember. That album had cool stuff on it like "What Are You Doin' New Year's Eve?", "Be a Santa", and "Do You Hear What I Hear?"; some day I want to dig out my parents' old record collection and figure out what it was. We also had (and still do have) the big Reader's Digest Christmas Songbook, and the rule was that you couldn't start playing that until after Thanksgiving.

I sometimes wonder what our children will remember as far as Christmas music goes, because we've started a tradition of buying a new CD each year. We have a varied collection that includes CDs from Elvis, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, The Vienna Boys Choir, Jewel, and a several other artists. One of my personal favorites is "It's a Cuban Christmas", and this year we got two new Hawaiian CDs that are both a lot of fun. What are your essential Christmas albums?

Comments

Zillah said…
Music is the central element of my family's Christmas traditions, with a pretty varied selection of favorites. Primary are The Messiah, Bach's Christmas Oratorio, and various compilations by King's College Choir. My mom has an album of the first Christmas concert performed at the Berlin Wall after it fell, and those German carols have always been pretty central. Also Britten's Ceremony of Carols, Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters, and a compilation of completely random Christmas songs including Santa Baby and the Jackson 5's Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer, mixed in with a bunch of albums of medieval carols.
12/18/2007 9:32 PM
brinestone said…
My mom has dozens of Christmas CDs, so no one type of music defines Christmas for me. Mind you, none of them were, say, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. My favorites are a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD we have, two CDs of medieval carols, and the Nutcracker, since we attended every year of my childhood.
12/19/2007 8:37 AM
Mrs. Hass-Bark said…
We always listen to Alabama's Christmas album. My mom got it the hardware store when I was about 10 and it has since become a tradition. We also have a Chieftains album that is very popular. A new favorite is Sarah McLachlan's album. I really like her cover of Joni Mitchell's 'River'.
12/19/2007 9:09 AM
Kristeee said…
Ah, Christmas music is one of the great joys of life! My absolute favorite is "A Christmas Portrait" by the Carpenters, followed by Sandi Patti's "The Gift Goes On" . . . then there's always Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, & MoTab. And I love Jon Schmidt's Christmas songs, and Jim Brickman's up there too.
12/19/2007 9:50 AM
Becca said…
I really like the Canadian Brass Christmas CD.
12/19/2007 2:48 PM
Th. said…
.

You can have our Clay Aiken one if you'll just come pick it up. Please!
12/19/2007 4:08 PM
Desmama said…
This year we bought the King's Singers Christmas album and it's beautiful! It doesn't have many traditionally recognizable songs, but there are just some amazing harmonies on it--"La Peregrinacion" is stunning, as is "Born on the New Day." I've been listening to it all week and fancying that I can sing . . .
12/19/2007 4:18 PM
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