Worst Christmas song.

I love them all and embrace all Christmas music. If necessary, after a tipple.

And yes, John Rutter is rotten for altos, but the overall effect makes it worth it.

gettingonabit It's very medieval
Candlefran Well oxfammed! Good for you.

I wouldn't have heard of "Gaudete" either if it hadn't been for Steeleye Span. It's lovely though-sounds really Mediaeval, somehow.

I like:

Stop the Cavalry by Jonah Louis.
Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade.
All I want for Xmas by Mariah Carey.
Fairytale of New York by Pogues and Kirsty McColl (RIP).
Gaudete.

Detest:
Mistletoe and Wine by Cliff.
The David Essex one.
Driving Home for Xmas.
And that awful one by Mud which thankfully I can't bring to mind at the moment.

Walking in the air always reduces me to tears ( so lovely) and although the Aled Jones version is very good, I prefer the original boy choral singer's voice ( from The Snowman, original animation.)

Yes Carrie that's the song! I couldn't think of the title at the time.I don't know why that 'choo' is so annoying...but it just is.

Rosesarered I'm thinking that your "choo" reference is to Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is Choo" ? Yuck!
Maybe she wants some great shoes

My favourite seasonal song is Walking In The Air sung by Aled Jones.

Just Oxfammed my John Rutter CD. Couldn't take to it.

too. Not top

Love Only a Winter's Tale top. David Essex. Takes me back to when my girls were young.

Exactly maggiemaybe. Got heart that song.

How I feel about my old feller really.

That's exactly how I feel about Fairytale of NY Maggiemaybe

Yes, a disillusioned, bickering couple well past the first flush of youth but at least recognisably human.

I also love Santa Baby by Earth Kitt and Baby It's Cold Outside by Dean Martin. I also like the Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews version.

The one I couldn't bear was The Little Drummer Boy, because I remember hearing at the time that it was on the Moors Murders tapes played in court Then as luck would have it, it was a favourite of the DC, and now the DGC, so I've had to sing it for them a lot. I still can't say I like it though.

Some of the Fairytale's lyrics are a lot more hopeful, though:

I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true...

When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night...

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone (belted out at full volume)
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you

I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you.

It's very raw, but there's something about it that just appeals to me. They do love each other really, that bickering old Darby and Joan.

X posts DaphneB

Which is why I put gow-day-tay next to it (Gaudete) so it would be recognisable. Only it wasn't. It's lovely btw so listen to it if you can on YouTube.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN9AJj9rtlk
Steeleye span version

Candlefran It is a medieval carol but I hasten to say none of us heard it the sixteenth century.

Candlefran Not having ever heard "Gaudete" makes me think you might be a tad younger than a lot of us on here. Showing our age we are.

Jinglebells is probably one of my favourites.

Love the playing of the Sally Army. Especially Christmas carols.

I have never heard of "gaudete". Not as a word, or in a carol from Kings, or in a pop song. I have never sung in a church choir. I know no Latin, apart from "seize the day" and actually I cannot remember off-hand what the Latin for that is.

But I do love the irreverance of Fairy Tale of New York.

On a more uplifting (?) note, anything Christmassy played by a brass/silver band, preferably the Salvation Army, (but I am not picky,) will instantly improve my mood and put me in the Christmas spirit.
? ? ?

Ana That thought had crossed my mind.

Perhaps the reason so many people like the Fairytale of NY (featuring the late, great Kirsty McColl as well as the Pogues!) is partly because of its less-than-festive lyrics?

Some Christmas songs are so syrupy!