wattsfam

It’s getting close to the ol’ 25th and Advent is already upon us so I dug out the old Christmas songs and put together this year’s mix (by dug out I mean I opened a folder on my computer, but how i wish boxes, records, and dust was involved).   I think as the years go by at some point I’ll have a definitive Christmas mix as most of these songs have been on mixes before and i feel like i’m honing the mix every year, not really expanding.  But here it is with some Christmas memories and reasonings for each song:  http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8J49EYXD

1.  Low – Just Like Christmas

It’s a flash of memories of Big Bear and road trips, and Paul Chapman.  It’s as Josh Pool said the perfect trick for the holidays that are “festively challenged”

2.  Quiet Company – Have Yourself a Merry Little  Christmas

There’s a few Christmas songs that are dark and dreary (just read the history of this song to know about it’s origins and original words), but I do enjoy when a group can turn that on its head and make the music fit the title.

3.  The Drifters – White Christmas

It’s the memories of Maccauly Caulkin singing it and practicing shaving.  Representative of the Christmas marathons and anticipation that fills the air and which Viet Nam is only beginning to tap into, but seemingly will never catch up with.  And since the Drifters recorded this it’s been their song, nobody else touches it in my mind.

4.  Margaret Whiting & Johnny Mercer – Baby It’s Cold Outside

I have about 5 versions of this song and like each one for a certain reason.  This one really convinces me that Whiting is just playing hard to get.  And the way she says “no no no” is just precious.

5. Greg Barkley – Let It Snow

6. Badly Drawn Boy – Donna & Blitzen

7. Jars of Clay – Wonderful Christmastime

The McCartney version seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way.  Ever since I heard it I’ve loved it.  I don’t recall ever hearing the song until going to a college group Christmas party with 5 of us stacked in a car and this song (McCartney’s) coming on as we got to the party.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing while everyone else groaned as if they’d been forced to listen to the synthesizer riff since the womb.  Jars of Clay tones it down, so even the most stalwart Paul haters might like it…they even get a little “We Three Kings of Orient Are” thrown in there.

8. The O’Jays – Christmas Ain’t Christmas (Without the One You Love)

Ain’t it true…but the O’Jays make it sound so good (the song, not the concept).

9. Rosie Thomas – Christmas Time is Here

Vince Guaraldi and Christmas make a beautiful couple.  Rosie Thomas stays true to that.  It’s filled with images of families glowing in respite and with ruffled pajamas after the wrapping paper has been torn to bits.

10. Aimee Mann – The Christmas Song

11. The Bird & The Bee – Carol of the Bells

12. Sufjan Stevens – Only At Christmas Time

It doesn’t have the Christmas sound, but it’s swaddled with the spirit.

13. Jars of Clay – I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Dave Bazan, my usual choice for this song, has always laid a little heavy on the ‘in despair I bow’d my head’ mood where as Jars of Clay seems to hold to the ‘peace on earth’ part.  They both have their merits, but why not go with the peace.

14. The Orioles – O Holy Night

15. Sufjan Stevens – Holy Holy Holy

It’s not a Christmas song, but it reminds of nativity scenes where the blessing of being a statue means you are always in reverential silence.

16. Eef Barzelay – Joy to the World

This song is one of my favorites.  The singer’s voice and the music are so tempered and quiet, the magnitude of the song masked in such a quiet space, not all too different from the Incarnation itself, the magnificent and holy found in a lowly manger.

Merry Christmas!

Now it’s your turn.  What are your top 5 Christmas songs?