Christmas music

Silent Night is my favourite Carol but my all time favourite Christmas song is Fairy Tale of New York by the Pogues & Kirstie MacColl.

Oh dear too many typos! Three kings not mins! I think the rest are obvious.

I love 3 mins from Persian lands Afar too with music by Peter Cornelius. Also o holy night like a lotof others. Shepherds pipe carol is lovely. Also the shepherds farewell & many other carols we have sung on my choir including lots of John Rutter.
Some Secular music too including sleigh ride (Leroy Anderson one) winter wonderland, chestnuts roasting on an open fire .
I can’t stand Fairly tale of New York - just t see the appeal! Also can’t stand some others like Frosty the snowman, merry Christmas everybody (slade?)
I like the music to be magical!!

I love Christmas carols and my pupils start learning them from mid-November onwards to be ready for Christmas. They nearly all want to learn We Three Kings first, which is totally different from the Kings from Persian Land Afar. I know that one - it was still being learned by school choirs in the 1970s, my time. One that was also popular with children's choirs at that time was the Zither Carol - Girls and Boys, Leave Your Toys. Anyone else remember that one? My all-time favourite is the Sussex carol: On Christmas Night All Christians Sing. Out of the secular canon l really enjoy playing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. The wartime words are as resonant this year as 75 years ago. I was nine when Slade were no. 1. I sometimes think if I have to hear Noddy Holder yelling out "It's Christmas" one more time l would like to get a pair of pliers to the continuous loop of whichever shop is assaulting our ears with it.

I don't know Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar, is it a translation of Heinrich Heine's Die heilgen drei Köng'e aus Morgenland?

I love Little Drummer Boy .
I don't know the connection between it and the Moors Murders , would someone tell me ?

here you are Maybee just for you.

youtu.be/9-aic4qHQWA

Thank you, HillyN.

I also love T. S. Elliott's narrative poem, Journey of the Magi. We learned it at High School in the late 1960s.

Last year I read, for the first time, Norah Lofts' How far to Bethlehem? It was a GN recommendation!
It will be an annual event now.

As soon as I hear Handel's Messiah, music from The Nut Cracker, or Ella Fitzgerald I feel Christmassy.

I love 'Gaudete'. I've got it saved in my Favourites and if I ever need cheering up, anytime of year, I play it. Here's my link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbKWk6RzaiM&feature=youtu.be

EllanVannin

Dolphindaisy, I was hopeless at the children's carol concerts, couldn't contain myself. I've always been the same and remember carol singing around the wards, particularly the children's ward on nights when us nurses went around with our lanterns . So sad to see the sick children in hospital for Christmas even though they enjoyed opening their presents on Christmas Day----after " he'd " been.

EllaVannin You had me welling up just reading your post!

marionk

I do love The Pogues, Fairytale of New York, sad they are going to sanitise it! Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, most of the actually but not in November ?

No! Why on earth would they sanitize it? Ugh .. I got rid of hundreds of CD's and only kept a small amount, including the Pogues-

Georgesgran, I remember singing Three Kings From Persian Lands Afar in our small church choir as a girl, and it is one of my favourites. Such a beautiful melody.

Fairytale of New York complete with all the swear words!

I do love The Pogues, Fairytale of New York, sad they are going to sanitise it! Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, most of the actually but not in November ?

It came upon a midnight clear that glorious song of old ......

paddyanne: thanks for reminding me about Thea Gilmore. We saw her at a Sandy Dennis tribute concert and I was very impressed by her but never went on to buy any of her music.

Personent hodie sung by Maddy Prior and the Carnival band. However I’ve just listened to it on utube sung by the Ely Cathedral choir. I make a point of only listening the Christmas music for a few days over Christmas and it all gets put away after Christmas Day. This Carol sends shivers down my spine.

To clear up confusion, here’s the link again that I posted earlier for Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar:-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIedUioo_Jk

Carol of the Bells

‘Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar’ and ‘We Three Kings Of Orient Are’ are two totally different carols with different tunes. Both good.

@Annaram1, ‘Three Kings from Persian lands Afar’ is a quite different carol from ‘We Three Kings Of Orient Are’.
Why not have a listen on YouTube?

Another Pogues fan here. Plus Michael Bublé and Kelly somebody singing FelizNavidad.

@Georgesgran, we sang that at school in the 60s too - it’s always been a favourite of mine. We had an exceptional head of music and choir - occasionally recorded and broadcast on what is now Radio 3 - and the choir always sang the beautiful descant.
You do still hear it now and then - I’ve been known to request it on Classic FM! but also have it on a CD somewhere - probably a Carols from King’s one.

My favourite ever Christmas song is A Spaceman Came Travelling. It gives me goose bumps.