Christmas music

Favourite carol: Silent Night
Favourite songs: Let it Snow - Dean Martin and White Christmas - Bing Crosby.

Oh yes Musicgirl - I too remember the Zither Carol from school days with great fondness. Wasn't it in the green Oxford Book of Carols? "Zing, zing, zing, Girls & boys, leave your toys, kneel at his crib & worship him" - lovely tune & easy lyrics.
I also enjoyed singing Three Kings from Persian lands afar.
Troika is very evocative of snowy Christmas time & Driving home for Christmas reminds me of journeys bringing DD back from boarding school for the Christmas holidays. She's now 36 & we always contact each other as soon as we have our first hearing of the year, it brings us together across the miles.

This afternoon I dug out my two books of Easy Carols for piano, and rediscovered ‘It Came Upon The Midnight Clear’, ‘As With Gladness Men Of Old’, and The Zither Carol - all lovely ones IMO.

I also have a really nice (but not quite so easy) piano arrangement of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, which was dished out by the teacher at the group class I used to go to. It’s lovely, and includes the words, which I hadn’t known before.

Check out this original song The School Nativity Play, sung by my friend Bruce Davies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ts2Iqpvw-s

Another you might like - Whose Birthday is Christmas? by The Statler Brothers

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixij80H1iRA

So much lovely Christmas music both sacred and secular. One favourite of mine is "The Shepherd's Farewell"

'Wind through the Olive Trees', local carols including 'Sweet Chiming Bells', and one I heard the end of on the car radio, which made me shed a tear, about a boy and king. Never heard it before or since and couldn't find it online. Can't even remember the lyrics now. One day I'll hear it again hopefully.

To me the best has to be hearing little children singing Away In A Manger at Nativity plays.
Guaranteed to have me groping for the tissues.
Alas there will be none of that this year. ?

Silent Night. O Come O Come Emmanuel. The Coventry Carol. In The Bleak Midwinter. Oh Come All Ye Faithful (particularly when the descant is sung.) The Cherry Tree Carol.

And Elvis snarling that "Santa Claus Is Back In Town."

When it was my DD's first Christmas in the US, she and our eldest DGD put on a CD of all the old Christmas stuff - Slade, Wizzard, the Pogues, John and Yoko, etc - and both burst into tears. It made them feel unbearably homesick.

Same here Calendargirl. My son was born in December 1975 and When a Child is Born by Johnny Mathis was playing as I left the ward to go home with my new baby boy. Always remember this.

So many beautiful carols but one of my favourites is Once in Royal David's City.
Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" is another classic at Christmas time. Reminds me of a school concert where my granddaughter aged 7 sang this in their choir.

I'm getting more in the seasonal mood reading all these favourite songs. Lovely thread!

I have never heard of Three Kings From Persian Lands Afar.
I really like The Holly And The Ivy, I Saw Three Ships ( Come Sailing by) Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Gaudete, Adeste Fidelis ( Come all ye faithful) Once In Royal Davids City and various others.
Other sorts of Christmas music ?...nope, can’t think of anything I like.

Twopence absolutely love The Shepherd's Farewell. Play it anytime of year.
Driving Home for Christmas. One year my 2 sons were both at uni in different parts of the country. One went to pick the other up and as I was excitedly waiting for them to come home this was playing.
The Angel Gabriel
In the bleak midwinter
I believe in father Christmas, Greg Lake
Jingle Bell Rock reminds me of my dad dancing around to it
Anything played on Christmas eve afternoon at The Bridgewater Hall. A real feel good concert.
Lots of the above. Need to renew my Spotify account!

tiredoldwoman

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

I've pm'd you tow - I don't want to mar this happy thread with the details of the connection

In the bleak midwinter is my favoutite. (A lot of carols are very easy to play on a simple keyboard)

I love Handel's Messiah at Christmas and all of the lovely traditional carols.

I have just found Mozart's ' Three German Dances on YouTube, WHITEWAVE2, very nice. Thanks for that!

Oh calendar 37 I forgot the Snowman - I love that too.
Yes I remember the Zither Carol and also the Cowboy Carol which was always good fun to sing . You’ve all reminded me of other favourites too like the Angel Gabriel.

I remember lots of silly words we used to sing too:
We three kings of Orient are
One in a taxi, one in a car
One in a scooter beeping his hooter
Coming from Leamington Spa

And

Good King Wenceslas looked out
Of his bedroom winder
He fell out & burnt his snout
On a red hot cinder
Brightly shone his nose that night
And the pain was cruel
When a doctor came in sight
Riding on a mu-u-el

I always loved O Come O Come Emmanuel, since it was always the first we sang in school assembly after the beginning of Advent. The beginning of Christmas!

Two carols that were new to me when dds learned them at school for a carol service, were the Calypso Carol and the Cowboy ditto. I’m more a fan of the traditional, but these two are so lively and jolly, I liked them from the start.

We were once invited to a ticketed major carol singalong at a big church near friends in Devon. I was so looking forward to it, but oh, what a disappointment. I’m familiar with masses of carols, but I’d never even heard of several, and those I thought I knew, were sung to an unfamiliar tune. Towards the very end it was The Holly And The Ivy - surely they can’t muck this one up, I thought - but it was also sung to a non traditional tune. ☹️

Greyduster, that's a lovely Christmas Eve tradition!

pollyperkins

Oh calendar 37 I forgot the Snowman - I love that too.
Yes I remember the Zither Carol and also the Cowboy Carol which was always good fun to sing . You’ve all reminded me of other favourites too like the Angel Gabriel.

I remember lots of silly words we used to sing too:
We three kings of Orient are
One in a taxi, one in a car
One in a scooter beeping his hooter
Coming from Leamington Spa

And

Good King Wenceslas looked out
Of his bedroom winder
He fell out & burnt his snout
On a red hot cinder
Brightly shone his nose that night
And the pain was cruel
When a doctor came in sight
Riding on a mu-u-el

“ We three Beatles of Liverpool are,
George in a taxi, John in a car.
Paul on a scooter, tooting his hooter all
Following Ringo Starr”

* Lilyflower*, another thing I’ll miss from my Canarian Christmas will be the Christmas Day Messiah on television. I always loved to sing along, much to the Bodach’s embarrassment!

Thank you Lucretzia for the link to my favourite Christmas song, the original video too!

Lots of favourite traditional carols mentioned here, some new settings like the Annie Lennox one have joined my 'play again' list, it goes well with Steeleye Span's version of Gaudete, another favourite.

As someone who sings in a choir yes, I love Handel's Messiah but can I do a shout out for Bach's Christmas Oratorio as well. Gorgeous music, wonderful to sing. Christmas isn't complete for me without playing this through at least once!

My favourite by far this year though has been DGD's version of 3 Kings who come from 'a farm'!

Witzend I too am dusting off the sheet music. Nothing too demanding - one of my favourites is John Rutter’s Nativity Carol, and Quem Pastores Laudavere, which is sublime. We used to sing it at school but not in Latin.

O Come O Come Emmanuel is another favourite of mine too, Witzend, and probably for the same reason. We used to sing it in Latin at my school and the words seem to fit the tune so much better! I found this lovely version sung by Hayley Westenra on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tId6ePj7Zpo&feature=emb_logo

I shall also be roasting my chestnuts over an open fire - or DH’s if he doesn’t stop buying silly Christmas decorations!

We learnt o come all ye faithful (adeste Fidelis) in latin at school & I can still remember it.