Favourite Christmas songs or carols

Fairytale of New York - Kirsty McColl with The Pogues

joan, thanks for your comprehensive answer, it just about fits the bits i remember of the film i saw.once again, many thanks

I am very fond of Oh Night Divine. In my choir we are singing a version which incorporates Silent Night. It sounds beautiful.

Slightly off topic but listened to JLS singing their new single. It is based on a lovely Carol, " Do you hear what I hear ?", but the words are now all about meeting a girl in a club and having a drink. AIBU to find this slightly offensive?

..they've got some really old Buntys on ebay but I don't know how to bid for them; I'm sure I recognise the covers.

Diversion here, but I loved Bunty, Crimson.Joined the club, had a penfriend but best of all couldn't wait every week for the next cut-out outfit with tabs to put on the paper girl!

There was an article in my Bunty annual one Christmas about how Silent Night came to be written and I'm sure it said that the church organ stopped working and the guy who wrote it sang it with a guitar to the congregation. Poetic licence pehaps? Either way, the story stuck in my head [and I can still picture it in my head...I so loved my Christmas Bunty annuals..]

I just remembered Harry Belafonte singing Scarlet Ribbons. I've not heard it for years but it could reduce me to a puddle quite easily!

Adeste Fideles, peferably sung in Latin, not English, and also I`m another fan of In The Bleak Midwinter, it`s lovely.
Christmas song wise, I love CLIFF Richard singing Mistletoe and Wine, and, although it wasn`t written strictly for Christmas, Johnny Mathis singing Wnen a Child is Born can reduce me to tears.

Here's what I found on wiki and another site.....

The film
1933: first movie about 'Silent night, holy night'
Under the direction of Hans Marr and with Felix Gruber as Franz X.Gruber produced 1933 the first film about the world famous christmas carol. (German, english subtitles)

The story
The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber. In 1859, John Freeman Young (second Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Florida) published the English translation that is most frequently sung today.[1] The version of the melody that is generally sung today differs slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8 time, as opposed to the slow, meditative lullaby version generally sung today. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.

can anybody recall a film showing how silent night came to be. i think it might have been an austrian/german film. quite lovely. i have never seen it since

Harry Belafonte - Marys Boy Child mum and dad used to play that every Christmas, it was on a 78rpm record !!!!! I was only a child but I still love it even now . From one extreme to another I also like A fairytale of New York -by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
As for Christmas carols it has to be Hark the herald angles sing.
I have just thought of Have yourself a merry little christmas -by Judy Garland It always brings a little tear to my eye its a sad song makes me think of my lovely sister who is no longer with me

Quote gma:
Nothing but Nothing by Stiff Richard thanks very much. (p.s. What has 100 feet and no teeth.......The front row of a stiff richard concert!!!!!!) Oops sorry fans...
Oh dear - I'm just as bad regarding his godliness, the only celibate pop singer in the known universe. Keeps him looking young though. (Which probably explains where my looks went....)

'Once in Royal David's City' sung at the Kings College carol service on Christmas Eve is unbeatable for traditional Christmas hymn, Fairytale of New York, by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl for the modern touch. Nothing but Nothing by Stiff Richard thanks very much. (p.s. What has 100 feet and no teeth.......The front row of a stiff richard concert!!!!!!) Oops sorry fans......
Wine o'clock (late tonight)

Used to see Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band at Christmas, but they don't come to Derby any more. They do a carol called Personent Hodie; I've heard it so many times in Latin I can't remember what it's other name is. I bought a beautiful cd of Christmas songs by the Mediaeval Babes a few years ago, but I lost a very dear friend that Christmas and it hurts to listen to it.

Anngel Carol and See Amid the Winter Snow,*Granny 23*

It has to be 'In the Bleak Midwinter' (but the Harold Darke composition, rather than the Gustav Holst one) sung by King's College Choir, and 'Quem Pastores Laudavere', and the 'Shepherd's Pipe Carol' by John Rutter. And 'Tommorrow is my Dancing Day'. Too many to mention, really. I don't care much for Christmas - it seems to have lost its way - but I do love the music....

And then there is that old Scottish Carol 'A Wean in a Manger'

Take it you're not keen on 'my darling Cliff' singing Mistletoe and Wine susie !!! Agree with you about the others though, especially The Messiah. Had better keep sharp sticks away from you!!!

kittylester I would love to know where that Catholic Priest was from who made that comment about O Little Town of Bethlehem - It is one of my favourites and we have it EVERY year at our Catholic Midnight Mass with absolutely no repercussions - not even a thunderbolt.

Had to smile at the mentions of the 'wrong' words being used joan - my kids said once that they had sung the beetroot hymn!
- turned out to be 'We will BE TRUE TO thee til death'

Going back to carols, the one that really winds me up is 'We will rock you' - a beautiful carol but why does it always sung as 'We will raw queue?' !!!

For the sheer fun of great memories - "All I want for Christmas is You" - by Mariah Carey.
It was played endlessly on the radio when we had a road trip in the States with our son and family one Thanksgiving. We always joined in....

Otherwise, 'Come, oh come Emmanuel' takes a lot of beating.

Yes Goldengirl for me it is also In the Bleak Midwinter and totally agree about Bing Crosby and 'White Christmas' susiecb ... so many memories of my childhood Christmases

'In the Bleak Midwinter'. I used to sing it at the top of my voice when I walked the dog across the fields with the mist hanging in the trees and the ground crunching under foot. No-one around!!!!!

I always mean to read A Christmas Carol in the run up to Christmas, but then don't get round to doing so. Can you imagine Christmas without it. In fact, did Dickens 'invent' Christmas as we know it?

"See, amid the winter snow.." And I totally agree about "Come, oh come.."!
And the first verse of "Once in royal David's city" sung by a chorister.

Hate most of the jolly Christmas songs, but have a sneaking fondness for "Deck the halls".

Wonderful memories Joan

I also like Bleak Midwinter - the words conjure up the icy winters of my youth.

I want to commit murder when i hear Little Drummer Boy - yukkkkkkkkk. There are other American Christmas songs that turn me into a scrooge-like creature growling "Bah Humbug".

When it comes to children's carols, you do get hear some hilarious words. I seem to remember reading about one little one singing 'Round John Virgin' for 'Round yon virgin'!

We got plenty deliberately wrong when we were kids, of course:

God rest ye Jerry Mentalmen

Good King Wenseslas looked out, of his bedroom window
Silly bugger he fell out on a red hot cinder
Brightly shone his bum that night though the frost was cruel
Then the Doctor came in sight, riding of a muuu oooo el

While shepherds washed their socks by night.

Plenty others I've forgotten through the dim mists of time....