People who dont particularly care for or celebrate Christmas, Whats your favorite Christmas song?

Delphia@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 129 points –

I know the Mariah Carey song is hated because its overused, but its also objectively a well produced piece of pop music.

My favorite though is O Holy Night. Performed well I want to stop and listen to it. It moves me, and I dont give enough of a fuck about religion to call myself an athiest.

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Fairytale of New York, the original by the Pogues is great and the punk rock cover by No Use For A Name is a total banger.

I love punk covers, if Me First and the Gimme Gimmes made a Xmas album I'd be so fuckin happy.

I am hoping that you have listened to Bad Religion's xmas album then.

Its good but its not great. It makes it into the rotation every year tho.

I know nobody will believe me but I genuinely enjoy Last Christmas by Wham. I used to hate it but it grew on me similarly to Never Gonna Give You Up.

I love it because I play a whole game around avoiding it but it's actually a fun song.

I hate xmas. I hate xmas music because it triggers my working in retail PTSD.

The only music I can tolerate are the Bells and any Tchaikovsky because the Nutcracker slaps.

Carol of the Bells/Setting The Trap by John Williams https://youtu.be/L07PomkZ3s8?si=2RYhCArWzNL1QnFr

I Watch Home Alone every year.

Regardless of home alone, every version of Carol of the Bells I've heard is great. And it sounds like a horror movie theme so I listen to it throughout the year.

There is this version that's played at work and I call it the human sacrifice song. When they get to that crescendo and the choir all hit the high note together, I raise both arms up as if I were holding a baby about to be sacrificed. Now my coworkers all do it too. We'll just catch each other's eye across the room and raise both arms at the right moment.

100% atheist, but Dominic the Donkey has been stuck in my head all month

Pogues, Fairytale of New York:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8

Low, Just Like Christmas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIbha-783eQ

Tom Waits, Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxVo5mjK4eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1v7HakNz4E

Glad to see Fairytale of New York here. I was going to make the comment if I didn't find it.

With lyrics like this, what's not to like:

You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap, lousy removed. Happy Christmas, your arse, I pray God it's our last.

I'm to have to explain. I greatly despise xmas songs. (edit, also I should maybe tag the link as NSFW. It kind of depends on where you work; but, some places are weird about that.)

Like 99% of them are absolute garbage; they don't have to be, because they'll make money, because it's a new xmas song, and hey, everybody gets sick of all the old ones; right? well. of the 1% that are actually tolerable (never mind actually good), they get blasted until you get sick of them. This is just my opinion, you're welcome to disagree. my SiL has been playing shitty carols since before halloween, so she certainly does.

so; this song does a great job of getting people to stop asking for xmas music and therefore... I LOVE IT. Another great one is Metallica, for whom the bell tolls. When they say 'no it's not'... tell them it has church bells and thats kinda chrismas-y.

Oh and xmas movies? Die Hard.

The one I hate more than any other is Hallelujah. Its not a fucking christmas song. Its as much of a christmas song as my old "Jesus is a cunt" shirt is a christmas sweater.

Maria Carey "all i want for Christmas is YooooouuuuOOuouoOUouoUoUOuooooooooooooouuooooouououoOUOUOuouoUOuoouOUOUOUOUOOOuuuuu"

we can also lump that with any of the covers, because they all do it.

At my old job they were singing Hallelujah at an event because someone had required more secular holiday music.

Which.. I mean.. yeah.

Love the song though. Best song ever written about faith, God, and sex in juxtaposition.

Pentatonix do it SO WELL. Which sucks because they put it on an Xmas album so I hate that.

In their defence their rendition of The Sound of Silence is also amazing so...

Legit, it’s not Xmas until Hans grueber falls of the nakatomi plaza building and the paper snow falls.

My friends know they aren’t allowed to force me into Xmas crap until we watch die hard and gremlins. Together. Which nobody has the stomach for on the same day, so I usually get about a week of warning that it’s time to suck it up and humor them.

if that's your idea for xmass...

I gotta be there for New Years.

Mm unfortunately a few years of cocktail waitressing at strip clubs in my early 20s taught me not to ever want to do anything for new years. Rookie night.

My winter solstice parties are lit tho. Mostly because I make everyone light a tea light to honor those who bring light to their lives.

So, we tell everyone I’m going to your party, you tell everyone you’re coming to mine.

Then we go to bed early and call it good. :)

(Also, that sounds like an awful experience.)

There's nothing objective about that opinion at all. I think Mariah Carey's song is cynical corporate kitsch written for one reason and one reason only: to make money. That's why I hate it.

I can tolerate some of the secular big band/swing songs, and there have been a few decent ones since then. Fiona Apple does a brilliant cover of Frosty the Snowman. Vince Guaraldi's work for the Charlie Brown Christmas show is still wonderful.

There's nothing objective about that opinion at all. I think Mariah Carey's song is cynical corporate kitsch written for one reason and one reason only: to make money. That's why I hate it.

OP said it was "well produced". I don't believe that is meant to imply it isn't a soulless cash grab. Big production companies hire skillful producers to write/record/master these cheesy songs because it appeals to a larger portion of the population. Since most people prefer high quality records to something that sounds like it was recorded on a tin can in your garage.

That said, I disagree with OP's use of the term "objectively" when referring to something like the quality of a work of art. Even if I agree with OP that it is a well-produced record.

I love the Vince Guaraldi tracks from Charlie Brown Christmas, too. But I love Christmas and Christmas music in general, so this thread isn't for me, lol.

Tim Minchin - White Wine in the Sun

Brings me to tears every time I listen to it.

Great pick. Awesome song from the good days of Tim.

I celebrate Christmas (not as festive as some people but still) but I generally am apathetic to Christmas music at best. That being said, Carol of the Bells by Transiberian Orchestra still kicks ass and I would say it is the one Christmas song that I would actively and willingly listen to.

Jonah Lewie's Stop The Cavalry is quite good

You can say that Mariah Carey's sing is well produced, but I heard her version of Auld Lang Syne yesterday and it actually made me want to smash my TV and commit a hate crime

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

This is my favorite Christmas song because as soon as I hear those lines, I'm transported to Barstow California, on the edge of the desert. I'm riding in a whale of a car and traveling at great speed. All the while diving deep into a blender of illicit substances.

But it isn’t a Christmas song. It’s from The Sound of Music…

Yes, but the shell of Christmas is like a gelatinous blob that swallows everything around it. Look at how many perfectly good winter tunes have been corrupted into being slaved to Christmas. Winter Wonderland, Jingle Bells (written for Thanksgiving), Frosty th Snowman. The list is endless.

Yes, but the shell of Christmas is like a gelatinous blob that swallows everything around it. Look at how many perfectly good winter tunes have been corrupted into being slaved to Christmas. Winter Wonderland, Jingle Bells (written for Thanksgiving), Frosty th Snowman. The list is endless.

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If it has to be Christmas

With such lines as

If it has to be Christmas for you to be nice

You're an asshole

If you think the season is the reason

You're a piece of shit

And calling people spineless if they can only make a change for the better if it's New Year's and hints that so much of the holiday just appearances

I love any Xmas song covered by pentatonix (and there are a ton!), which is a cappella.

Here’s just one album of Xmas music, to get your rabbit hole going! They are so so amazing.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2NFBXxwOwvg&list=PLU_mcNMHvximh1Z_LdrUU2r2_05PlISBM&pp=iAQB8AUB

But mostly Xmas shit turns into earworms for me in the middle of summer, so I close all the blinds and watch Xmas movies. Makes it almost possible to forget it’s a billion degrees out.

Edit: I want to add a new release, because that’s mostly older stuff. Enjoy!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h13Urh6RJEU

Couple that I like for different reasons that I haven't seen posted yet.

River - Joni Mitchell
Such a beautiful song

(It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus - Harry Connick Jr.
Heard it once on a Christmas mix and it has nostalgic value with the fam now.

I discovered Father Christmas by The Kinks this year and I got to say that it has become my favorite Christmas song.

Do You Hear What I Hear because it makes me think of one of the best Gremlins scenes.

In my country we have song that came from a advent calender, called "jul på Vesterbro" and its my all time favorite (link to YouTube). Note that it's the same actor that plays every role

Let It Snow, in particular the version at the end of Die Hard.

Or the Picard version, Make It So.

The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping

This is mine too. It's obscure enough that I rarely hear it in public, so I basically only hear it when I actually want to.

My favourite is Thank God It's Christmas by Queen.

I'm an atheist who considers Christmas the most stressful time of the entire year, but that song fucking slaps!

I feed so glad that my family is so disjointed that we never meed for the holidays. Some people really endure misery every year.

Gulajh Gulajhah Gwanghwamun by the Human Centipedes.

Slappin’ tune.

The only Christmas-related media I like in any capacity, is the OG Grinch cartoon. So Thurl Ravenscroft is the only person I wanna hear singing on Christmas.

Not sure if it counts, but John Coltrane playing "My Favorite Things". I got that track on some best of Coltrane collection for Christmas when I was in grade school. It eventually became both my favorite Christmas song and really got me into jazz. It's still the default version that pops into my head when I think of that song, not Julie Andrews singing it in The Sound of Music.

White Christmas, which was written by Irving Berlin, who was Jewish!

I like it because of how intricately the melody is written. It ebbs and flows perfectly against the chord progression and feels much closer to a jazz standard than most other Christmas songs.

Jona Lewie - Stop The Cavalry. Apparently not originally intended as a Christmas song anyway.

I'm with you on team "O holy night", my favourite version is Andy Williams', closely followed by Perry Como's!

The Carol of the Bells is fire.

Also there's Fuck You If You Don't Like Christmas by Crudbump.

The only one I've liked is Homo Christmas by Pansy Division

Not a religion fan or a country music fan, but just thinking about Martina McBride singing O Holy Night makes me tear up a little.

Edit: erroneously said Trisha Yearwood when I meant Martina McBride

It's only a few years old, but I've recently been charmed by Christmas Eve at the Downtown Thrifty-Thrift Store by Jawbone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8_qqVEB2s8

It's not telling any kind of story, just painting a picture with words and music about tattered and mostly-forgotten things.

It would be mostly this song by Filipino band Over October, even though this could also apply to those missing their own parents or siblings for so long:
Into the Light

Jackie Evancho's 'Someday at Christmas' Album is great.

First to Eleven's Christmas covers are mostly good rock versions of the popular pop songs.

Police Nabbed my Dad by Bobnoxious.

Rudolph the red nose reindeer sung by Jack Johnson. His version has a good twist.

Ring The Bells - Eurobeat Union

For some reason the only real version I could find on YouTube is the first song in Zenki's Christmas Touhou Eurobeat Mix and it's kind of ironic because it's the only song in that mix that is actually Christmas related.

As an atheist, I don't like religious xmas music. But I love these songs based on the Cthulhu Mythos. The HP Lovecraft Historical Society did a fantastic job on them! I have 2 CDs of xmas holiday music from them (much more than this playlist has), and an adaptation of The Fidder on the Roof called A Shoggoth on the Roof.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0878F2755D05A2B6

Skank For Christmas - Reel Big Fish. Their Happy Skalidays album is great. I make it a yearly thing.

Celebrate Me Home is my favorite. I can listen to it even in the summer