Christmas Song Poll, Part II: Traditional

[rachelmanija]

I love traditional Christmas carols. I especially love singing them. Yes I'm Jewish, I just really enjoy them as music.

Please link your favorite version of your favorite carols for my and others' enjoyment! This poll is very English-language centric; please link non-English traditional Christmas songs you love.

Poll #25014

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 112

View Respondents

My favorite older/traditional Christmas song is...

View Answers

Silent Night
28 (25.0%)

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
27 (24.1%)

What Child is This
18 (16.1%)

Away in a Manger
5 (4.5%)

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
11 (9.8%)

We Three Kings
31 (27.7%)

Deck the Halls
12 (10.7%)

O Little Town of Bethlehem
15 (13.4%)

Angels We Have Heard on High
27 (24.1%)

The First Noel
15 (13.4%)

Carol of the Bells
43 (38.4%)

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
44 (39.3%)

I Saw Three Ships
18 (16.1%)

In the Bleak Midwinter
27 (24.1%)

O Come All Ye Faithful
38 (33.9%)

The Seven Joys of Mary
5 (4.5%)

12 Days of Christmas
10 (8.9%)

Something else which I will name and link in comments
29 (25.9%)

I HATE that song! My most hated older/traditional Christmas song is...

View Answers

Silent Night
9 (13.0%)

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
0 (0.0%)

What Child is This
6 (8.7%)

Away in a Manger
15 (21.7%)

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
3 (4.3%)

We Three Kings
1 (1.4%)

Deck the Halls
6 (8.7%)

O Little Town of Bethlehem
8 (11.6%)

Angels We Have Heard on High
1 (1.4%)

The First Noel
5 (7.2%)

Carol of the Bells
5 (7.2%)

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
1 (1.4%)

I Saw Three Ships
2 (2.9%)

In the Bleak Midwinter
2 (2.9%)

O Come All Ye Faithful
3 (4.3%)

The Seven Joys of Mary
3 (4.3%)

12 Days of Christmas
25 (36.2%)

Something else which I will name and link in comments
9 (13.0%)

Comments

[ellen_fremedon]

Conventry Carol, I think, is my very favorite, though it only wins out by a hair over the Gloucester Wassail, Watchman Tell Us Of the Night, Carol of the Birds, and March of the Kings.

[rachelmanija]

Got any links of good recordings?

[mildred_of_midgard]

I'm an atheist! I also love much Christmas music, traditional and modern. Things we sang in school as kids I am almost incapable of not having positive feelings toward, regardless of my opinions of them, just because they're tightly connected with memories of being super excited.

This list reminded me that there are humorous modern takes on the 12 Days of Christmas that I really enjoy, such as the 12 Pains of Christmas and the 12 Redneck Days of Christmas. And of course, John Denver and the Muppets.

Curious why "Jingle Bells" made the modern list, though, given that it's older than a number of these? I think of it as traditional, but originally concluded you must be going with a pretty old cutoff in your last post. Now I'm curious.

[rachelmanija]

I didn't check the date - I thought it was more recent than it actually is.

[telophase]

I think my husband would divorce me if I didn't drop the Muppets' version of Carol of the Bells here.

[larryhammer]

+1 would laugh again

[yhlee]

My favorite French carol is "Ein flambeau, Jeanette, Isabelle" - Loreena McKennitt version here

[sheliak]

That's a very good version of it!

[gwyn]

My favorite is O Holy Night, and I adore many versions but especially love Emmy Rossum's rendition, possibly because I first heard it after one of my rewatches of Songcatcher.

It might be because I used to sing, but I tend to love the complex ones. I also love it when someone does something spooky or weird with a song, like how The Bird and The Bee did with Carol of the Bells.

[yatima]

O Holy Night is my favorite too, and I have a special love for Sufjan's version.

[dragonlady7]

but for o come all ye faithful the only good part is the descant in the second verse! (or is it the third?) you know the one, LOL.

[cahn]

I love the descant :D

[musesfool]

I also really love O Holy Night, which is not on your list! And Bring the Torch, Jeanette, Isabella, and Joy to the World. (um, to be clear, the Christmas carol, not the Three Dog Night song, which I also love!)

[rachelmanija]

How did I forget Joy to the World?! I love it.

[sophia_sol]

I love Es ist ein ros entsprungen, I think it might be my favourite.

I'm also a fan of the Coventry carol, which I see others have already provided links to.

And The Angel Gabriel From Heaven Came is also great!

[copperfyre]

I love traditional Christmas carols so much. Whole choirs singing them really gets me somewhere very deep inside; possibly I just really like lots of people singing together. O Holy Night, Good King Wenceslas, and The Holly And The Ivy are some of my other favourites.

[nenya_kanadka]

Yeah, there's something about a whole choir singing something all together, especially when it's something full of emotion in some way.

I grew up on Handel's Messiah, not particularly as Christmas music but just as classical music my mom and her choir-director dad loved, and I always love hearing that sung at this time of year too.

[laconia]

I don’t actually hate any of the traditional carols mentioned, but I’m quite tired of Es Ist ein Ros' entsprungen because it seems to be on every recording I have of Christmas music. Sometimes it feels like
The Song That Doesn’t End

[laconia]

Sorry, html went FUBAR :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_47KVJV8DU

[helen_keeble]

I’m very fond of the Sussex carol.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdjajkbg56A&feature=gws_kp_track

[cahn]

Yeah, I love Christmas music, no surprise here :)

My favorite is maybe Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen / Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming

Or maybe Veni Veni Emmanuel / O Come O Come Emmanuel (which I suppose many Christians would classify as an Advent hymn, but since my church doesn't celebrate Advent I call it a Christmas carol)

I really liked Carol of the Bells and 12 Days of Christmas when I was a kid and before I had to sing them in choir. Carol of the Bells is terrible to sing if one is not a soprano (and not that much fun as a soprano either), and 12 Days of Christmas is... well, we sang this every year at a Christmas party where each choir member led a table or two of happy drunk people singing each number, which I have to say was actually pretty fun but I could do with not ever having to sing it again.

While Silent Night is not generally my favorite, I also have to link this gorgeous arrangement of Silent Night which may in fact be one of my favorite Christmas arrangements. The choir director said, "I've done a lot of Christmas music and I'm never impressed by new arrangements... but I was impressed by this one," and our church choir did it last Christmas. I bought a cheapo viola so I could play the cello part and sweated bullets to flog the rest of the string quartet (besides me, two 9-year-old kids and one 12-year-old kid... it is insane that this actually worked) into being ready to do; the parts aren't hard but the counting can be difficult if you're 9, let's just say.

A's favorite, somewhat oddly, is Good King Wenceslas. Our plan is to do a very silly home video of this this weekend!

[cesy]

Seconding O Come O Come Emmanuel.

[minoanmiss]

I love singing in Latin. Adeste Fideles, Personent Hodie, Gaudite....

My father used to do a stunning rendition of O Holy Night. *contemplates*

I will try to provide links later. *runs off pursued by work*

[rachelmanija]

How did I forget Gaudete?! That's one of my favorites!

[sovay]

My favorite older/traditional Christmas song is...

My actual favorite of the ones I selected is "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," which I heard for the first time in the 1935 A Tale of Two Cities. I don't actually I think I dislike any of the others enough to say that I hate them, although I certainly have neutral feelings about some.

Something else which I will name and link in comments

"Gaudete," which I learned from the singing of Steeleye Span.

Most versions of the "Souling Song," which I learned from a group called Lothlórien; the Watersons' version is older.

Since my family under normal circumstances makes a flaming plum pudding for Christmas, I have strong and positive associations with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (here performed by the Muppets, because why not) which we sing as the pudding is brought to the table.

[rachelmanija]

How could I forget Gaudete and We Wish You a Merry Christmas?!

[yhlee]

Oh - this spectacular rendition of O Holy Night by Korean singer Park Ki Young is hands-down my favorite. (Her accent is flawless. The chorus of kids, not so much, heh, but they're trying so hard!)

[luzula]

Here is me and my sister singing a traditional Swedish Christmas song, called "Rejoice, bride of Christ". We weave together two different melodies for it, so stick around for all three verses. : )

[estara]

beautiful, thank you for sharing that!

[julian]

If forced to pick a favorite carol, as I am making myself do in this comment, it's definitely Silent Night, because I have been part of two different candlelight services, over the years, that use it as their last hymn, in different ways, both beautiful. I love the light, and I also love the song.

As for unfavorite ones, I only picked two this time.

a) What Child Is This, because it's fairly hard to sing and too many people try, and

b) the 12 Days of Christmas, because it's an endurance-fest and people start steaming through it, eventually.

[evewithanapple]

Objectively best Christmas songs:

Good King Wenceslas (if you're a Good Works Christian, which I am, this song has the best message of all the Christmas songs.)

O Come Emmanuel (it slaps)

Coventry Carol (it also slaps)

[naath]

Three kings from persian lands afar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIedUioo_Jk) is close contender for best. Also Personent Hodie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kinQDn8WR24)

The one with the chorus of "most highly f(l)avoured laaaaaaaady" (the slide on the aaaaaaa is NOT IN THE SCORE is my most hated. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCploJcOXsg King's college sing it right); but the Rutter setting of the Latin of th same bit of story is less crappy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Z9gD3ZMUs)

[azdak]

For me, O Little Town of Bethlehem ties with Once in Royal David's City.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP6-DUKYovE)

[zdashamber]

I was just coming to link that very rendition of Once in Royal David's City! I love a Christmas song where an entire wall of pipe organ gets to open up

[larryhammer]

Eaglet has, this week, been occasionally singing snatches of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in Chinese (which requires slurring because the phrase has one more syllable than in English). The alternation between that and Bim Bam/Shabbat Shalom is nothing short of hysterically funny.

[rachelmanija]

LOLOLOL. Adorable.

[darchildre]

I mentioned The Christmas Revels in the other post. I grew up on their recordings and have been attending the Puget Sound Revels every year for over a decade now. They perform a lot of beautiful traditional music and the program is different every year, but there are a few songs they always sing (with audience participation).

My favorite (that isn't the mummer's play about St George and the Dragon, or the Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance, which isn't properly a Christmas thing at all) is the Sussex Mummer's Carol.

[sovay]

I mentioned The Christmas Revels in the other post.

I can't believe I forgot to mention "Lord of the Dance." Which only sounds old enough to be relevant to this post and is not properly a Christmas song either—we sang it this year for Easter—but I heard it for the first time at the Revels and so always think of it first as solstitial. I love that it was recorded first by Donald Swann, of Flanders and Swann. I would link if I could find it streaming. [edit] Oh, what the hell: have a fileshare.

[philomytha]

Once in Royal David's City is the official Christmas Has Begun carol, at least if your Christmas begins with turning on Radio 4 at 3pm on Christmas Eve. Sussex Carol is my favourite to sing. Unto Us Is Born A Son is fun too.

My least favourite traditional carol is Silent Night, because it so often drags on and on and on. And as I have a seven-year-old, anything with a joke set of words is driving me nuts right now, because at a certain age nothing is more hilarious than belting out 'While shepherds washed their socks by night' and after the twenty-third time I've really had enough. Though I have to forgive him because he's also learned a lovely descant for the final verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem and memorised all the words.

Favourite Christmas Carols not mentioned

[estara]

Good King Wenceslas:
https://youtu.be/6QwOMUsPdyI

Sting's version of Gabriel's Message:
https://youtu.be/iJ0NPaD0xic

Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen:
https://youtu.be/u0bCqjlcgM4

[nocowardsoul]

I love Il Est Ne.

[yhlee]

Oh, that's one of my favorites too! I haven't heard it in years though; learned it in elementary school.