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Favorite Christmas Albums

ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
edited December 2024 in Heaven
What are your favorite Christmas albums?

Some of mine are:

Amy Grant's Christmas (the first one)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_qZxdAGgew3rrt7veiu43L0gG7Jskhy1

Jon Anderson's 3 Ships

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43UG6siKl3I

Kathy Mattea's Good News

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgHMZGOSjwMtic38gC6kgE9tjaX_gg2WV

Comments

  • questioningquestioning Shipmate
    Bruce Cockburn Christmas
    (2 links)

    https://brucecockburn.com/discography/christmas/
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzGotn8LeP0fMsz7CUPdXxuBQrPUytwpt
  • KendelKendel Shipmate
    edited December 2024
    What a fun thread, @ChastMastr! Thank you!

    Hands Down #1 The Absolute Best Ever:
    Bare Naked Ladies: Bare Naked for the Holidays

    Chicago: Chicago Christmas, What's it Gonna Be, Santa

    Michael Card: The Promise

    Harry Connick, Jr.: Harry for the Holidays

    Point of Grace: Winter Wonderland

    We sing with BNL and Chicago on two days of car rides to family every year. On the way home we are in a rather stunned silence for the first 45 minutes of the ride home.

    This gem is not to be missed, however: Christmas in Michigan by Whit Hall and John Latini. Drive safe, you guys.

    Code fix
    jj-HH
  • TelfordTelford Shipmate
    Classic Christmas by Joe McEldery
    Elvis's Christmas Album
  • jrwjrw Shipmate
    Rumours of Angels by Graham Kendrick.
    https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu8mfQRMKrc4UIp2_HAU9kPZe6GeboVyk
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    Carols and Capers - Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band
  • HedgehogHedgehog Shipmate
    You are clearly all heathens if you have not yet mentioned Nat King Cole's 1999 reissue "The Christmas Song" which comprises a reissue of his earlier "The Magic of Christmas" but adds the title track ("The Christmas Song") in two versions--one by Nat King Cole alone and a second as a computer-edited duet with his daughter Natalie (Nat himself died in 1965, before her career had even started).
  • mousethiefmousethief Shipmate
    Winter by George Winston
    A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi
    Carols & Capers by Maddy Prior
  • KendelKendel Shipmate
    mousethief wrote: »
    Winter by George Winston
    A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi
    Carols & Capers by Maddy Prior

    Oh, yes, Charlie Brown!

    And @ChastMastr mentioned Amy Grant. That IS a good album. I think my sister had that one. Whew. Been a long time.

    My boss used to put together highly eclectic compilation cds of Christmas music for his staffs' gift each year. They really are some of the very best Christmas albums I own.

    Blind Boys of Alabama singing "Last Night of the Year!"

    Ah, and don't forget Leadbelly singing "Christmas is Coming."
  • Gamma GamalielGamma Gamaliel Shipmate
    Handel's Messiah?
    Bach's A Christmas Oratorio?

    I've never really done the Christmas album thing. I tend to play CDs of carols from King's and various medieval and Renaissance carols plus that thing by Tavener with the big organ crescendo at the end with 'Christ is born!'

    Also Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ which ny wife liked.

    I do have a very jolly CD of Sheffield carols, you know, those that survived the Oxford Movement and which went to ground and into the pubs of South Yorkshire. I was privileged to be in a Sheffield pub a few years ago when they were singing them. I think I must have bought the CD at that time.

    I always play those on Christmas Day.

    Not albums exactly but individual Christmas singles can make me smile, not those played incessantly in the shops. @KarlLB might be pleased to hear that I rate Jethro Tull's 'Solstice Bells' as a Christmas ditty. I still like Mike Oldfield's arrangement of 'In Dulce Jubilo' but by and large it's the carols and choral music I go for at Christmas.

    Needless to say, Mud's 'Lonely This Christmas' isn't on my play list ...
  • DeeValleyBantamDeeValleyBantam Shipmate Posts: 45
    James Taylor’s Christmas album. A sublime Who Comes This Night and a ludicrously OTT and terrible (but tongue-in-cheek) Jingle Bells
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    edited December 2024
    I also love the LeeVees' album Hanukkah Rocks!

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kEG4Ep3RPUytDrpJJUlcOp24OhzhXlf40

    Music video for "How Do You Spell Channukkahh?"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7JiDBi_v4c&pp=ygUeaG93IGRvIHlvdSBzcGVsbCBoYW51a2thaCBzb25n
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited December 2024
    Gamma Gamaliel wrote: »
    I've never really done the Christmas album thing.
    I did it in the day when albums and then CDs were the main way we had recorded music, and, like @mousethief, Vince Guaraldi‘s A Charlie Brown Christmas would have been at the top of the list.

    These days, I just don’t really think in terms of “albums,” unless it’s something like whose recording of Messiah I want to listen to.
    Hedgehog wrote: »
    You are clearly all heathens if you have not yet mentioned Nat King Cole's 1999 reissue "The Christmas Song" which comprises a reissue of his earlier "The Magic of Christmas" but adds the title track ("The Christmas Song") in two versions--one by Nat King Cole alone and a second as a computer-edited duet with his daughter Natalie (Nat himself died in 1965, before her career had even started).
    Hello, Heathen here. Pleased to make your acquaintance. :wink:


  • TwangistTwangist Shipmate
    Just spun my grandma's nat king Cole and frank sinatra festive lp's, I think I've listened to the Messiah 5 times so far this month and was enjoying the sixteen's early English Christmas album the other day. I have been neglecting maddy prior so far this year so will need to rectify that. Tuck Andress has a fab Christmas album too.
  • CaissaCaissa Shipmate
    Nothing beats The Maccabeats.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSJCSR4MuhU
  • HarryCHHarryCH Shipmate
    I remember a very good Christmas album by the Canadian Brass.
  • MarsupialMarsupial Shipmate
    Some years ago Paul Hillier recorded a CD with his Danish choirs that was sort of an adaptation of the English Nine Lessons service into a continental idiom. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be available any longer but an intelligently designed program beautifully sung:

    https://a.co/d/cNTfkro

    The Tallis Scholars released a Christmas disc many years ago which is still among my favourites:

    https://a.co/d/eQbLcVZ

    It runs the whole gamut from medieval carols to some shockingly modern guy named J.S. Bach.

    I’m very fond of the Heinrich Schütz Christmas Story - the recording I have from 30+ years ago with Rene Jacobs doesn’t seem to be available any longer but there seem to be lots of others worth looking into.

    Other things - I mentioned the RVW Hodie in these parts not too long ago. Handel’s Messiah is one of those great pieces that I think gets underrated for being so popular. And lastly the D’Aquin Organ Noels - there are 12 of them, and in my youth one or two of them always featured in the Christmas services. You know it’s Christmas when. I actually managed to get my hands on not one but two recordings that a friend was giving away - the one I’ve been listening to in the car lately is by a French organist whose name I don’t remember; the other I’m pretty sure is a Hyperion recording by Christopher Herrick.



  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Purgatory Host, Circus Host
    I like Handel as much as the next person, but it ain't Christmas without the Jackson Five.
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    Jimmy Buffett's Christmas Island album. RIP, Jimmy. :votive:

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nHkRekZoWGXDGSvk3E7ecrCgd0McG6VtI
  • TrudyTrudy Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Kendel wrote: »
    What a fun thread, @ChastMastr! Thank you!

    Hands Down #1 The Absolute Best Ever:
    Bare Naked Ladies: Bare Naked for the Holidays

    This is my #1 also! It's not Christmas until this is played in our house.

  • DardaDarda Shipmate
    Priscilla wrote: »
    Carols and Capers - Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band

    On my list too. Tonight they finish their "farewell tour", playing Bradford Cathedral
  • DardaDarda Shipmate
    Bruce Guthro's "Bound for Bethlehem" gets played a lot in our house, mainly because Mrs Darda is a BIG Runrig fan. Sadly, Bruce died last year at the all-too-young age of 62.
  • Stercus TauriStercus Tauri Shipmate
    Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas has been a favourite for a long time. They can make even the most cringeworthy of hackneyed secular songs sound like music - really good musicians. Their rendering of I saw three ships seems especially good to me.
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    Jon Anderson’s 3 Ships album is awesome, if I didn’t mention it before.
  • KendelKendel Shipmate
    Trudy wrote: »
    Kendel wrote: »
    What a fun thread, @ChastMastr! Thank you!

    Hands Down #1 The Absolute Best Ever:
    Bare Naked Ladies: Bare Naked for the Holidays

    This is my #1 also! It's not Christmas until this is played in our house.

    🎄, @Trudy!
    It's good to be understood! We played it twice yesterday on our long drives there and back again. There is no comparison to their magnificent version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."

    "The Elves' Lament" ... well what is there to say? My husband is an economist.
    Stercus Tauri wrote: »
    Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas has been a favourite for a long time. They can make even the most cringeworthy of hackneyed secular songs sound like music - really good musicians. Their rendering of I saw three ships seems especially good to me.

    Oh, yeah! I haven't played it this year, but thatks one of my favorites for decorating the tree!

    Happy New Year, everyone!
  • SarasaSarasa All Saints Host
    As a Bob Dylan nerd I always play his Christmas from the Heart album every year. His voice may be shot but he puts some real emotion into his singing, and its a good mixture of the sacred and secular.
  • KendelKendel Shipmate
    Sarasa wrote: »
    His voice may be shot but he puts some real emotion into his singing, and its a good mixture of the sacred and secular.

    @Sarasa
    As if he ever started out with a great singing voice.
    But he knows how to use it.
    I must look into this album.
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    OMG how could I leave this out?

    A genuine favorite of mine from my youth:

    Christmas in the Stars, the Star Wars Christmas album (NOT related to the Holiday Special!), with Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and Jon Bon Jovi’s first recorded work (under his birth name of John Bongiovi).

    It’s sweet and fun. I love it.

    The cover art is a painting by Ralph MacQuarrie, used by the Lucas people for their Christmas cards one year.

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhOAwK8VSrh0Ix0kPlfk-8MQfl9tXvJCZ&si=4XA4eA_CsuCcIF0B
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    ChastMastr wrote: »
    Christmas in the Stars, the Star Wars Christmas album (NOT related to the Holiday Special!), with Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and Jon Bon Jovi’s first recorded work (under his birth name of John Bongiovi).

    Over these many years, one of the things I would sing for my kids (with the added benefit of seeing them roll their eyes) was What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?) :joy:
  • HedgehogHedgehog Shipmate
    I also have a fondness for Jewel's Joy: A Holiday Collection, which contains my absolute favorite rendition of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer." And, yes, a beautiful version of "Joy To The World."
  • Timothy the ObscureTimothy the Obscure Shipmate
    Aaron Neville's A Soulful Christmas is one of my favorites. Diana Krall's Christmas Songs is another. One that surprised me, that has risen to near the top of my list is Bad Religion's Christmas Songs--I'm not particularly a fan of the band, but they respect the material and play it very hard but straight, no punky irony (and impeccable musicianship). If you wonder what Hark the Herald Angels Sing would sound like if it had been written with a rock band in mind, wonder no longer.

    (Also, Ellington's --or really Strayhorn's--Nutcracker).
  • Gamma GamalielGamma Gamaliel Shipmate
    @Nick Tamen you mean there are other ways of listening to recorded music that don't involve vinyl or CDs?

    C'mon ... you are talking to Mr Old School here ...
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    Gamma Gamaliel wrote: »
    @Nick Tamen you mean there are other ways of listening to recorded music that don't involve vinyl or CDs?

    C'mon ... you are talking to Mr Old School here ...

    Cassettes and 8-track tapes, of course! ;)
  • MarsupialMarsupial Shipmate
    Not yet familiar enough to be a favourite, but I am enjoying getting to know a disc of motets from Christmas to Candlemass that was a Christmas gift this year - Sacred Treasures of Christmas by the Schola Cantorum at London Oratory (a 2020 release on Hyperion).
  • KendelKendel Shipmate
    Along with Christmas music comes New Year's music. There have been a few years that this was the best sentiment we could manage: Good Riddance!!!

    For shipmates in circumstances that call for such a cry, I lift my glass and share this song: On the Last Night of the Year.

    Here's to your perserverance and determination, and a better year ahead.
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    How could I forget Amy Grant’s and Art Garfunkel’s The Animals’ Christmas?

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kgoguBw85kbhWPl7j4MANgfBddCXIcl8I&si=KlxMViv_fiJJ32Sk
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