It's officially the season where most people are running and trying to get all their holiday shopping done. Holiday music has been out for a little while now, but every mall and store seems to have their special playlist of holiday songs that they use. It seems that people tend to be pretty divided on it. They either love holiday music and can't get enough of it, or they loathe it.
What are your guys' thoughts on holiday music being played in retail centers? Is it too much or does it help you get in to the holiday spirit? What are some of your favourites? Do you enjoy making holiday music?
Last edited by Ember - PG Music; 11/29/1811:00 AM.
I personally love Christmas music, but only listen to it between Thanksgiving and Epiphany. And technically, from the church perspective, we are about to enter the season of Advent, not the Season of Christmas (which doesn't start until Christmas Day and then continues through January 6th), unless of course you are Orthodox, in which case it's a whole different calendar.
A number of years ago, my wife and I went through all our Christmas music and picked out 100 of our favorite songs by our favorite artists that did them (so there are some song duplications). I created an MP3 CD (since our cars can play that) and it lives in our car during this season. It's very eclectic, from classical to easy listening to soul to country to heavy rock and roll.
John
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I personally love Christmas music, but only listen to it between Thanksgiving and Epiphany. And technically, from the church perspective, we are about to enter the season of Advent, not the Season of Christmas (which doesn't start until Christmas Day and then continues through January 6th), unless of course you are Orthodox, in which case it's a whole different calendar.
A number of years ago, my wife and I went through all our Christmas music and picked out 100 of our favorite songs by our favorite artists that did them (so there are some song duplications). I created an MP3 CD (since our cars can play that) and it lives in our car during this season. It's very eclectic, from classical to easy listening to soul to country to heavy rock and roll.
If you had to pick off the top of your head some of your favorites from those 100, just as some examples, what would they be?
I love Christmas music. I think it puts everybody in a more cheerful mood and should be played all year long with Disney songs and show tunes lol.
All joking aside though I enjoy most Christmas songs. Some of them (the more popular ones) do get a little over played but I guess that's bound to happen. This year I've been listening to what I call unconventional Christmas music and using Spotify to find different styles of Christmas songs. Here are a few of my favorite play lists.
We like holiday music if it is sung with some soul and not to a "follow the bouncing ball" meter. That gets old in a hurry.
And spare us from ANY version of "On the First Day of Christmas!"
More specifically, every Christmas morning for many, many years we have played Christmas songs by Ray Charles. All of them are absolutely wonderful!
J&B
Do they still make holiday videos with the bouncing ball for sing-a-longs? That might seem like a silly question but I haven't seen those in a while.
I used to be really fond of the classics. My Poppa and his wife were really good friends with some folks who owned a farm, and every single Christmas Eve they'd invite the whole town to come, and they had two different horse-drawn sleds that would drive people around over the snowy fields. They ran them from 5pm to midnight, and each ride was about 20 minutes or so, and you'd all sing Christmas carols as a group, and they had all these light displays set up. They even had Santa come in around 7pm for all the kids in attendance and he'd chat with every last one and make them feel really special. Talking to Santa on Christmas Eve before he had to run off and deliver all those presents? How cool is that!
I found out years later as an adult that my Poppa was Santa, haha (his eyes seemed really familiar to me under that snowy white beard, but I could never pin it down as a youngin'). But I went every single year and did caroling until I was about 13 and they stopped doing it. I miss it a lot sometimes. I'd like to do something similar again in the future, but here on the island -- at least around Victora -- we don't get a lot of snow, if any at all.
That said and slightly back on topic, I'll have to give Ray Charles a look later!
Last edited by Ember - PG Music; 11/29/1812:55 PM.
On a related topic, did anyone see that next Tuesday for the first time ever Disney will be live streaming their holiday Candlelight Processional? I'm super excited to watch. I remember performing in it with my high school choir every year and it was always a magical experience. I'll probably be singing along the entire time.
I’ve recorded exactly one Christmas song-the Huron Carol, sung in the Huron language (or at least attempted-I used Bruce Cockburn’s pronunciation and his claim was that he learned the pronunciation from one of the last native speakers of Huron). It’s one of my favorite collaborations as an internet friend played fretless bass on it and another played wooden recorders. It’s definitely not something you would hear at a department store! I’m absolutely fine with holiday music until some store plays one of the worst recordings ever-Sir Paul’s song which I won’t even mention the title to save you the inanity of the ear worm.
What are your guys' thoughts on holiday music being played in retail centers? Is it too much or does it help you get in to the holiday spirit? What are some of your favorites? Do you enjoy making holiday music?
I don't have a religious atom in my body but I do enjoy the holiday music during the season and it does allow me to appreciate the warming 'spirit' of the season.
Although, I only prefer the older Christmas songs/renditions from the 60's and earlier. Listening to the old Christmas Holiday singers/crooners reminds of a simpler, more carefree time during my naive youth......plus, they just sounded great. Any contemporary, genre bending renditions of those classics doesn't work for me. But, that's just me.
At 71, I guess I've gotten very particular about what I find appealing or pleasingly listenable, especially in this context.
Carry on weed hoppers....and Merry Christmas to all.
I like most christmas songs that were recorded by an entity that includes the word "Philharmonic" in its name...
The Charlie Brown Christmas album gets played a lot around here
And I like most of the Mannheim Steamroller versions because the first one came out the year my dad died (just before Christmas) and there are lots of memories attached to it.
I also like the Windham Hill series, and just about anything that is a Celtic variant of the old familiar carols.
Well, we have an annual Christmas Carols night at our house, and lots of people turn up. No one can actually sing, but the very little ones (grandchildren and all) have the best time ever. BiaB accompanies the grand piano (or is it the other way around?).
We have printed books of carols which we hand out, with big letters for the oldies, and usually a few people turn up with a flute, violin, bodhran or something and it gets a little crazy from thereon.
The little ones get the biggest thrill, no doubt.
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Like any other type of music, some are good, some are overplayed (for me), some I really enjoy, and others are just not done to my liking.
For me the words don't matter so much. If I like the song, arrangement, and performance it's all good no matter what the words say.
There are only two kinds of music, the music I like, and music made for other people's ears.
We play a lot of holiday parties at condominiums, retirement developments, yacht clubs, and country clubs. Because there are Christians and non-Christians at these places, we don't play any religious Christmas songs, but play secular ones like White Christmas, The Christmas Song, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, I'll Be Home For Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, Silver Bells, Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, and so on. Mostly I use rather traditional treatments for the songs but done our way. We usually open with a medley that starts with Jingle Bells into Sleigh Bells and ends with Jingle Bells. It's lively, festive, and the audience we target enjoys it.
For our audiences I also find that a few sprinkled in here and there among the 'regular' music the particular audience likes works best.
Like most forms of popular music, I find it more fun to play them than to just listen to them. But then playing music is one of my most favorite things to do in life.
We like holiday music if it is sung with some soul and not to a "follow the bouncing ball" meter. That gets old in a hurry.
And spare us from ANY version of "On the First Day of Christmas!"
More specifically, every Christmas morning for many, many years we have played Christmas songs by Ray Charles. All of them are absolutely wonderful!
J&B
Do they still make holiday videos with the bouncing ball for sing-a-longs? That might seem like a silly question but I haven't seen those in a while.
I used to be really fond of the classics. My Poppa and his wife were really good friends with some folks who owned a farm, and every single Christmas Eve they'd invite the whole town to come, and they had two different horse-drawn sleds that would drive people around over the snowy fields. They ran them from 5pm to midnight, and each ride was about 20 minutes or so, and you'd all sing Christmas carols as a group, and they had all these light displays set up. They even had Santa come in around 7pm for all the kids in attendance and he'd chat with every last one and make them feel really special. Talking to Santa on Christmas Eve before he had to run off and deliver all those presents? How cool is that!
I found out years later as an adult that my Poppa was Santa, haha (his eyes seemed really familiar to me under that snowy white beard, but I could never pin it down as a youngin'). But I went every single year and did caroling until I was about 13 and they stopped doing it. I miss it a lot sometimes. I'd like to do something similar again in the future, but here on the island -- at least around Victora -- we don't get a lot of snow, if any at all.
That said and slightly back on topic, I'll have to give Ray Charles a look later!
Hey Ember, we both enjoyed that heartwarming story of your wonderful Christmas memories!
Many years ago we would go to Shaky’s Pizza and they had a big projector screen with the bouncing ball thing happening. I guess the kids liked it but the singing was absolutely awful!
Well.... Do I hear Christmas bells ringing in the distance....?
It's almost Dec 1 as of this post....
Regarding christmas music, I like some of the songs, and others just grate on my raw nerves like an electric current and salt into an open fresh wound. Some of the old classics are good, but tend to get a bit old and boring.
Then there are some more modern tunes..... Alabama's Christmas in Dixie, Kenny & Dolly's Christmas without you & The Greatest Gift of All. And Alan Jackson & Alison Krauss's The Angles Cried.
With that said.... I'm thinking about what new song I might want to tackle for this year's adventure into recording yet another holiday song that falls into the PD category.
In the meantime, I will post up a few of the songs I have done in years past. My favorite I think, to date, was the version of Silent Night that I did acoustically with RT's.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
I'm pretty neutral about Christmas music personally. I'm not a very festive person, and never have been - but while I'll never seek out Christmas music on my own terms, I don't let it bother me if I heard in the background. But if it comes on the radio, I change the station is all I'm sayin'.
Happy to hear some of these heart warming stories about Christmas though I was born and raised in a place that doesn't get snow, so I missed out on that entirely. I've had exactly 1 white Christmas my whole life. Every Christmas Eve my aunt throws a big house party though, and I always look forward to that. Not a lot of tradition behind it, but it's always a good time!
On a related topic, did anyone see that next Tuesday for the first time ever Disney will be live streaming their holiday Candlelight Processional? I'm super excited to watch. I remember performing in it with my high school choir every year and it was always a magical experience. I'll probably be singing along the entire time.
Ah! Thanks for the heads up! I didn't realize this was even a thing that happened! How exciting.
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