Opinions on Christmas Music

[Gentle Giant]

I enjoy a lot of Christmas music. I mostly love and listen to the music from my childhood. Songs from the TV shows such as Rudolph, Charlie Brown, Frosty, Little Drummer Boy and the Grinch. Songs by various artists from those Goodyear Great Songs of Christmas LP records: Andy Williams, Barbra Streisand, New Christy Minstrels, Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, and many others. I like a variety of styles, instrumental or singing. Traditional religious, secular and funny stuff like the Chipmunks, the Muppets and Bob Rivers “I Am Santa Claus”.

 

There are some Christmas songs I don’t like, such as “Baby it’s Cold Outside”, “Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and “Santa Baby”. I can get sick of a song if it’s overplayed too.

[Janus the Fox]

16 hours ago, Windspiel said:

I'll stick to the boring opinion: It depends. Most songs related to Christmas are neutral to me. But I really like the song in the spoiler box. I heard it for hours today and I'm still not tired of it.

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Yeah it’s one of those songs that is mildly related in the lyrics and tune with it’s World War theme, there’s other few songs that are barely anything related to Christmas, but are never played any other time of the year.

[WobblyWallaby]

Over all I like Christmas music. I can't deal with the repetitive of the same songs being sung over and over.

This might be why I HATE 12 days of Christmas. The song in itself is repetitive and then it is played constantly. Never mind that, the  concept is ridiculous.

"Hey darling I couldn't decide what to do for  you for Christmas so I got you five golden rings.

Oh and I had a really hard time deciding so I also got you 23 different birds and 50 random people."

[Catpaws]

Involuntary (as in, the kind I can't escape from) Christmas music can die in a fire. I made it until the 23rd until I was subjected to someone else's radio (and of course the first song was from Wham) and it was just not okay.

 

When I feel in the mood and can pick the specific songs, I'm okay with Christmas music. But I hate being subjected to it in public places.

[Dr. Beat]

I really love beautifully performed choral and orchestral music during Christmas. It's really nice to hear Handel and Tchaikovsky being played on mainstream radio. I absolutely fucking loathe really cheap pop covers of songs though. In addition, Last Christmas, Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Do You Hear What I Hear, and most versions of Jingle Bells can all die in a fire.   

[Sally]

On 11/25/2019 at 8:07 PM, SithGrinch said:

What does it say about me that the ones I still like are the ones we'd sing in church or with our church Youth Group? I'm not even a Christian anymore and am pretty anti-theist, but god do I want to start bellowing out "Oh come, all ye faithful," right now. 

Many of those are simply beautiful music.  Even being Jewish, I can stand to listen to them.  

[Guest]

The worst are the bastardizations adaptations of irving berlin songs. If it's not broken, don't fix it!

[Myssterry]

I love the carols and choir songs performed at the services of Nine Lessons and carols.  I dislike most other Christmas music tbh.  The Fairytale of New York with the great Kirsty MacColl appeals.  Her death was so tragic - what a brave lady giving her life for her son.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Goonie]

if I can mix other songs in with it I'm okay. If it's on repeat for days of the same songs, then no

[BodhranBace]

On 11/25/2019 at 10:07 PM, SithApprentice said:

What does it say about me that the ones I still like are the ones we'd sing in church or with our church Youth Group? I'm not even a Christian anymore and am pretty anti-theist, but god do I want to start bellowing out "Oh come, all ye faithful," right now. 

have you heard the twisted sister version of "oh come, all ye faithful?"

[BodhranBace]

my personal favorite Christmas album is "John Denver and the muppets." 

my favorite Christmas medley is Bing Crosby, "do you hear what I hear" and Ramstien's "du hast."

[Concinnity]

I haven't read through the entire thread, but I just love Tim Minchin's "White Wine in the Sun". It really resonates with what I deem important and enjoy about that time of year. Also, I think it's fun. Sadly though it's not easy to sing along to...

[Homer]

On a scale from 1 to 10, Giftmas music achieves a solid -23.

[ben8884]

I dunno, I like some Christmas music though it can be overplayed.

[Stéphane]

i hate the carols, the horrible jingly sh*t in shops etc. Advent chants can be lovely though. 

[LadyWallflower]

I love Christmas music. The pop version can wake you up in the morning. But I really like folk, orchestral and "old-fashioned" music to study too, and there are some really good Christmas songs.

[Jelle]

Like some of it, hate some of it, thankfully they didn't start it here yet. It's enough that they have been selling Christmas supplies for a month already.

[Miss Grey]

I loooove it. It's so corny and feelgood and I can't get enough. I have to sing along. 😁 I mostly just like the classics, some are kinda.. grating.

(Feliz Navidad is my fave and I hate Wonderful Christmastime 😛)

[Catserole]

I enjoy Christmas and I’m happy to hear all the songs - I like traditional and religious music at this time but happy to hear Slade etc as well. But I want to hear it at Christmas, not two months before!

[Guest]

I love the music! 

[ozzythefabulous]

Some Christmas music is good but it gets overplayed to the point where I can't stand a lot of it

[GingerRose]

• I love it but also... there's a limit. so 9.

[Acing It]

🤢🤮

[Janus the Fox]

Expecting because it’s the start of November, Christmas music everywhere is going to be a frequent occurrence.

[Ruru+Saphhy=Garnet]

It depends. If it's close to Christmas, I love it. Any time before, however, can be a bit annoying for me. 

[Acing It]

On 10/25/2020 at 7:58 PM, Homer said:

On a scale from 1 to 10, Giftmas music achieves a solid -23.

... and a half??? no???

 

Honestly, as I get older I care less and less about fixed traditions and forced fun. If anything, I like easter more because there's less pressure to have fun and do things you don't want to do. That is, as long as it's not in the UK. Those industrial easter eggs in the UK remind me of the commercial cr*p you see at Christmas with their five layers of pointless packaging. It ruins it for cynical me. 

[Anarchist Kaos]

As most people that have worked on retail, I hate it.

[Tsareena]

I fking hate Christmas music from abroad especially carols and choir music with their somber ass feeling shit. 

I love parang and soca parang though because it is lively.

[SunlitMoonlight]

I love it only in a certain time frame. That of the last week in November until the third-ish week of January. Other than that I loathe its presence and wish it gone for all eternity. 

[everywhere and nowhere]

15 hours ago, Tsareena said:

I fking hate Christmas music from abroad especially carols and choir music with their somber ass feeling shit. 

I love parang and soca parang though because it is lively.

What is parang music?

But I have to say that my mom's husband said something similar to me: that he doesn't particularly like Christmas carols because they sound sad to him. I, on the contrary, hate Christmas pop music and pop versions of Christmas carols because they are too cheeryhappy for me. I'm not a sad person, although somewhat melancholic - sure, I just... appreciate something which goes deeper that just being cheerful. I could even say that I don't enjoy cheerfullness - joy and cheerfullness are obviously two different things, the difference in intensity and in state of mind is substantial.

I kinda agree that some Christmas carols have something deeply melancholic about them, but I appreciate it. I have two favourite Christmas carols, both fairly unknown outside Poland, I think. One is titled "Witaj gwiazdko złota" ("Welcome, golden star") and I find it fascinating how this song repeatedly uses words such as "joyful", "cheerful" - and is indeed hauntingly sad. But it gives me a deeply emotional feeling (in this case I consider English quite insufficient: feeling moved and feeling emotional is not the same, it seems to me like English lacks a good equivalent of the Polish word wzruszenie) which is more than just sad. The second is, I think, little known even in Poland... I have it on an album of Christimas carols sung by a children's music group, the title is "Pokój na ziemi dzieciom" ("Peace to Earth's children") and it goes a little into the direction of "Christmas songs" rather than "Christmas carols" because here religious themes are in the background, it's more about human kindness and affection. But it's not pop (musically, something between classical music and older popular music) and the result is, again, very moving.

Generally, my favourite Christmas album is one called "Traditional Christmas carols", with four singers with four different voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass; and always solo) - and I find it fascinating how mysterious does "Silent Night" sound there (sung by a tenor with a wordless female chorus in the background) and how incredibly banal it sounds in pop arrangements. I'm a person who appreciates music, but lacks pitch, I can't play any intrument well, playing something on a piano without music sheet (and without chords, of course, I can't remember them and I have quite stiff fingers, I just press single keys ) is extremely difficult for me, I have only succeeded in learning to play one simple melody this way. But one thing is clear even for an extreme musical dilettante: that pop arrangements of "Silent Night" are very often just substantially faster...