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For some people, Christmas music has the tendency to spark that corner of the mind that triggers a mild form of temporary adult onset Tourette syndrome: excessive blinking, uncontrollable twitches, and random bouts of profanity. It is these people who fear the first sound of sleigh bells and “ho ho ho.” There are those like Marcus Kellis at the UI Argonaut who complains that Christmas music is nothing more than “the same songs year after year from the same performers.” Many true music fans (and I do consider myself a true fan of music) despise Christmas music; they believe that the soundtrack to the holidays is nothing short of atrocious. I can empathize with them. During my days working at Old Navy, I dreaded the holiday shopping season. It wasn’t just the savage shoppers, slogging through tables of sweaters and rugby polos like Hurricane Santa. It was the awful Christmas music - think Bing Crosby meets the Macarena. However, aside from the holiday music torture offered by stores like Old Navy, I typically enjoy Christmas music/Nic, Rants, Raves & Random Thoughts. More here.
Question: What’s your favorite Christmas song?
D.F. Oliveria is an associate editor, editorialist, columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Recently, the Idaho Press Club selected Huckleberries as the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog. In 2007, the Society of Professional Journalists selected Huckleberries Online as the best news blog in the five-state Pacific Northwest. The print version of Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Tidbits Column contest sponsored by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University has cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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marmitetoasty on December 22 at 12:00 a.m.
People always have to ask me to spell me surname, especially on the phone, I dont know if its the way I say or it, its NOT a weird surname with daft spellings or anything……
Its not common though over here and all the 'Ws' here are related to me tosser X's family……. bloody inbreds LMFAO joking….
When me lads are all grown I will probably change me name, except I have had this surname longer then me maiden name and everyone knows me by it…. and I hate putting Ms W…. makes its sound like ya aint good enough to be married LOL…. but I also hate now putting Mrs W…. cos I aint……
I also HATED my first name growing up, I just wanted to have a common name like all the Julies or Susans or Sallys in me classes…… but now on reflection, I so wasnt like just one of the crowd so maybe having the only one with my name in every school I went to, sorta really fitted who I was :)
Jen….. glad the little package arrived for your nippers :)…….*hoping I wrote the names right* lol
x
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marmitetoasty on December 22 at 12:03 a.m.
Bugger……. put this in the wrong comments LOL sorry……..
just bin it……
x
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inlandempiregirl on December 22 at 12:21 a.m.
My all time favorite is “White Christmas”. I have an instrumental version that is one of those Nature Quest CDs with simple piano and bird sounds. It is beautiful.
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Arch_Druid on December 22 at 2:26 a.m.
Do you hear what I hear and Mannheim Steamroller's rendition of Angels we have heard on high.
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Speaking of, this looked like a good place to discuss a Press letter in this morning's Sunday paper. “I was pleased to read the letter in the paper reminding us to give thanks on Thanksgiving Day, not Turkey Day.
Another thought concerns Christmas. 'Christmas' is the correct spelling. Why do so many people write it as X-mas? Since when did Jesus become X?
Take the extra effort and write 'Christmas.” —Toni Bufalo of Coeur d' Alene
To answer Bufalo here, the Greeks gave Christ the “X” symbol. And I am not the first person to respond to the ignorant in this matter. Then again, why is Christ depicted as a fish on the car bumpers of true believers? Because in the latter at least, the true believers recognize the fish to be a symbol of Christ's teachings! But fail to understand that “X” is symbolic for Christ himself. Then too, when non Christians such as myself and my sister begin referring to “Christians” as Xtians, we are referring to the Greek symbol “X” for Christ. So when will the likes of Toni Bufalo start doing the necessary research whereby, ignorant letters like that won't be submitted for publication?
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I like most X-mas music incidentally.
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Brent Andrews on December 22 at 7:29 a.m.
Druid, you're like fingernails on a chalkboard this morning.
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My fav is “I wanna hippopotamous for Christmas”
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Bob on December 22 at 7:55 a.m.
My favorite is that one bittersweet country song with kind of a long title:
Grandma's Sleeping With Santa's Reindeers cuz You Know You're a Red Elf if Your Trailer Sits on Blocks Made of Chocolate Sugar Plums when Junior Got Run Over by a Peterbilt that Christmas Eve he was Out Buying his Terminally Ill Mom a Gift with the Money he got by Selling his Reflective Jacket he Used to Wear When Walking at Night.
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Sisyphus on December 22 at 7:57 a.m.
I think you're mostly right Archie but I thought it more specifically had to do with the Roman Emperor Constantine and his conversion to Christianity. He saw in a dream or vision that God wanted him to have his soldiers put on their shields the Greek letter chi symbolized by the letter X superimposed over the Greek letter rho, symbolized by a pointy letter P, if he wanted to have a victory in battle the next day. The chi and the rho were the first letters in the name of Christ and the superimposed XP has been a symbol for Christ ever since. You usually see it in the Catholic church around Easter time.
And Constantine followed God's instructions, was indeed victorious and pursuant to his pact wtih God, he converted to Christianity and the rest is, shall we say, history.
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Sisyphus on December 22 at 8:03 a.m.
I should also clarify that actually Constantine was indeed the Roman Emperor, he was really based out of his name sake Constantinople (now Istanbul, you know, like the song) where Greek was the language of Court.
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thawtfulreader on December 22 at 8:33 a.m.
Irma Thomas's rendition of “Holy Night”.
(Irma is known as “The Soul Queen of New Orleans.”
And this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZOg1O…
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nic on December 22 at 1:54 p.m.
Bob, I think the song you're refering to is an amalgamation of the ten worst Christmas songs ever. (and you may have forgoetten the lst line “…Selling his Reflective Jacket he Used to Wear When Walking at Night because All he Really Wanted was his Two Front Teeth”)
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JeanC on December 22 at 2:47 p.m.
“Silent Night” with a single voice and a guitar. No choirs, no orchestra, no jazzing it up, just simple.
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Aliasjax on December 22 at 3:44 p.m.
There are few things in life more irksome than FnXmas music; and I don't think I'm speaking Greek.
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Cheri Howell on December 22 at 4:30 p.m.
any Christmas song by Annie Lenox.
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Escapee on December 22 at 9:46 p.m.
The other day, the radio station played “Feliz Navidad”. Now that wouldn't be so bad, except that drivers hear the same radio signal that those at home do. In short, you can lunge for the volume knob at home quite safely and kill that song before it puts you out of your Holiday misery. But when you're driving, a chance encounter with that song has the potential of initiating a 700-car pileup on the Highway of your choice. Whilst driving, not only did I get a case of whiplash from jerking my head towards the radio, I got finger-carpal-tunnel syndrome from repeatedly mashing the volume button and thankfully, the song ended before I actually Punched Out The Radio, which I came close to doing.
Give me songs like “Away In A Manger” and “Silent Night” anytime. Those instantly transport me to some Christmas Place far, far away.
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toadman on December 22 at 11:50 p.m.
I quite enjoy the Jethro Tull Christmas Album, actually. But I'm a big fan…what can I say?
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Arch_Druid on December 23 at 12:20 p.m.
Yeah, I really appreciated Sisyphus' update on when “X” became a useful symbol of Christ. A variant of that is what we commonly find in the “X-mas” tree or the “X-mas” song. I expect that XP would be even MORE confusing LOL! unless you were really up on your history. Nice going Sisyphus!
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