Top Ten Tuesday: Christmas Music

I have never been a big fan of Christmas music on the radio. I like the songs that I like and I don't want junk like Santa Baby mixed in. An all Christmas, all the time, station usually gets on my nerves. This year, on November 1st, one station switched to full time Christmas and before I could take them off my favorites, the kids caught on. They will not let me turn the station. Even during commercials I have to stay tuned in because Alyssa is afraid I won't get back in time and they will miss something. I am stuck in Whoville with the noise, noise, noise, noise!

While I still find much of it annoying, there are some songs that I find myself hoping will be on next. So here is my list of top ten Christmas songs, that are played on the radio. I love the Christmas hymns and the Christmas songs that the Primary kids sing but for this list I am going to focus on the music that has been blaring in my car for the past 5 weeks.

10- Elvis Presley/The Carpenters

I couldn't really pick one song but I am happy whenever I hear the Carpenters. They are from Downey, CA...my hometown. Isn't it funny how something so simple as sharing a hometown with someone makes you feel connected to them? I also like to hear them on the Christmas station because her voice just seems to be made for Christmas songs.

I can't pick just one song by Elvis either but I couldn't sleep at night without including him. I LOVE Elvis! I am always happy to hear his voice.

9- The Little Drummer Boy

I have never liked this song until this year but after the 57th time it was forced upon me, I finally listened to it and now I find something about it very sweet. I love the idea of being able to worship Jesus, each of us in our own humble way, and offering our own personal best to him.

8- You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch

This song just makes me laugh. A whole song full of funny insults. Every time I listen to it I have a new favorite. Today I think it is "your heart is full of unwashed socks". So bizarre! So funny! Me and the kids just crack up through the whole thing. Alyssa usually can't even sing along because she is so hysterical.

7- Christmas Don't Be Late- The Chipmunks

I have always loved the Chipmunks. When my mom just had her three oldest kids she called Jeff Simon, because he is a brain. Valerie was Alvin because, well that is another post altogether, but Valerie was definitely Alvin. I was Theodore because even then I NEVER stopped eating. I have now passed down the nicknames to my 3 little chipmunks. Alex is Alvin, for sure. Alyssa is Simon and luckily Chloe is a big pig so she didn't break the streak. We like all of the Chipmunks Christmas songs but this one is our favorite. This is another one that invites a car full of giggles. Why does the word hula hoop sound so amusing in Chipmunkese?

6- Christmas Canon- Trans Siberian Orchestra

I usually don't like songs without lyrics, and this one is mostly instrumental but for some reason I find myself lost in it. It brings out so many emotions at once. I am not sure if I am supposed to be walking down the aisle, or at a funeral, or laughing, or crying, or reminiscing, or looking to the future. This one confuses my heart, but in a good way.

5- Last Christmas

When I was in 6th grade I got my very own record player on Christmas morning. We always had music playing on Christmas morning and it took me a long time to realize that this year it was issuing forth from my very own brand new record player. I think I spent three months in my room just listening to my first three records. I got Whitney Houston, Tiffany (do you remember giving me that for gift exchange, Jimmie?) and Wham. I listened to Wham all day long on Christmas. I remember my sister Valerie hanging out and listening with me. We rocked out to Last Christmas at least 500 times that day. I was a Wham fan but had never heard that song before and it became a fast favorite. I remember that it was the last track on the record and I can almost feel myself walking back to the record player over and over to place the needle in the slick black groove that preceded it. That song makes me feel like a young girl again, at home with my siblings and SO excited about the wonder of Christmas.

* Bonus question: There was one song on the album that I think I played even more than Last Christmas...can you name it? This question is mostly for Valerie but you can all take a crack at it if you're feeling lucky, and have your old Wham albums handy.

4- O Come All Ye Faithful

This song is magnificent and it reminds me of an awesome girl from my mission. During Christmas I was serving in Rochester, NY in the Singles Branch so we only worked with young single people, our peers (which was really weird but that is another story for sure). We were teaching a girl in her early 20's named Mary Pat. She was gorgeous and she was talented. I have met very few people who could sing the way that she could sing. She came with us to a Stake Christmas concert and wanted to join the Stake choir on the spot. We used to tease her that one day she would be singing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Mary Pat loved Christmas. She had a birthday party for Jesus, with a cake and everything. She invited us all and we sang and ate and talked about the Savior. Then on Christmas Eve we stopped by to give her a present. She was out so we left it at the door. We got home hours later, cold and mildly discouraged because most of our investigators were gone home for the holidays (college students) so we had been left tracting specifically for young single people in frigid weather. We saw our answering machine blinking and when we pushed play we heard, to the tune of O Come all ye Faithful...."Oh sisters you're so cool, thank you for the present. I'm waiting to open it with Ma-ar-cio". (her boyfriend) It just made my day. My companion recorded it and now I wish I had too, but I can still hear it and now O Come all ye Faithful is permanently linked to that memory.

3- Baby, it's Cold Outside

Believe it or not, this one goes back to my mission days too. On a mission you can only listen to church music, or classical music. I don't like classical music (I know, I am a swine, no need to remind me). I don't like Mo-tab, although I appreciate the good exposure that they give the church by sharing their talent. Their music is just not my thing. Again, I know, uncultured swine. I am okay with that. My picky (or piggy if you prefer) taste left me with hymns which you can only listen to so much and other church recordings. I had about 4 tapes that I liked and by Christmas (10 months out) I was a bit tired of them. When our mission president gave us clearance to listen to Christmas music for one month, we jumped on it. We bought a $1 CD in a bin at the grocery store and popped it in our tape deck. Lots of Christmas classics, and then Baby It's Cold Outside came on. We laughed ourselves to tears. We had never heard it before and it struck as so funny. A cute bubbly song about snowed-in seduction, and three sister missionaries singing along in their car. It cracked us up that the naughtiest thing we were exposed to in our 18 month service was that song. It still cracks me up. Ask Seth, he calls it my song.

2- God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman

This year I find myself crossing my fingers between each song and hoping this one will be next. This is another one I had never paid attention to before but the version by Bare Naked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan is so good. It just keeps jumping in to my head, and not in an annoying way...I just welcome it in and jam along. I love that it refers to God as our Heavenly Father since that is what I call him most frequently.

1- O Holy Night

Isn't this everyone's favorite? It is just perfection. One of the best songs, period. Christmas or not. The first time I heard it was for the 4 seconds that it is being sung in Home Alone and for years I wondered what that song was. All I knew, from those 4 seconds, was that it said "fall on your knees" and I thought that was beautiful. I wanted to hear what went with it. It was probably 10 years later that I finally heard it in it's entirety and found out what it was called. I was so pleased to hear that the whole thing was as inspiring as the 4 seconds that I already knew. This song makes me wish I could sing. This song makes me feel like I was there on that holy night. I have never listened to this song and not felt something. I have never listened to it and not been sad when it ended. This song reminds me of how important the moment of our Saviors birth was. I would give favorite quotes and dissect the whole thing, but it doesn't need my words as an endorsement. It is it's own perfect endorsement.

Did you notice that I changed my playlist this week so that you could all enjoy my favorites with me? I have never touched the music on the blog. Seth put it there and I didn't want to discard his one contribution to our "family blog". I'll bring it back in the New Year, or maybe have him make a fresh one.

Oh, and honorable mention today to The Christmas Shoes for being a sweet and touching story, but I couldn't add it to my playlist because the actual song annoys me.

And if I could find the song Santa's using Zebras Now anywhere I would totally add it to my playlist. Has anyone ever heard of it? We sang it every year at Gallatin Elementary School for our Christmas show. I think my brother, Jeff even got to be one of the zebras that dragged Santa in one year. Big stuff in little Downey. I can't find it anywhere. I have come across other people on line who are looking for it but no one knows where it came from? Do you think my teacher wrote it or something? It went something like this...

Santa's using zebras now to pull his Christmas Sleigh
Cause a boy in Africa wrote to him one day
Santa please come by he said and bring some toys with you.
Santa's using zebras now, south of Timbuktu
Donner, Blitzen, all the reindeer, put him on the spot
They were used to ice and snow but Africa was hot
Then some Zebras came along and they pulled Santa through
Santa's using Zebras now, south of Timbuktu

Do you know it?

Also, what is your favorite Christmas song?

And....what is your favorite Christmas movie? You know I am not a big movie person but I am trying to think of some new ones to watch with the kids this year. Suggestions?