Favorite and Least Favorite Christmas Songs

[David]

Do you have favorite & least favorite Christmas songs?

FAVES:
"Carol of the Bells"
A wind-whipped wail of erotic frustration; THE classic example of Ukrainian canon perpetuus (or perpetual canon). Works best in traditional orchestral settings, but has been known to be performed on a variety of household utensils & tools.

"Burgundian Carol"
Oscar Brand's immortal carol in triple meter, incorporating the natural minor & modal tonality, as well as a curious syntax in the lyric & a mysterious figurative play on the words "oxen" & "donkeys."

"Some Children See Him"
This poignant plea for equality, written on the major 7th, can be understood with equal validity as a gentle explication of the vagaries of anomalous trichromacy in the very young. Utterly memorable from first note to last.

"O Come, O Come, Immanuel"
Not a particularly extraordinary melody, unless you happen to be a big fan of church plainchant. The melismatic quality of the piece (which dates from the 13th century) exerts a soporific effect on the singers as well as the listeners, which is only compounded if performed in the original Latin. First-rate stuff.

LEAST:
There's very little that's worse than "Suzy Snowflake" ("Here comes Suzy Snowflake, dressed in a snow white gown/Tap, tap, tappin' at your window pane to tell you she's in town") or "What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)?" Songs like these are enough to drive even the gentlest Christmas spirit into a violent dither.


Even though my descriptions are tongue in cheek, these are several of my favorite songs & carols.