Top 5 At Christmas, Plus 5
After much thought and consideration, here it is, my Top 5 Christmas Songs of All Time … times 2. Yes, the more and more I thunk1 it over, the more I realized there’s no way I’d be able to fit all of the wonderful, deserving Christmas songs out there into 5 slots. Instead I decided to go with a 5 & 5 … 5 “classic” songs and 5 more contemporary songs. You may or may not agree with my categorization of some songs, but they’re my lists so get over it and go make your own lists if you don’t like mine.
First, some notes. If an artist is listed, then I’m referring to their specific rendition of a song. If not, then there are probably some versions I like better than others, but couldn’t pick just one favorite. Maybe that’s not fair, maybe it is. See above if you don’t like it.
So, without further ado …
Top 5 Classic Christmas Songs3. Silent Night – Boyz II Men
3. A Holly Jolly Christmas – Burl Ives
1. White Christmas – Bing Crosby
5. Winter Wonderland
2. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee
4. O Holy Night – Tevin Campbell
Plus 5 Contemporary Christmas Songs (with commentary)
1. All I Want for Christmas – Mariah Carey
I’m not absolutely positive that I’ve heard every Christmas song written since 1985, but of the one’s I’ve heard, this has to be the best one … and to me the one that has the best chance of being in that first list in 20 years. It’s a song about Christmas that sounds like Christmas and makes you feel like Christmas. When a song fits all three of those criteria, it qualifies as a classic and only time stands in its way of actually becoming a classic.
2. Christmas Time Again – Extreme
Some people would call them a one hit wonder, but those people probably forgot that Hole in my Heart was all over the radio that year as well. I’m not sure I can form an intellectual argument for why this is such a great Christmas song, just that I love the melody and I love what the song’s about. Do we always have to have a reason for our madness?
3. Tennessee Christmas – Amy Grant
It was a tossup between this and Emmanuel from the same album. I don’t know if my choosing this song over Emmanuel says something about misplaced joy at Christmas, but from a purely emotional standpoint, it was the snow that won me over. I just love the image of snow on Christmas.
4. Christmas is All Around Us – Billy Mack
The song is fictional but real and so is the singer. I guess if you haven’t seen or don’t enjoy Love, Actually then you aren’t feelin this one.
5. I Still Believe in Santa Clause – NKOTB
This actually almost got cut until I realized I wanted to rant about how disappointed I am that Jordan Knight released an album entitled “Jordan Knight Performs New Kids on the Block”. Is it ever a good idea to try to get your career to move forward by going backward? Please note that my disappointment is not in Jordan Knight, but in society for letting this happen. Being disappointed in Jordan Knight would imply that I had certain expectations of him and that implication would be wrong. Dead wrong.
5. Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) – The Chipmunks
Okay, that Jordan Knight thing was kind of funny, but there’s no way this song should be left off the list. I have this song on an LP, meaning it should probably be on the classics list, but we’ll just leave it here for now.
So that’s it. I may edit or add to my commentary later, but for now I think you get the general idea that (1) I’m a softy, (2) I have terrible taste in music, and (3) I stink at making lists because I get so caught up in the logic that I forget that lists are more about emotion than they are about logic. If you have to explain your list then it’s not a list, it’s a collection of debate topics. Also, you may not have gathered this from the list itself but it’s worth noting that this actually became much more difficult than I originally imagined. I probably could have spent as much time on this list as I’m currently spending on my other list, and basically what it boils down to is I like Christmas music a whole lot more than I thought I did.
1 Improper use of grammar intentional