<p>Last years favorites at our house were ‘Barenaked for the Holidays’, and ‘A Rosie Christmas’. Plus Windom Hill, of course. </p>
<p>I’m just going through the CD shelf, wondering what Christmas CD y’all can’t live without. I have a ton of Christmas CD’s but I’m always looking for the ‘perfect’ album.</p>
<p>Oooh - another great thread! I know people complain about Christmas stuff starting earlier and earlier each year, but I love the music.</p>
<p>One of my favorite all-round Christmas CD’s is “Croon & Swoon - A Classic Christmas.” Andy Williams, Perry Como, Peggy Lee, Bing Crosby, etc.</p>
<p>Also Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” It never gets old…</p>
<p>Also-
Harry Connick’s “When My Heart Finds Christmas” is nice. Sometimes I think he works too hard at sounding “vintage” but I do like it.
Also - stuff by the Brian Setzer Orchestra (who we see this Saturday night :)) is a lot of fun.
But mostly I like the classics - Hark the Herald, The First Noel, etc.
Has anyone out there ever heard “Christmas on the Sea?” It’s beautiful and simple, and was supposedly Theodore Roosevelt’s favorite Christmas hymn.</p>
<p>I used to play all the Mannheim Steamroller cds constantly during the holidays, but now I am a Trans-Siberian Orchestra fanatic. Great stuff!</p>
<p>I was going to say Brian Setzer Orchestra, but lsp beat me.</p>
<p>I have an alt-ish, late eighties era CD called “Edge of Christmas” which is one of my favorites, maybe my favorite. The Pogues’ “Fairy Tale of New York” is beautiful.</p>
<p>We also have a compilation called “A Creole Christmas” which is just outstanding. Irma Thomas’ rendition of "O Holy Night’’ literally brings tears to my eyes every time I listen to it.</p>
<p>I just posted about this on another thread. I love the Big Band and Swing stuff…and especially love Brian Setzer. But I was thinking of picking up some Bluegrass Christmas music this year. If anyone has any recommendations along those lines, please pass them on. (My shelf is full of everything from Celtic to Frank…but no bluegrass. So though I love the sound, I’m a novice.)</p>
<p>A friend of mine has a cd I have been looking for. It was called something like “mountain Christmas” or Applacian Christmas. Lots of dulcimer in the songs. I’ll have to ask her again what the title is again.</p>
<p>“I Sing the Birth” by New York Polyphony.</p>
<p>Incredibly moving and calming. This is not pop music, not big band and not Frosty! It is really gorgeous polyphony for the most part with just a bit of chant. Four guys, plus a few women (one from Anon 4) on a couple of tracks. You can listen to tracks on their website. I can play this over an over and love to listen in the car.</p>
<p>(full disclosure–I’ve met these guys and know one of them pretty well, and have heard them in person several times. They are really phenomenal singers and can blend perfectly or sing solo, as the piece requires. BBC online magazine just voted this album their Christmas pick of the year and they’ve received kudos from other classical music reviews.)</p>
<p>“Christmas Island,” by Leon Redbone.</p>
<p>There’s a great compilation of live Christmas songs sung by a broad range of artists that a friend sent me. The styles range from classic rock to bluegrass to contemporary. It’s hard to get tired of it because the artists on it are so diverse. :)</p>
<p>We have hundreds - really - of Christmas CDs, albums, tapes, you name it. And they range from awful/great kitsch to serious sacred stuff. I think if I had to pick just one that I couldn’t live without, I’d . . . go nuts. But then I’d probably go with The Bells of Dublin - it’s a Chieftans album, from probably around the year S1 (now a h.s. junior) was born, and it’s been in heavy rotation every year since then. It’s Celtic (for those of you who need a Celtic Christmas fix), but so much more, and the guest artists are surprising and interesting choices: Marianne Faithfull, Elvis Costello, the McGarrigle sisters, Jackson Browne . . . . It touches such a wide range of holiday moods, from quietly contemplative to raucously celebratory, from reverent to irreverent, and whatever else you can find in between. 
I think I might have to go put it on, right now.<br>
Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!</p>
<p>Well, every Christmas collection needs some Bing Crosby & Frank Sinatra & Ella Fitzgerald. The best Messiah, IMHO, is the Monteverdi Choir conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. All THings WOnderful is a nice compilation of choral classics. Also John Rutter’s The Cambridge Singers Christmas Album. John Fahey has a wonderful guitar solo Christmas album. The Roches We Three Kings is a must.</p>
<p>Newer Stuff: Chris Isaak. Brian Setzer. O Christmas Tree (Bluegrass). Most Celtic compilations are great.</p>
<p>I think this year I will burn my favorites onto some cds. I love individual songs from Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Gladys Knight & others, but their Christmas albums are pretty uneven.</p>
<p>Harriet: Forgot about Bells of Dubln – It’s awesome. Like you, we have a ridiculous amount of Christmas music. I think I can top the list of kitsch Christmas music with A Partridge Family Christmas Card.</p>
<p>The Oregon Trail Band has one called Old Fashioned Christmas. It has been a favorite at our household. I looked on thie website, and it looks like they have released another one too. I might have to buy that one this year. I always feel a bit guilty enjoying Christmas music as much as I do, even though we are Jewish!</p>
<p>I love Vanessa Williams’ Christmas CDs, also James Taylor. An oldie-but-goodie, John Denver Rocky Mountain Christmas. So simple.</p>
<p>Ooh, StickerShock - we have that too! Now I’m dying to go get those crates out and see if I can out-kitsch you. (Doubtful, but fun to try.) Do you have Santa’s Doin’ the Mambo this Christmas, aka Mambo, Santa, Mambo? It follows so nicely after the Messiah.</p>
<p>Two new favorites that entered the playlists here last year were the Merry Mixmas album, and Yule B’ Swingin. Not kitschy, but unusual and a lot of fun.</p>
<p>We have the Klezmer Nutcracker…it is great!</p>
<p>Agree about The Bells of Dublin–one of the very very best!</p>
<p>other thoughts:
The Roches’ “We Three Kings”
“Carols from Trinity” by the choir of Trinity College Cambridge
“Noels Celtiques, Celtic Christmas Music from Brittany”</p>
<p>
LOL!!! </p>
<p>I confess to having a crush on Keith Partridge many, many years ago. Gotta love the shag & the 115 lb physique.</p>
<p>To my shame, we own a Ren and Stimpy Christmas CD which is beyond unlistenable. Sometime it’s going to “accidentally” disappear.</p>
<p>(and I actually think the show was often funny, but this…not!)</p>