In spite of having somewhere between 12-15 Christmas albums on my Ipod (many of which were obtained from the public library CD collection), I have found myself listening almost exclusively to "Songs Of Angels: Christmas Hymns And Carols" by the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers. This, like the title indicates, is a collection of traditional Christmas carols and hymns that are sung a capella by a choir. It is great because it has 29 tracks and they all follow very traditional arrangements (the best kind of arrangement). This got me to trying to pick out what my favorite Christmas carols are, regardless of arrangement, and I think I've reached a conclusion.

1. O Come, O Come Emmanuel
2. What Child Is This?
3. The Friendly Beasts
4. Good King Wenceslas
5. The Boar's Head Carol

Runners Up: The Holly and the Ivy, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, and the 3rd verse of Joy to the World

Although I feel like there ought be a stipulation that all songs must have been written/composed before 1900, I guess that might be implied by the word "traditional." What are yours?

I have way too many Christmas CDs.

My faves:

1) O Holy Night
2) Silent Night
3) O Come All Ye Faithful
4) O Little Town of Bethlehem
5) I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

It wasn't easy coming up with this list...I love Christmas music.

Trip - I too would list O Come O Come Emmanuel at #1 (sang it this morning - PCA like you). I'd try for a list but I need to get to bed (3:30 am hunting wake up).

I too have that same Robert Shaw CD as well as another. There are also number of great traditional carols CDs out there that you might look into. It seems that most of the ones I have are from England.

The Cambridge Singers have some very nice traditional Christmas music CD's. Also, if you like traditional Christmas music, be sure to tune into KING FM's online classical Christmas music station at http://www.king.org/stream/listen.aspx.

Merry Christmas all.

Great thread, Trip, and thank you for the recommendation of the Robert Shaw collection. I downloaded it last night from Emusic and am enjoying it.

My top 5 are as follows:

Away in a Manger
Deck the Halls
The Holly and the Ivy
Oh Tannabaum
My Dancing Day (this is a new favorite for me as I just discovered it on the Robert Shaw cd)

JordanW wrote:

My Dancing Day (this is a new favorite for me as I just discovered it on the Robert Shaw cd)

I actually wasn't familiar with this one before the Robert Shaw CD either; however, I was surprised that the choir sang it at church yesterday.

tripreed wrote:

I actually wasn't familiar with this one before the Robert Shaw CD either; however, I was surprised that the choir sang it at church yesterday.

I was just going to say that. I hadn't heard it before yesterday.

I think it is a tie for me between "O Come, O Come Emanuel" and "What Child is This?" but mostly because of the music (I do know you stipulated regardless of the arrangement). I love the slow melancholy music of these two songs. Plus, Jeff Beck did a great solo guitar arrangement of "Greensleeves" (the music to "What Child" ) that I've learned and performed before and it is fantastic.

Conor

I like the classics to - too many radios stations in our jurisdiction play the same Christmas songs (Bruce Springsteen, et als) over and over starting November 1. (though, I must say, I always enjoy Domenic the Donkey!)

Here's our local classical music station that has three different computer channels "on-demand" for your holiday listening pleasure.

http://www.wcrb.com/page.php?page_id=16078

Enjoy the season!