# Favourite Christmas Carols



## LindenLea (Feb 4, 2007)

Do you have any particular favourite Christmas Carols? Having sung in a church choir for most of my life you would think it maybe easy to get sick of singing carols each Christmas, but the trick, as with all music, is surely to keep coming up with new and perhaps slightly less well known material, and there are 100's of wonderful carols in the English choral tradition which are truly beautiful but are rarely sung.

Here are some of my absolute favourites, perhaps not as well known as the most traditional favourites, but I hope you will agree all the more special as a result.

All these are sung here by the sublime choir of King's College, Cambridge at their Nine Lessons and Carols service.

*Peter Warlock - Bethlehem Down*





*Elizabeth Poston - Jesus Christ the Apple Tree*





*The Angel Gabriel (Old Basque Tune)*





*Walford Davies - God Be in my Head*





*John Gardner - Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day*





Also, a lovely performance here of *Harold Darke's setting of In the Bleak Midwinter,* sung by the choristers of Lichfield Cathedral.


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

the Coventry Carol.
Thanks for the chance to add that!
FC


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Any of the original compositions of John Rutter. As an accompanist, they are always pure delight to play, and when sung well, even more delightful for the listener. 

Other favorite Christmas carols that we use in church:
O Come, All Ye Faithful
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen


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## SPR (Nov 12, 2008)

If you love vocals, you will love this..all of it. It is one of my favorite christmas discs, completely a capella.

The Singers Unlimited.

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Singers-Unlimited/dp/B0000046J8









sample:


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

Singers Unlimited! If I remember correctly they never did a live gig ever but the records were always big hits due to the incredible accuracy and complexity of the 'performances'.
I miss that ultra glossy vocal sound, and for anyone who hasn't heard then I strongly recommend that they do so.
FC


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## Methodistgirl (Apr 3, 2008)

I like Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy to The World, songs like that.
The ones I can't stand is the 12 days of Christmas. It seems to get over rated.
judy tooley


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## tenor02 (Jan 4, 2008)

im a huge fan of medieval christmas music, and anything in minor...not sure why, but maybe it's the paradox of a minor christmas carol that interests me.


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## Christi (Nov 21, 2008)

Methodistgirl said:


> I like Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy to The World, songs like that.The ones I can't stand is the 12 days of Christmas.* It seems to get over rated.judy tooley


Silent Night ( Stille Nicht ) , Nut Cracker March


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## phoenixshade (Dec 9, 2008)

Does _Messiah_ count?? No? OK, then, "O Holy Night" was always one of my favorites.


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## confuoco (Feb 8, 2008)




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## marval (Oct 29, 2007)

That was lovely, thank you. I really enjoyed it.


Margaret


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## Yagan Kiely (Feb 6, 2008)

Dear god! _*NONE*__*!!!!*_

......


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## confuoco (Feb 8, 2008)

marval said:


> That was lovely, thank you. I really enjoyed it.


My pleasure


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## guitargeekette (Dec 5, 2009)

Oh man, I love Soli Deo Gloria Cantorum's rendition of Jesu, Son Most Sweet and Dear...It's amaaaazzing. Phyllis Noble's alto solo is so haunting, and it makes me feel like as an alto, I have hope...LOL. It is really hard to find a stream though, it's not on youtube either. But if you can even find an Amazon 30 sec snippet you can hear the awesomeness...


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## SamGuss (Apr 14, 2008)

'A Star to Follow' - hands down.


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## Perotin (May 29, 2012)

Great thread! I wanted to post a thread like this myself. My favourites:
Adolphe Adame: O holy night 



Angels from the realms of glory 



Fum, fum, fum


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

In the bleak midwinter, for me.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

There's hardly a carol that I dislike, but my favourites are *the folk carols*.

I too love *'Tomorrow will be my dancing day'*; also the Sussex Carol (*On Christmas night all Christians sing*); *The Moon Shines Bright*; *This is the Truth sent from Above*; and *Come All Ye Worthy Christian Men*. I like the French folk carols *'Guillot, take your tambourine'* & one about Christ as a wandering beggar the tune of which is now a eucharistic hymn, *'Let all mortal flesh keep silence'.*

I also like Sabine Baring-Gould's *'Most highly favoured lady'*, which of course we always changed at school into 'highly flavoured'!  But the words are lovely.

Oh, I could go on and on...
Great thread! :tiphat:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Whichever Christmas Carol Luciano Pavarotti is singing at the moment. Miss him!


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Dean Martin - Let It Snow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mN7LW0Y00kE#t=12


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Whichever Christmas Carol Luciano Pavarotti is singing at the moment. Miss him!


Agnus dei by Georges Bizet

or Ave Maria of Schubert?


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Silent Night is still the classic for me.


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

Vaneyes said:


> Dean Martin - Let It Snow
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mN7LW0Y00kE#t=12


veeeery nice

and here a cute little drummer


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## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Silent Night is still the classic for me.


since there is no "like" sign, i have to declare that for me silent night is classic too


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

Two out and out favourites.

Tchaikovsky - Crown of Roses (does it count as a carol)

Holst - In the Bleak Midwinter


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Here's John Rutter's setting of *God Be In My Head*. Rutter's done lots of good Christmas music. I don't think I'd call them carols, but good nonetheless.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Two I know from _The Lutheran Hymnal_, Concordia Publishing House, 1941:
A Great And Mighty Wonder (#76)
From Heaven Above to Earth I Come (#85)


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

"O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (though I guess it's more an Advent than a Christmas song), "We Three Kings," "I Saw Three Ships," "Coventry Carol," and the one that goes, "And God bless you and send you a happy New Year" (sorry, I don't know the title) are my favorites. To be honest, I find many Christmas carols a little annoying. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is my all-time least favorite, and I only really like "Silent Night" in its original German.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Joan Sutherland: Hark the Harold Angels Sing





Giorgio Tozzi: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen





Richard Fredericks: O Holy Night


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

These guys are amazing!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clara s said:


> since there is no "like" sign, i have to declare that for me silent night is classic too


Ha! Ha!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

My all time favorite if pressed has to be Silver Bells with the great Bing Crosby.

I always get a tear or two when:

1. hearing this great rendition

2. peeling Bermuda onions


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

*Holst - Lullay, My Liking (I saw a maiden)*
Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic Orchestra and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir





*Heather Dale - The Huron Carol (sung in native Huron, French and English)*





*Handel: Messiah - And The Glory Of The Lord*
London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir





Best wishes and merry Christmas
Metairie Road


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I enjoy Silent Night and O Holy Night a lot.

For lilting Xmas music, I like Santa Claus is Coming to Town.


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## Charlie22 (May 23, 2015)

Since I am from Germany, i guess it´s mostly German songs I like (which I suppose would be hard to sing forn an English-speaking choir:

Sind die Lichter angezündet
Maria durch ein Dornwald ging
Süßer die Glocken nie klingen
Adeste fideles
Macht hoch die Tür
Russian "Schlaf mein Kindlein" or Bajuschkibaju
and French Noel Nouvellet


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh - what's this - we're sev'n months out, on the twenty-fourth of May?
Jingle bells, jingle bells, never mind, I say,
We just ought to listen to _Messiah_ anyway.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Just in time, another 7 months to go.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Magnificat




One of the first Christmas carols, straight from the nativity.
*My soul magnifies the Lord.*


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Minuit, Chrétiens (the origin of O Holy Night); Stille Nacht (Silent Night); Adeste Fidelis; The Little Drummer Boy; In Dulci Jubilo


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## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

_Silver Bells_, one of my favorites


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

It's only less then 6 months away.


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## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

Pugg said:


> It's only less then 6 months away.


 NEVER TOO SOON for me! There's a second part to the post coming soon; just be patient.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

JosefinaHW said:


> NEVER TOO SOON for me! There's a second part to the post coming soon; just be patient.


I am so patience


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## znapschatz (Feb 28, 2016)

JosefinaHW said:


> _Silver Bells_, one of my favorites


This is my father in law, Lee Wintner, a bass baritone who did a lot of movie work in the 1940s and '50s. Here he is in a scene from *The Lemon Drop Kid*, a Bob Hope movie featuring the song, *Silver Bells*, during the big production number of the song, taking place on New York's 5th Ave., actually a Los Angeles movie studio. It was a day's work of sitting around and a 3 second take. His line: "I wish this was a sleigh," delivered in a New York accent. He never got a movie credit, but was in several classic films both on screen and off as a voice, probably best known in *The Wizard of Oz* sequence with the evil palace guards
marching toward the lair of the Evil Witch of the East.

Movies was for the paycheck. In "real life," he sang opera, his roles including Sarastro, Dr. Miracle (Tales of Hoffman,) Varlam, several others I can't recall at the moment, was a highly regarded voice teacher and on a first name basis with the likes of Lauritz Melchior and Jerome Hines (Jerry, but nobody was informal with Melchior.) He was a featured performer at Hollywood Bowl concerts and performed at the Santa Monica Civic opera. The only recording of his that we know of was one of children's songs, but his recitals were wonderful. The first time I heard his *Winterreise* it drove me to my knees. Literally.

Arriving in Los Angeles in the late 1930s, Lee's first job was as a boxing coach at the YMCA, but somewhere along the line he got interested in music, studied with Hugo Streilitzer, and went in that direction. At the time, he was one of few voice teachers who accepted African American students. An athlete at the University of Alabama, which he attended on a football scholarship, Lee witnessed the aftermath of a lynching. It affected him profoundly and he dedicated himself to fighting against racism for the rest of his life. 
He was strong as a bull, dying at age 93 a few days after teaching his last group of students. I honor his memory.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

znapschatz said:


> This is my father in law, Lee Wintner, a bass baritone who did a lot of movie work in the 1940s and '50s. Here he is in a scene from *The Lemon Drop Kid*, a Bob Hope movie featuring the song, *Silver Bells*, during the big production number of the song, taking place on New York's 5th Ave., actually a Los Angeles movie studio. It was a day's work of sitting around and a 3 second take. His line: "I wish this was a sleigh," delivered in a New York accent. He never got a movie credit, but was in several classic films both on screen and off as a voice, probably best known in *The Wizard of Oz* sequence with the evil palace guards
> marching toward the lair of the Evil Witch of the East.
> 
> Movies was for the paycheck. In "real life," he sang opera, his roles including Sarastro, Dr. Miracle (Tales of Hoffman,) Varlam, several others I can't recall at the moment, was a highly regarded voice teacher and on a first name basis with the likes of Lauritz Melchior and Jerome Hines (Jerry, but nobody was informal with Melchior.) He was a featured performer at Hollywood Bowl concerts and performed at the Santa Monica Civic opera. The only recording of his that we know of was one of children's songs, but his recitals were wonderful. The first time I heard his Winterreise it drove me to my knees. Literally.
> ...


This is so nice, someone who knew actually some one and finding out that's he not forgotten.:tiphat:


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