# Does anyone else dislike holiday music?



## BillT (Nov 3, 2013)

Here in the States, holiday music (including Christmas carol and other well-known gems) are played endlessly not only in stores and public places but also on the radio of classical music stations, including our local public radio station and on the classical station on satellite radio (Sirius XM). 

Even when played and sung by classical stars, I hate the stuff. I am sick of it, not from last year, but from so many years past (I hate to say how many). The stuff bores me silly.

Does anyone else feel the same way, or are you enjoying it, at least when it's played or sung well, in a "classical" fashion?

Merry Christmas to you (if you do that), or Happy Holidays in any case. Or if you are in a country which does not celebrate Christmas, I wish you peace. 

Thanks,

Bill


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## Kibbles Croquettes (Dec 2, 2014)

The generic popular christmas carol stuff is indeed nerve-wracking. I try to avoid it as much as possible.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I generally like it. It's less about the songs than the memories which accompany them. 

Except by December 25th, I tend to strongly dislike it. Next December 1st, I'll be back in the holiday spirit.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I know what you mean. I like the tunes and the words, mostly. It's the treatment that makes the difference. 
I like singing carols, and I like listening to them when they're sung by good singers who are 'ordinary people'. But I don't like the syrupy commercial *Mary's-Boy-Child* stuff in supermarkets, the piped *Jingle Bells* on Rotary Club Sleighs, (with a Father Christmas ho-ho-ho-ing in the background, it drives me *mad* ) and even the careful diction and dulcet tones of Cambridge King's College Choir singing folk carols sometimes get to me. Professional minstrels singing glees can set my teeth on edge. I like a bit of naturalness - carols with tousled hair.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I like the Christmas music. What I don't like is hearing my first Jingle Bells in July accompanied by all the "pre-Christmas" store sales.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I never get sick of Xmas music. I love it all.

Yes even that Taylor Swift Christmas song I really like.

I just prefer classical and jazz Xmas music like Christmas Oratorio by Bach.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Three strikes and you are out!


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

I enjoy holiday music, especially by singers I really respect such as Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Elvis.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't get sick of the old carols once a year. I heard something by the Solid Brass Quintet, and I thought it was great. I don't have to be exposed to too much, as I don't go shopping, and I work on my own and can listen to what I want to.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

How can anyone hate holiday music?

For devout haters of holiday music, you might want to try the CD entitled "John Rutter Music for Christmas".

It contains beautiful choral arrangements of traditional as well as some obscure carols I've never heard before.

Beautifully done by the choral group Polyphony and the City of London Sinfonia under Steven Layton.

Really puts one in the mood!!


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## Jeff W (Jan 20, 2014)

hpowders said:


> How can anyone hate holiday music?


Have you ever worked retail?


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## composira (Sep 17, 2014)

I'm fond of carols like First Noel but I'm sick of Jingle Bells and Winter Wonderland (they're always on the radio). They're overplayed.


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## Kibbles Croquettes (Dec 2, 2014)

Jeff W said:


> Have you ever worked retail?


Your avatar quite neatly sums up my reaction to hearing _Last christmas_ or _Jingle bells_.

(For future reference: his avatar was a picture of Fry from Futurama tearing his hair out)


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

I don't like it; I don't hate it...:tiphat:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Jeff W said:


> Have you ever worked retail?


No, but I catch your drift. It could get wearisome.

Smile! Smile! Another potential asshol..er....customer!!


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

For the most part, the religious themed carols seem to be higher quality than the non-religious. I enjoy great renditions of great songs, such as "Oh, Holy Night" or "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". I also enjoy classics, such as the Judy Garland performing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", from _Meet Me in St. Louis_. If the quality is high, once a year is a welcomed treat. What I truly dislike are certain movies, ranging from bad (_The Polar Express_) to downright unwatchable (_How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)_).


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## rspader (May 14, 2014)

I do like Christmas music but only want to hear each song ONCE! It's the repetition that gets to me -- very quickly.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Bad arrangements*

My problem with Christmas music is that most of the arrangements are so BAD!!!!!!

A great composer/arranger can turn the most mundane Christmas tune into magic.

Check out the following Morton Gould Christmas CD: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?ordertag=Comprecom4642-146879&album_id=146880

It has the most fantastic arrangement of "Jingle Bells". I have performed it several times and it is pure (pardon for being redundant) magic.


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## Dave Whitmore (Oct 3, 2014)

I love Christmas music. We own several Christmas cds. But this year I've only listened to a Christmas cd once. I'm too busy listening to classical! I do enjoy listening to holiday music in the car though, or in a store. I want to find a good Christmas cd with songs sung by opera singers. I never got the chance to buy one for this Christmas. Maybe next year.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I do not dislike Christmas music, but sometimes I would listen to Christmas music in summer and to something absolutely non-Christmassy during the season. This CD puts me in a festive mood regardless of the season and the presence or absense of snow and Christmas tree:


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

arpeggio said:


> My problem with Christmas music is that most of the arrangements are so BAD!!!!!!
> 
> A great composer/arranger can turn the most mundane Christmas tune into magic.
> 
> ...


I found a You Tube of it. At one point Gould is making fun of elevator music. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:


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## spokanedaniel (Dec 23, 2014)

I am an atheist who LOVES the sacred christmas carols (as well as the sacred music of the baroque and old-time gospel) but I HATE with a fiery passion all the secular Christmas music. And of course, it's the secular garbage that floods the grocery stores and other places of business for the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If I was Emperor, I'd move Thanksgiving to December 18, so that the season of songs about Rudolph and Frosty would be shortened to a week.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Like Arpeggio, my problem is more with arrangements than with the songs themselves. It says something when the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is only about average on the seasonal tackiness scale.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Meh. I like some of the secular stuff, but for the most part I prefer the hymns and the religious music, even if some of them are overused. "Angels We Have Heard on High" is one of my favorites.

Also, I do love Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Sleigh Ride".


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Although Jewish, I have no problem with holiday music. Let it rip!!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

arpeggio said:


> I found a You Tube of it. At one point Gould is making fun of elevator music. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:


Wheeeeee! Does this remind anyone else of Sibelius's "Lemminkainen's Homecoming"? I guess he's coming home for Christmas.

I was just going to post something about the two dreary Christmas CD's I've had in my collection and just got around to listening to this morning: Peter Schreier singing Christmas songs of Cornelius, Reger and others with piano accompaniment (dull, dull, dull) and some 20th-century choral stuff with Christophers and the 16, some of it pleasant but Peter Maxwell Davies's _O Magnum Mysterium_ a clumsy, ugly piece of music and an insult to the holidays. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Morton Gould has cheered me up.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

For our gallery, I prepared a USB stick with about 100 Christmas songs I like (all pop/rock/jazz). Some traditionals, sometimes in widely different versions (e.g. Cocteau Twins - Frosty The Snowman), some more recent (e.g. Sarah McLachlan - River), some bizarre (Jingle Bells in mandarin), some unknown but worthwhile (e.g. My Favourite Tragedy - Christmas Lights).


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I neither like nor dislike it  It has its place: church, Christmas and seasonal events and gatherings, stores at Christmastide, etc.

What I don't like is having to listen to it at home  I have no Christmas albums. I buy music I can listen to year round and that I enjoy for the music. Christmas music goes so far beyond programmatic that it is not possible to listen to without evoking the program. I don't listen to much vocal music anyway: would Christmas carols without lyrics still be Christmas carols? Say, Alfred Schnittke's Stille Nacht?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Bulldog said:


> Although Jewish, I have no problem with holiday music. Let it rip!!


Me too. I'm just glad Scarlett Johansson is part Jewish. We have something else in common now, besides the usual Mahler Symphonies, Wagner Ring and Schoenberg Piano Concerto, we would normally talk about.


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## OlivierM (Jul 31, 2014)

I would have said no, as it is more an Anglo-American tradition. But last week, while doing christmas shopping at the mall, there was (a _première_) xmas music all over the place. So my definitive answer is yes.
It's very depressing to hear such an amount of cheesiness over the span of an hour, so I pity the clerks who have to endure this for week(s) straight.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Yes, in your face, mr music programmer. And with extreme prejudice.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Where to start? I avoid using the word 'hate' in virtually any context. So let's just say I find most seasonal music depressing to my musical ears, and of course the religious subject matter doesn't appeal. Chief culprits are the pop songs that are played constantly on the radio and in public places and the churchy carols. I'm perfectly fine with Bach of course, or perhaps this:

I'm pretty much the grinch personified when it comes to the so-called festive season.

This Tim Minchin song reflects some of my thoughts, particularly this year with some family illnesses.


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## FLighT (Mar 7, 2013)

Like? Dislike? During the Christmas season I enjoy it but not 24/7, and not before Thanksgiving and not to celebrate Beethoven's birthday. Also depends on the music and how it's performed. The Rutter album mentioned earlier I heard for the first time this season and it really captured my ear. My favorite carol is the Coventry Carole performed by a male a cappella chorus: it's haunting, magical and not in step with the typical upbeat intent of most of the seasons music. Performed in the manner of a rap music video with female shepherds twerking in the chorus line? I don't think so.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

The Andy Williams Christmas album is probably the best "classic" item out there. I always like to see what variations in arrangements pop up, as well as which artists..."Ring Christmas Bells" always gets a new treatment, even morphing into a Hooter's ad: "Eat chicken wings, buy Hooter's things..." Jazz albums...rock...


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

hpowders said:


> I like the Christmas music. What I don't like is hearing my first Jingle Bells in July accompanied by all the "pre-Christmas" store sales.


Today, Dec 26th, the tent where they were selling Xmas trees the day before, is now set up for selling fireworks for the 4th of July.

I tend to think it's all about 'marketing', drumming seasonal songs into our heads which in turn creates sales for the merchants.

I don't 'shop' much anyway, so it's nothing that really impacts me - in the car I can either listen or turn it off, or bring along my own selections of CD's to play. What I do miss are the Christmas Carols in church - we have but only two weeks of Christmas in our church (the previous weeks being in Advent, the latter being Epiphany) and that is not enough time, for me, to enjoy those religious carols.

Kh ♫


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Holy Cimoli! I just realized that I didn't hear any strains from The Little Drummer Boy this year.


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## papsrus (Oct 7, 2014)

I used to find Christmas music tiring, but not the point where I disliked it. 

This Christmas I found myself really enjoying choral music, especially. My local classical station broadcast some performances by a local choral group with discussion of the pieces by self-described choral nerds, etc. I quite enjoyed that broadcast.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Luckily it is quite avoidable here, in particularly if one concentrates one´s Christmas shopping into a few, hurried raids, focusing on one´s targets rather than the present music. 
But I do feel inspired to hear a bit more Baroque music than usual, though .


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> I know what you mean. I like the tunes and the words, mostly. It's the treatment that makes the difference.
> I like singing carols, and I like listening to them when they're sung by good singers who are 'ordinary people'..... I like a bit of naturalness - carols with tousled hair.


This is what I mean - an American and not very traditional rendition of an English wassail song, but it's lovely because it's fresh and natural. :cheers: Wassail, TC-ers!


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

I like Leroy Anderson's _Sleigh Ride_, Jule Styne's _The Christmas Waltz_, and Mel Torme's _The Christmas Song_. That's about it; I can't stand the other popular stuff.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

of course one of my all time fav Xmas songs from the olden days:


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

I wonder if the reason why this festive-themed secular easy listening stuff is so grating is just because it's become so over familiar. If only the shopping malls would diversify their pre-Christmas playlists a little, it wouldn't be nearly so bad. Here's one in the Mel Tormé style which I'd never heard before:






I know Earl Okin a little and he's a great guy. In addition to his musical and comedic accomplishments he is a real authority on early operatic recordings. His podcast devoted to that subject is here:

http://earlokin.blogspot.co.uk


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I don't like holidays in general, really.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

QuietGuy said:


> I like Leroy Anderson's _Sleigh Ride_, Jule Styne's _The Christmas Waltz_, and Mel Torme's _The Christmas Song_. That's about it; I can't stand the other popular stuff.


Yeah Sleigh Ride is terrific. A perfect mood piece.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

It's December 26th evening and I'm still loving the holiday music.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

On the musical plane alone, I detest most of the American professional song-writer christmas songs, most written post 1900.

I'm O.K. with the older folk / traditional songs and carols, most of which come from England, a smattering of the European old songs and carols are known or played / aired in the U.S.

Whether it is _Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,_ or _Jingle Bells,_ etc. these are commercial pop christmas songs which actually make me cringe. Both _The Little Drummer Boy,_ and in another sphere, Adolphe Adam's _O Holy Night_ I find downright loathsome (and I find anything sung by Frank Sinatra loathsome)... at any time of year.

Many of the older songs, at least in the states, are presented in massively over-arranged versions which manage to turn them, too, into Corn Syrup of the thickest and runniest variety.

I generally resent most music piped-in to the stores, coffee shops, etc. -- even if it is classical, it is like the worst kind of classical FM station which plays only the hits, and the more popular chestnuts, and single movements from those.

For the most part, then, it is all -- as usually found presented -- anathema to me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

PetrB said:


> On the musical plane alone, I detest most of the American professional song-writer christmas songs, most written post 1900.
> 
> I'm O.K. with the older folk / traditional songs and carols, most of which come from England, a smattering of the European old songs and carols are known or played / aired in the U.S.
> 
> ...




_SCROOGE!_

Well, all right, I agree with every single thing you've said - except for the part about Adolphe Adam. It's an aria, really, and most singers should leave it alone. In fact, having heard this:






I think no one ever needs to sing it again.

Happy New Year, Ebenezer.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> _SCROOGE!_
> 
> Well, all right, I agree with every single thing you've said - except for the part about Adolphe Adam. It's an aria, really, and most singers should leave it alone. In fact, having heard this:
> 
> ...


Sorry, it is not so much a seasonal thing as a matter of taste. No matter how well sung, done 'straight,' I find the Adam the most rancid sort of runny cheese. Reminding you this has nothing to do with 'seasonal music' but my general music aesthetic -- about which anyone not me could also readily cry an analogous, _*"Scrooge!"*_


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

PetrB said:


> Sorry, it is not so much a seasonal thing as a matter of taste. No matter how well sung, done 'straight,' I find the Adam the most rancid sort of runny cheese. Reminding you this has nothing to do with 'seasonal music' but my general music aesthetic -- about which anyone not me could also readily cry an analogous, _*"Scrooge!"*_


I understand. To each his own lump of coal. :tiphat:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> I understand. To each his own lump of coal. :tiphat:


Burning that lump of coal will go much farther toward heating my place vs. burning one copy of that Adolphe Adam horror ;-) :tiphat:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

December 27th, 2014. Still loving the holiday music! Incomparable stuff!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Nope - Christmas is over for me. Back to auld claithes and parritch!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Did you say something? I had "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" with Frank Sinatra with the volume turned up on the old Victrola.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Ingélou said:


> Nope - Christmas is over for me. Back to auld claithes and parritch!


Here it's not even started. The "big day" in Belarus is New Year (and this year I get to meet it aboard a Lufthansa flight to Munich), and the Russian Orthodox church celebrates Christmas on January 7th: they go to any length in order to separate themselves from the rest of the world.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

It's the old calendar, isn't it? Appalachian versions of The Cherry Tree Carol preserve that tradition too. 
Whenever I hear examples of the orthodox liturgy, it always sounds wonderful.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Ingélou said:


> It's the old calendar, isn't it? Appalachian versions of The Cherry Tree Carol preserve that tradition too.
> Whenever I hear examples of the orthodox liturgy, it always sounds wonderful.


I have this lovely CD of a Romanian Orthodox Christmas oratorio by Paul Constantinescu, which I'd quite forgotten about until I saw your post. It's one of those records which, like SiegendesLicht said about her own listening in another thread, I quite like to spin even when it isn't Christmas. I suppose that, not knowing anything about Romanian culture, let alone liturgy, it doesn't automatically suggest Christmas to me in the way that, say, Bing Crosby would. (Yes, I'm a heathen )

It's very nicely sung by the soloists, especially the tenor Valentin Teodorian.


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## Dave Whitmore (Oct 3, 2014)

As much as I like Christmas music, I didn't really listen to it much this year. I didn't want to let it get in the way of my classical enjoyment!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Dave Whitmore said:


> I love Christmas music. We own several Christmas cds. But this year I've only listened to a Christmas cd once. I'm too busy listening to classical! I do enjoy listening to holiday music in the car though, or in a store. I want to find a good Christmas cd with songs sung by opera singers. I never got the chance to buy one for this Christmas. Maybe next year.


I love it too. It's some of the most inspired music ever written, and I'm not referring specifically to the religious music, but also the wonderful pop music written for the holidays, such as The Christmas Song with Nat King Cole, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas with either Judy Garland or Frank Sinatra, etc; so beautiful; so moving. Makes me feel good whenever I hear it.

Twelve days of Christmas? Yes!!!


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

My problems with Christmas music are as follows:
1. The wretched quality of the majority of the performances. It seems to me that every performer of any note has a contractual obligation to do a Christmas album. They either hire a songwriter to come up with the next "great" song like "Little Drummer Boy", which is usually forgotten by the end of Christmas, or they do some soulful and entirely inappropriate version of one of the traditional carols. Either way, it stinks.
2. Christmas music plays none stop from November 1 to January 1. Even the classical station here is in on it. 
3. It is endlessly repetitious. How many versions of "We Three Kings" can one stand and how many does the world really need? Unlike an actual masterwork, there are not that many valid interpretations of a song like that.
4. The music and the jollity are forced on one no matter where or when.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Ukko said:


> Holy Cimoli! I just realized that I didn't hear any strains from The Little Drummer Boy this year.


We had that <gasp> song here ad-nauseum on the radio here ... pum pum pum, puddly pum ... gawdawful. I have an organ piece of the same title that I enjoy playing though ...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

arpeggio said:


> I found a You Tube of it. At one point Gould is making fun of elevator music. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:


He should know better. He had his share of ups and downs.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

> For devout haters of holiday music, you might want to try the CD entitled "John Rutter Music for Christmas"....


It would not be possible for me to dislike 'classical music' more than anything to which the name John Rutter is attached. I find his output to be nothing more than pap which should be strictly reserved for lifts (elevators).


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

techniquest said:


> It would not be possible for me to dislike 'classical music' more than anything to which the name John Rutter is attached. I find his output to be nothing more than pap which should be strictly reserved for lifts (elevators).


---------------------------
Amen.


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## Guest (Dec 31, 2014)

The ubiquity of _any _music can become tiresome; why would that played in the high street be an exception?

Having said that, I welcome it as one of the signs of the festive season, and also that the season isn't actually that long.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

> The ubiquity of any music can become tiresome; why would that played in the high street be an exception?
> 
> Having said that, I welcome it as one of the signs of the festive season, and also that *the season isn't actually that long. *


It's far too long - much longer than it needs to be. Round here the Christmas music and shop decorations were evident before British Summer Time ended!
I quite like festive music however, and have a small but eclectic yuletide CD collection ranging from medieval through classical to modern trance/electronic (including some twaddle, but _no_ John Rutter), which I listen to mostly in the car. However it is a personal rule that this music is never played until 1st December and even then, within a couple of weeks I'm fed up with it.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

I generally can't stand Christmas music. I know it makes me seem like a Scrooge, but it's true. There's only so many times one can hear Silent Night.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Only on the Holidays.


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## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

Sometime holiday music can be depressing.


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