

I just love "A Charlie Brown Christmas" after all these years. Nothin' does it for me like that, unless it is Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas." We also enjoy "A Wyndham Hill Christmas." Okay...I confess to loving Alvin and those Chipmunks, too. But please spare me the barking dogs' version of "Jingle Bells." Looking forward to seeing all your little chipmunks at SoWal this Christmas holiday!![]()
I'm lovin' 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' boxed set. It's a 3 CD collector's edition. Love, love, love it! Tons of stuff by Vince Guaraldi. Would make a great gift. I picked it up a Target.
DD and Sueshore. I love The Chipmunk Song. My two sisters and I sing it every Thanksgiving at the Thanksgiving table when we break out the Christmas carols. It's a classic in our family and I get to be Alvin. I also get to be the drum in the drummer boy (another favorite).
But my all time favorite (that I noted on SoWal.com last year) that we also try to sing at Thanksgiving but don't do a very good job at it is "Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle" ("You Come Down From the Stars" attributed to St. Alphonsus -- it is considered to be THE Christmas song of Italy. The opera composer Giuseppe Verdi said "Christmas would not be Christmas without Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle". My grandmother sang it as a duet with my father when I was little. We only have one honest-to-goodness Italian immigrant still alive today in our family who joins us for Thanksgiving (Pina who was married to Tony but Tony died earlier this year, so it will be up to her to get us to sing it along with her this year). It's a VERY sentimental song in our family and we'll start teaching it to the kids this year. I have it on a CD sung by pop rock stars (I can't find it by rock stars on iTunes though), the three tenors (it's on iTunes), choirs, and Italian "bagpipes". I love it.
Tu scendi dalle stelle, (You come down from the stars)
o Re del cielo, (O God of the heavens)
e vieni in una grotta al freddo, al gelo. (You were born in a grotta, in the cold)
Oh Bambino mio divino, (Oh, Divine BAby)
io ti vedo qui a tremar (I see you shivering)
o Dio beato; (Oh, blessed God)
ah quanto ti cost? l’ avermi amato! (How much it cost you to love us!)
A Te che sei del mondo (And you who are of this world)
il Creatore, mancan panni e fuoco, (The Creator...)
o mio Signore (Oh my God)
(I can't understand this last part,but the online translation says it says:
Great God, Thou lovest me! What suff'ring Thou didst bear,That I near Thee might be!)
Caro eletto pargoletto
quanto questa povert?
pi? m'innamora,
giacch? ti fece amor
povero ancora!
This is what the tune without the words sounds like: http://digilander.libero.it/carromano/tuscendi.mid
that. Thanks for sharing, Paula.My own mix--
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer -- Ella Fitzgerald
Santa Baby -- Eartha Kitt & Henri Ren?
Let It Snow -- Diana Krall
Christmas in New Orleans -- Louis Armstrong
O Tannenbaum -- Vince Guaraldi Trio (from Charlie Brown)
The Christmas Song -- Diana Krall
Jingle Bells --Diana Krall
Silent Night -- Stevie Nicks
Christmas Song -- Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -- Diana Krall
The Chanukah Song -- Adam Sandler
Up on the House Top -- Jimmy Buffet
Merry Christmas from the Family -- Robert Earl Keen
O' TannenbaumThese recommendations are great and I'll be on iTunes so to update our Christmas cds. Oh, another one is "The Prayer" by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli. If that doesn't bring beautiful tears to your eyes, nothing will. It's not really a Christmas carol, but it fits the sentiment so we include it in our Christmas mix and look forward to hearing it every year (for about 4 years).
We also celebrate Hanukkah at our house, and all of us enjoy Adam Sandler's Hanukkah songs (hysterical and a bit off-color) though we hated his Hanukkah movie. I love "Rock of Ages" which is on our Hanukkah CD.
Our tradition is to listen to the holiday music for the first time when we get in our car to start our 12 hour drive to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. We all look forward to it.
'zat you? santa claus-Louis Armstrong
Merry Christmas Baby-B.B King
River-Sarah McLachlan
Ave Maria-Pavarotti and I like Celine's version also. think this is more of a wedding song, but I like it at x-mas as well.
Oh Holy Night-Celine Dion
Have yourself a Merry little Christmas-Tori Amos
Peace-Norah Jones
Let it Snow........-Sam Bush
Christmas Vacation-Mavis Staples
Mele Kalikimaka -Bing Crosby
I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas![]()
list aggieb
Whenever I hear this Hippo song I will think of you.(cuz I don't think I've heard it/)
classicI amI'm lovin' 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' boxed set. It's a 3 CD collector's edition. Love, love, love it! Tons of stuff by Vince Guaraldi. Would make a great gift. I picked it up a Target.
in' this thread as you can tell. These are grayt ideas for Christmas Gifts too. Ya'll are so
! Thanks for sharin' your faves.This might be a bit obscure unless you like Celtic music.
My favorite Christmas album is the one that the Irish band The Chieftains did called The Bells of Dublin. They've got Jackson Browne, Marianne Faithful, Elvis Costello, and others singing with them. The album begins and ends with the bells ringing, and I gotta tell ya, I wait until after Thanksgiving until taking it out, play it throughout the holidays, and I just never get tired of it.
As a matter of fact, I just ordered another copy from Amazon because it, like everything else of mine, is still in storage and I did not get to listen to it last year.
My favorite song on the album is the one with Elvis Costello called The St Stephen's Day Murders. It's very wry, very Irish. Here's a tidbit:
For that is the time to eat, drink and be merry
'Til the beer is all spilled and the whiskey is flowed
And the whole family tree you neglected to bury
Are feeding their faces until they explode
I love the Very Special Christmas albums as well. I think I have 3 of those.
I absolutely adore all Christmas music: hymns, pop, country, all of it.

Sorry I should have just gone with a link. If'n you click the picture it will go to the actual clip.
thanks for clearing that up, i looked for the clip last night b/c i didn't see the actual skit on snl.