Why is so much of the Christmas music we hear so lame?

[SamAdams76]

I have been listening to and collecting Christmas music for over 30 years now. During this time, I have collected well over 3,000 songs. I consider practically every song in my collection to be of high quality and in the spirit of the Christmas season.

My point is that there is a huge library out there of excellent Christmas music. My question is, why is so much of what we hear on the radio, at the shopping malls, and even in the movies, so horribly lame?

Already there are many radio stations (including two on Sirius satellite radio) playing Christas music around the clock through December 25th. Yet despite having weeks and weeks to play all the Christmas music that is out there, they insist upon playing over and over the same couple hundred or so Christmas songs.

Even that wouldn't be so intolerable if they at least played the couple hundred of the BEST Christmas song. But instead, we are hearing a couple hundred of the very WORST Christmas songs.

I had a long drive today and was caught without my iPod so I was forced to listen to what Christmas music was on the radio. It was basically a steady diet of horribly uninspired singers (i.e. Michael Buble, Barry Manilow, Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, Josh Groban, Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Madonna, etc.) playing endless variations the most inspid, Christmas songs out there (Sleigh Ride, Silver Bells, Happy Xmas, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Do They Know It's Christmas?, Let It Snow, etc.).

By the time I got home, I wanted to turn the calendar forward to Dec 26 and get this season over with! Fortunately, I was able to delve into my vast collection of REAL Christmas music and get back into the spirit again.

I even picked up a few new Christmas albums that came out for the first time this year that you will likely NEVER hear on the radio. One of them was "Christmas In The Heart" by Bob Dylan that has been made fun of by virtually every record critic out there. But despite what the "too-cool-for-school" critics have to say (the same people I might add who think President Obama is a swell idea), this is a breathtaking Christmas album by one of the greatest singer/songwriters of our time.

Now before I go on, allow me to get the inevitable "Bob Dylan gargles with razor blades and smokes five cartons of Camels a day" comment out of the way. Yes, it is true, Bob Dylan does not have a "smooth and polished" studio-friendly voice like Whitney Houston or Neil Diamond but so what? Bob's gritty takes on such Christmas classics as "Do You Hear What I Hear," "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" and even the playful "Must Be Santa" are all heartfelt, genuine and these renditions absolutely blow the pop stars of today out of the water. You can guarantee that Bob Dylan's astonishing Christmas album will become a part of my permanent Christmas collection for many years to come, even though you are unlikely to hear so much as one track on the radio.

I would like to list some of the 3,000+ tracks in my Christmas collection here but I have no idea where to even start. So in no effort to start with the best, I will hit shuffle on my iPod and post the first 25 songs that come up. This should give you an indication as to just how vast and diverse my Christmas collection is. I encourage fellow fans of Christmas music to post some of their collection so that I can compare and maybe find some new tracks to add to mine, as I'm certainly not finding any new music on the radio!

Here are the first 25 Christmas songs that came up on my iPod in shuffle mode:

Aimee Mann - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Gabriel's Message - Sting
Lo How A Rose E'er Blooming - Mannheim Steamroller
When Southern Bells Ring - The Judybats
Tennessee Christmas - Amy Grant
Come On Christmas - Dwight Yoakam
Donna & Blitzen - Badly Drawn Boy
Terra Firma - Delirium
Light Of The Stable - Emmylou Harris
Joy Is Within Reach - Adrienne Pierce
Winter's Night - Nox Arcana
Pearly Dew Drops Drops - Cocteau Twins
O Come All Ye Faithful - Bing Crosby
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day - Jars Of Clay
Lachrimae Antiquae - London Symphony (w/Chip Davis)
Winter's Carol - Tori Amos
Make It Home - Juliana Hatfield
Christmas In The Jungle - Derrik Roberts
Winter Wonderland - Reverend Horton Heat
I Believe In Father Christmas - Greg Lake
The Christmas Song - Angel
December Will Be Magic Again - Kate Bush
O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Crash Test Dummies
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland
Good King Wencelaus - Melanie

And about 3,218 more gems that you will probably never hear on the radio or in your shopping mall, which is a real tragedy....

[Cheryllynn]

I want to know why they only play 20 songs over and over and over and over?

[MamaB]

I listen to bostonpete.com online and love the cowboy Christmas music. One of my new favorite songs is Corn, Water, and Wood.

[VR-21]

I’ve always liked Jethro Tull’s Christmas Album. I also think Baroque brass music is great during Christmas.

[SkyDancer]

(sarc) Sorry but don’t you mean “Holiday Music”? ... (/sarc)

[LongElegantLegs]

The Holly and the Ivy, by the Cambridge Singers is one of my favorites.

[fatnotlazy]

That’s what I don’t like — even Christmas music on radio has been sanitized, at least sround where I live. Give me the hyms that reflect the true meaning of Christmas.

O Holy Night gives me goose bumps.

[SamAdams76]

I have the Jethro Tull Christmas album too...great stuff. Also love the Baroque era music and in the earlier Mannheim Streamroller days, they did Baroque/Renaissance era Christmas music quite well. Unfortunately, Mannheim Steamrollers has gone to the dogs with their recent releases.

Each of my replies to this thread will include 10 additional songs from my collection (from Shuffle on my iPod)...

Coventry Carol - Loreena McKennitt
Carol of the Bells - John Fahey
Hard Candy Christmas - Dolly Parton
In The Bleak Midwinter - Liz Story
Come On Christmas - Cheap Trick
My Christmas Card To You - Partridge Family
White Christmas - Chris Isaak
Red Ribbon Foxes - A Fine Frenzy
Amazing Grace - Ani Difranco
Preset Dem Konig! (Praise The King) - Amy Grant

[hinckley buzzard]

I had a long drive today and was caught without my iPod so I was forced to listen to what Christmas music was on the radio. It was basically a steady diet of horribly uninspired singers (i.e. Michael Buble, Barry Manilow, Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, Josh Groban, Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Madonna, etc.) playing endless variations the most inspid, Christmas songs out there (Sleigh Ride, Silver Bells, Happy Xmas, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Do They Know It's Christmas?, Let It Snow, etc.).

Music arranged as background music to appeal to the sloppy sentimentalities of lounge lizards and drunks in bars, who want to pretend that Christmas means something to them.

The collators of playlists use it to keep the listening inoffensive to the atheists out there.

[mountainlion]

The liberals have censured the music through political correctness.

[paulycy]

Unqualified best Christmas album of all time, best arrangements, best singing, best everything. All acapella.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I’ve been looking for the song “Christmas in America” by Pat Benetar, and can’t find it. It was played regularly on the radio leading up to Christmas in 2001. She and her husband wrote the song in the aftermath of 9/11 as a tribute to America and the Christmas season. I thought it was a beautiful song, but apparently it was not meant to become a Christmas standard.

I know what you mean about playing the same Christmas songs over and over. It could well be that the radio stations playlists are about 200 songs and that’s it.

[Viking2002]

Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Period. Just ordered two tickets for their Birmingham show on Jan. 2nd. The wife and I went last year, and were blown away by the incredible musicianship and the sheer pro-Christmas-and-Christian bombast and spectacle, so it's now a holiday tradition at the Viking Lodge.

[SkyDancer]

I just read where Best Buy has quit telling people Merry Christmas and is saying Happy Holidays but is saying Happy Eid Al-something-or-other to Muslims ... and forget about Happy Hanukkah ....

[ICCtheWay]

What you describe is actually very simple in explanation ... the music is secularized as much as possible... I listened to XM today and what I heard was just jazzy versions of well known tune...

The secularist who run the entertainment industry wants nothing to do with real Christmas music and will ‘genericize’ until is become non religious - not recognizable.

I noticed this last year too...

BTW — do you have Kim Pencil’s Christmas Album -— a Dallas area artist - great mostly solo piano - with at least one original Christmas composition. It is my favorite in my little collection.

[browniexyz]

Our local radio station plays a canned program of less than 100 songs, as you say, the worst ones!!! And plays the canned program over and over and over starting around Halloween. The popular culture intends to dilute the holy meaning of Christmas with this crassness.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Christmas in America is available on the DVD:

$14.97 at Amazon

[teletech]

For those of you that have XM/Sirius radio, check out their lineup of Christmas Music here.

I like listening to Holiday Pops on Ch.77 starting Dec. 7, 2009 through Christmas.

[TruthHound]

Bing, Frank, Nat. All others are wannabes.

[VR-21]

I remember "that crazy beer ad with the insanely decorated Christmas house whose lights were synced to TSO's "Wizards in Winter," but I didn't know who the band was. I might have to look into this...thanks for the tip.