My Favourite Christmas Songs

White Christmas | The Drifters 

This song is in The Santa Clause, and is, in my opinion, the best version of this song. I just love the doo doo doos at the beginning. 

Carol of the Bells | John Williams

Again, I first heard this in the film The Santa Clause (i.e. the best Christmas film), and I love it so much. One day I will record myself singing all the parts and be a one woman choir.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) | Michael Buble
It's no secret that I love Mr Buble (at uni me and my friends had a Michael Buble Fajita Party where we made fajitas and listened to every MB song ever. It was perfect, and we need to do it again ASAP!), and, where it's hard to choose my favourite Christmas song of his, I went with this one because I think it's the best ever version of this song. 

All I Want For Christmas Is You | Mariah Carey 

Most Christmas pop songs, in my opinion, don't stand the test of time, and really shouldn't be played year in year out. However, All I Want For Christmas Is You manages to always feel fresh. I don't know if it's just me, and my love of 90s R'n'B, (and the fact that this song is in Love Actually,) but this song feels like it will always be good. 

The Christmas Song | Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole has one of the best voices of all time, one that I could listen to for days. It's incredibly sad and unfair to know that he had to deal with continual, often violent, racism throughout his career, and I would like to say that he'd be better off in today's world, but with Ferguson bringing race to the forefront of many peoples' minds (at last), I'm not sure he would. 

Angel's Carol | John Rutter

I've been in choirs all my life, unfortunately not in the past few years, but I  loved it, and I love choral music. This is one of my all time favourites. John Rutter is my main man. 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year | Andy Williams

Andy Williams is fantastic, and this song is perfect. It's festive without being cheesy, and cheerful without being silly. 

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas | Judy Garland

Judy Garland is perfection. She was beautiful, and had the most gorgeous speaking voice to go along with her incredibly emotive singing voice. I love her, and, as happens so often, she passed well before her time. I find it hard to listen to this (and the Sinatra) version without getting incredibly emotional. 

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas | Luther Vandross

You may think it's gratuitous to have the same song on this playlist twice, but to be honest with you, these two versions are so different they may as well be different songs. Judy's version is raw and emotive, and where Luther's version also invokes emotion in the listener, I find that it's a lot more hopeful. (The point that gets me in this song every single time is the line 'through the years we all will be together'.)

Every year this season reminds me how much I love music from the 40s and 50s, and how fantastic music is full stop. I can't, and wont, imagine a life without music. On a different note, seeing as I'm working pretty much full time at the moment, I'm going to reduce my posts to twice a week. Hopefully this wont be forever, but I just feel like at the moment I'm seeing quantity as more important that quality, and it most certainly isn't.