Favorite Novelty Christmas Songs

[dhermann1]

Over on another thread dear Lizzie Maine made a comment to the effect that she gets a little sick at the thought of Novelty Christmas Songs. Being the BAD BAD BOY that I am, I couldn't resist starting a thread on the subject.
So, what are some of our favorites? I'll kick it off with (of course!), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. But there are SO many others. Think about Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, and the Chipmunks Christmas Song.
What other favorites are out there?

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

I just don't understand how you couldn't be put in a better mood by Christmas music. Except for maybe those re-recordings that come out every year.

 

[Gingerella72]

I love "The Twelve Pains of Christmas" because it's just so, so true, lol.



[video=youtube;SHpMZPYWDm0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHpMZPYWDm0[/video]

 

[Gingerella72]

I just don't understand how you couldn't be put in a better mood by Christmas music. Except for maybe those re-recordings that come out every year.

My husband works at a grocery store where the loop of Christmas music doesn't have much variety so he hears the same songs over and over and over....he jokes he's going to write a short story about a homicidal maniac whose trigger to start shooting is Christmas music, lol. Plus, an ex of mine worked at a Christmas-themed amusement park in Colorado when he was in high school and that experience turned him off of Christmas music (and Christmas itself) forever. So I understand how some people can tire of it quickly.

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

I worked in a grocery store that did that two years in a row from November 1st to January 12th. I was more bothered by the lazy employees and management :lol:

That store went out of business about a year later so no more Christmas music for them.

More on the subject...The original versions of the classics are all good me thinks.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I was a kid we had my mother's copy of the original 78rpm release of the Singing Dogs singing "Jingle Bells," complete with picture sleeve. I was alternately fascinated and horrified by this, imagining what they had to do to the dogs to get them to sing thus. It wasn't till I got older that I realized I'd been duped by studio technique.

Someday, someone's going to write a thesis on why novelty Christmas songs became so common in the postwar era -- there were very few such recordings before the war, and those that did exist were conventional dance-band tunes with a holiday theme, like "Santa Claus is Coming To Town" or "Christmas Night In Harlem." There was none of the bizarre stuff that came along postwar, and it would be interesting to know why. Yet another horror we can lay at the feet of Mad-Men-type marketers targeting overindulged Boomer children, perhaps?

 

[bil_maxx]

A classic that gets nowhere near enough playtime is "New Kids Got Run Over By A Reindeer".

 

[Miss sofia]

Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby. I'm still waiting for my Sable though.

 

[hatophile]

When I was a kid we had my mother's copy of the original 78rpm release of the Singing Dogs singing "Jingle Bells," complete with picture sleeve. I was alternately fascinated and horrified by this, imagining what they had to do to the dogs to get them to sing thus. It wasn't till I got older that I realized I'd been duped by studio technique.

Note:

No animals were harmed in the making of this recording.

 

[Angus Forbes]

"Zat You, Santa Claus?" by Louis Armstrong -- absolutely great!

 

[hatophile]

[video=youtube;nzXKWKaxt3c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzXKWKaxt3c[/video]

 

[scotrace]

"Zat You, Santa Claus?" by Louis Armstrong -- absolutely great!

Agreed! It's my favorite!

 

[Miss Golightly]

I love so many cheesy Christmas songs it's hard to know where to begin - but I think The Waitresses "Christmas Wrapping" is superb! But I also love:

Elton John - Step into Christmas
Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody
Jona Lewie - Stop the Cavalry (my brother plays his 7" vinyl of this every year)
Chris Rea - Driving Home for Christmas
Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone

All classic Christmas tunes I'll be spinning with some Mulled Wine come Christmas Eve!!!!!!

I also love some of the old favourites - Nat King Cole with the Christmas Song, Judy Garland "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and Brenda Lee "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - all fabulous Christmas tunes to get you in the festive mood!

 

[Zombie_61]

I just don't understand how you couldn't be put in a better mood by Christmas music.

Actually, it's pretty easy to be put in a worse mood if you dislike Christmas and most of the traditional music that comes with it. That said, one of my favorite "novelty" Christmas songs is "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" by the late, great Thurl Ravenscroft.

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

Yes, there's always going to be someone who is contrary to something. Doesn't mean it makes sense or it's anything more than cynicism and self righteousness. I went thru a thing where I didn't like the holidays because of bad memories, but you get over yourself and find new good holiday times.
The Grinch track is a good one. Bing Crosby was the pinnacle Christmas performer that comes to mind when holiday songs are mentioned.

 

[Stanley Doble]

The reason there are so many crappy Christmas songs is that the record industry got wise to the fact that they could turn out anything, anything at all and it would get air play every year at this time. It's like writing yourself an annuity. It doesn't have to be good.

The other reason for the low quality is that the writers and singers are not Christians and Christmas means nothing to them. So you get a lot of "so this is Christmas, so what" kind of stuff. They just don't care and have nothing to say but they knock something out for the royalties.

You just can't compare anything written in the last 70 years to "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" or even"Walking in a Winter Wonderland" or "White Christmas" which are not particularly religious.

 

[scottyrocks]

My favorite 'alternative' Christmas song is the 'Chipmunk Christmas Song'. One year I had some of my kids do it for the holiday show, dialogue and all.

Not a Christmas song, but another number I had my kids do for the same show was 'Light of the World' from Godspell. It just seemed to fit.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You just can't compare anything written in the last 70 years to "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" or even"Walking in a Winter Wonderland" or "White Christmas" which are not particularly religious.

"Winter Wonderland" isn't even a Christmas song -- it was a conventional dance band number with a winter theme, first recorded in 1934, with no Christmas association whatever. I've never understood why it's tagged with the Christmas label -- nobody considers "It's Winter Again," a very similar song of a couple years earlier, to be a Christmas song.

 

[Mrs Chaddsley_Corbett]

[video=youtube;erDDQMiaKeo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erDDQMiaKeo[/video]

It never happened but if only

[video=youtube;dmwVVGFRrBc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmwVVGFRrBc&feature=related[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Aussie Jingle Bells
dedicated to Jamespowers (don'tcha wish we were there right now?), HadleyH, Shangas and Lolly

[video=youtube;Iv3m8HIorP8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv3m8HIorP8&feature=related[/video]

Dashing through the bush
In a rusty Holden Ute
Kicking up the dust
Esky in the boot
Kelpie by my side
Singing Christmas songs
It's summertime
And I am in my singlet, shorts and thongs

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summer's day
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Christmas time is beaut
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute