You Pinspire Me
I’ve always been obsessed with Christmas Music. Before the days of MP3s or even CDs, I’d haul our cassette tape player into my room at night and fall asleep to the sounds of Christmas with the Canadian Brass (and wake up with the whirrrrrring CLUNK as the tape ran out). When I bought my own CD player, one of my favourite albums to listen to was John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together. I’d turn off the lights in my room in the evening, open the curtains so that I could watch the snow falling, and listen to Rowlf sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” on repeat.
Of course, as a family, we pulled out the vinyl & listened to Bony M’s Christmas Album together, and Michael W Smith’s simply titled “Christmas” album (his following Christmas albums pale in comparison to the first!) was played every Sunday morning before we went to church. {side note: musical artists seem to be pretty creative when it comes to naming their Christmas albums…}
Now I’m all growed up and have an amazing little speaker to play my Christmas tunes 0n – the Bose Soundlink Mini. I first encountered this speaker this summer when we cottaged with a group of friends – one of the couples brought their Bose along. My husband immediately fell in love with it and put it on his Christmas list.
When Staples asked if I’d like to give it a try this year when listening to my #SoundsoftheHolidays Christmas playlist, I JUMPED at the chance! It’s small (about the side of two decks of cards end-to-end, stacked three decks high), wireless (it can go for hours on a charge, though the charging cradle is small and inconspicuous) and Bluetooth enabled, so we can play tunes from any of our phones, the lenovo Yoga, the iPad, or the iPod Nano. The sound, though, is incredible. It’s a rich, deep, full, natural sound – it’s got the right mix of everything – music has never sounded so good in our house!! Our van, which is fantastic in most respects, has a terrible sound system, so on our last trip to the Mother In Law’s, we put the fully charged Bose in the centre console & everyone was happy!
It’s perfect for streaming content like Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe Christmas Concerts (every Saturday morning on Radio 2 at 9am and every Sunday afternoon on Radio 1 at noon from now until Christmas!), Christmas Channels of online radio stations, or playlists that you’ve created from music in your own collection!
How do you listen to Christmas music? Do you build your own playlists? Haul out the CD player & your favourite albums?
Here are some of the must-have albums in my Christmas Playlist.
Barenaked Ladies: Barenaked for the Holidays
The best track by far on the album is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen with Sarah McLachlan. Ah-mazing.
Glee (The Music): Christmas Album Vol 1
But I’ll be honest, all of the Christmas albums are great. I never even watched Glee, but I dig a well done Christmas album!!
She & Him: A Very She & Him Christmas
While I adore Zooey Deschanel, I first encountered She & Him on Pandora (back when we could still access that beautiful service in Canada…). I learned last year that they have a Christmas album and it quickly made it to the top of my Christmas Music Stack.
Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas
This is the perfect album for an afternoon of Christmas baking. Crank up the volume & do a little dance.
Josh Groban: Noel
A mix of sacred & secular Christmas songs sung by one of the sexiest voices out there. Yes, please!
Bing Crosby: White Christmas
Bing Crosby is my Guy when it comes to Christmas. Besides the fact that he’s in my two favourite Christmas movies (White Christmas & Holiday Inn), he taught me how to say Merry Christmas in Hawaiian when I was in elementary school. He doesn’t just DO the classics – he IS the classics.
Frank Sinatra: Christmas Collection
We love playing this swinging album when we host a Christmas gathering – no one sings the songs quite like Frank!
Micheal W Smith: Christmas
It’s oldschool, but SO GOOD. It just captures the BIGness of the events of Christmas. No Eye Has Seen (Emmanuel) is one of my hands-down faves from this album.
Libera: The Christmas Album
Libera is a British Boys Choir, one of my favourites. They sound like angels – their pure voices soar so smoothly & crisply. When you need a break from Christmas Pop, add this one to your playlist. Also makes a great gift for Grandparents & Mothers-in-Law!
The Choir and Orchestra of The Sixteen – Handel’s Messiah
There are more than 800 recordings of the Messiah out there but the recording by The Sixteen is my favourite, most likely because it’s the one that my University choir director had us listen to & practice with.
Runner-up Albums and Singles that I love
Hawksley Workman: Almost a Full Moon My favourites on this album are First Snow of the Year and 3 Generations.
Bony M: Christmas Album I mentioned that this was part of my childhood – there’s just no way that you can’t sing along to Mary’s Boy Child!
The Piano Guys: A Family Christmas A great instrumental album with some really creative arrangements. Their O Come, O Come Emmanuel is one of my favourites – a little haunting!
Over the Rhine: Snow Angels I was recently introduced to this album and it’s quickly making its way up the ranks.
Michael Buble: Christmas Love his stuff, but just get a little over-Buble’d, sometimes.
Sarah McLachlan: Wintersong The title track is my absolute favourite on this album. I may pretend that I’m Sarah when I’m singing….
Leonard Cohen: Show Me the Place Not a typical Christmas song – perfect for a more quiet, introspective evening. An honest look at what the beginning of ‘baby’ Jesus’ life meant. “Show me the place where The Word became a man, show me the place where the suffering began.”
Straight No Chaser: The 12 Days of Christmas I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched this one on youtube.
Meagan Smith: It Snowed I think that Stuart McLean first introduced me to this song, and I sing it every single time we get a huge dumping of snow.
Bruce Evans & sung by Meryn Cadell: The Cat Carol Such a ridiculous song that makes me cry EVERY SINGLE TIME THAT I LISTEN TO IT. Seriously. Click the link, listen to it on YouTube, just tell me if you can make it though the song without bawling!
Not Christmas Music, but we ALWAYS listen to the Vinyl Cafe Christmas stories in December. If you’ve never heard them before, start with Dave Cooks the Turkey and move on to Polly Anderson’s Christmas Party. I’m chuckling to myself just thinking about them.
Now it’s YOUR turn!! I want to hear which songs or albums that are at the TOP of your lists! When do you turn on the Christmas music? Do you want to fight me for any of the albums or songs that you think have NO place up on my best Christmas Albums list?
Disclaimer: I received a Bose Soundlink Mini from Staples in exchange for a post about Christmas music. They did not request any particular content or links, other than that I was to spread the Christmas cheer with the hashtag #SoundsoftheHolidays!
Jenn vanOosten
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I still love the NKOTB and nsync Christmas albums. 😉 But my other favourites are the John Denver & Muppets A Christmas Together and A Charlie Brown Christmas.