I can’t help myself. I love Christmas music. I really do. I love the pop stuff, I love the traditional hymns, I love all of it. I especially love that Christmas gives me a whole new repetoire to sing at the top of my lungs, along with Old MacDonald and Twinke Twinkle Little Star and the few Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine songs I know, to keep the boys entertained in the car.
There was an article in this morning’s Ottawa Citizen about holiday music and how it affects consumer behaviour. I remember studying the ‘muzak effect’ in school, where grocery stores tend to play more up-tempo music to keep people moving through the aisles, whereas boutiques ought to play mellow music to subconsciously cue people to slow down and browse. The article said holiday music has a similar effect:
Hypnotized by their holiday favourites, Canadians are apparently better consumers with the aid of Bing Crosby and Co. than they are without. The browsing and buying process is slowed down, people’s moods are calmed, and their feelings about the retail environment are more likely to be positive.
Fresh off the thrill of seeing my last set of questions about music become a bona fide meme, reading this article was all the encouragement I needed to try my hand at a holiday music meme.
Favourite holiday Christmas songs:
Little Drummer Boy – David Bowie and Bing Crosby
Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt or Madonna
Baby It’s Cold Outside – (I don’t remember who’s on my version at home, but Louis and Ella do a nice rendition)
Favourite traditional hymn:
O Holy Night
Favourite Christmas novelty song:
Bob and Doug McKenzie’s 12 Days of Christmas
(Including the priceless lyrics:
On the 7th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
7 packs of smokes,
6 packs of two-four,
5 GOLDEN TOQUES!
4 pounds of backbacon,
3 french toasts,
2 turtlenecks,
and beer in a tree.
whew, this should be just the 2 days of Christmas, this is too hard for us!)
Favourite Pop Christmas Shmaltz:
I still love Band-Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas, mostly because it is evocative of my early teen years and the 80s in general.
Song that, heard once, will rattle around in your head like marbles in a steel tub for days:
Winter Wonderland
Christmas song that makes me feel very scrooge-ish:
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer (really, why do they keep playing that song? What is even remotely amusing about it?)
Okay, so this was a lame meme – but it’s Friday and it’s been a long week of trying to think of new and entertaining ways to thwart Rick Mercer. Pony up – what are the best and worst songs for Christmas? What songs make you linger in a store? What makes you choose the biting wind and minus 20 temperatures outside rather than step into a shop and tolerate it?
My absolute favorite Christmas song is a song by Aaron Neville called ‘Louisiana Christmas Day’. It’s very peppy and down-home!
LDB by Crosby and Bowie is on my all time favourite songs CD…..All time not just Christmas!
Here’s a couple – didn’t do the whole meme because I have to go study, but I also like “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” Another FANTASTIC version of that song is done by Ray Charles & Betty Carter. I also enjoy Christmas CDs like the one done by Harry Connick Jr. Very nice!
Favourite traditional hymn:
Greensleeves
Favourite Christmas novelty song:
Bob and Doug McKenzie’s 12 Days of Christmas – I am totally with you on this one, haha!
“TWELVE!”
“And welcome … to day twelve.”
*sigh* I love that song so much, and I NEVER hear it anymore! Also love the Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping.”
since i participated in your first music meme, i’ve done my bit and answered your questions on my blog 🙂
I think I’ll cha-ching on Carol of the Bells, or anything from Motown Christmas. But I’ll flee the store over that Grandma and the reindeer one 🙂
I hate the one about grandma and the reindeer, too. I also despise Jingle Bell Rock. I think it was used to torture those Branch Davidians who were holed up in Waco. I would have surrendered immediately.
I generally don’t like Xmas stuff; having worked at Macy’s for three years, I think I reached my lifetime quota of holiday hits after my first year there. I’ve recently started listening to it again because my 2 year old loves it. We both like Nat King Cole (?) singing that “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..” song. He is a big Feliz Navidad fan, too (me, not so much). I also really like that Paul McCartney one about “simply having a wonderful Christmastime”–it’s unbelievably campy–but I really like it for some inexplicable reason.
I tried out my first Meme and posted it on my blog. I have to agree with the you on the Bowie/Crosby, it brings tears to my eyes.
Anna
I adore Christmas music too. I dial in some easy listening station whcih has been playing nonstop Christmas music since late November. Then I flip[ between that an an all-holiday music Buffalo station when I am driving.
Best song – All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah (yes, that Mariah)
Worst – Christmas Shoes – seriously maudlin