Friday, December 21, 2007

Advent Calendar - December 21, 2007

Christmas Music

What songs did your family listen to during Christmas? Did you ever go caroling? Did you have a favorite song?

Here is a brief summary of contributions from fellow bloggers and links to their individual posts:

In Christmas Music at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors, Miriam finds it difficult to pick a favorite Christmas carol although she is partial to White Christmas.

Diane at CanadaGenealogy, or 'Jane's Your Aunt' presents Christmas Music. She no longer lives in a snowy part of Canada (yes - they do exist!) but her favorite carols paint a snowy image of Christmas.

Jasia at Creative Gene in Christmas Music Through the Years offers us a wide range of Christmas music inspired memories. There's Polish koledy, her daughter's violin concerts, her best friend's perfect voice, and Silver Bells over loudspeakers in Dearborn.

Over at A light that shines again, Lisa brings us On French Hens, a Partridge and God Himself. She offers an interesting break-down of the gifts in The Twelve Days of Christmas and their symbolism.

In Day 4 - Christmas Music at Genea-Musings, Randy recalls singing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve as his grandmother tucked him into bed. Now his tastes lean more towards song parodies - with links to some great video clips of different versions of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

At Searching for Family Branches, jewelgirl remembers her mother teaching her the German words to Stille Nacht. There's much more in her post The Sweet Sounds of Christmas including a special version of O Christmas Tree.

Chery presents Musical Musings from Christmases Past posted at Nordic Blue. In poetic form she honors various memorable Christmas songs - I'm trying to figure out which tune it should be sung to!

In Christmas Music at The Oracle of OMcHodoy, Colleen recalls her favorite Christmas carols. But The Little Drummer Boy had a special magic to it, even in July.

Lisa presents Sing of Christmas! posted at Small-leaved Shamrock. She lists The Wexford Carol which possibly dates to the 12th century and is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

Lori presents Christmas Music posted at Smoky Mountain Family Historian. She lists her favorite Christmas songs, both religious and secular, and there are some great and unusual albums listed! (See, I still say albums, not CDs!)

At kinexxions, Becky gives us Christmas Music where she has fond memories of her family singing Christmas carols - in tune or not.

Apple presents Apple's Tree: My Christmas Music List posted at Apple's Tree. All her favorites are listed, complete with links to music videos for each.

In Can't forget Killarney... posted at Small-leaved Shamrock, Lisa remembers Bobby Vinton's version of this beloved Christmas song.

Do you remember Andy Williams and Mitch Miller Christmas albums? Bill does as he presents West in New England: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year posted at West in New England.

Some of the "novelty" Christmas songs that many of us grew up with are posted at Steve's Genealogy Blog in A Child's Favorite Christmas Songs. Steve lists All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth and The Chipmunk Song as favorites.

Janet presents C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S, C is for . . . posted at Janet the researcher. She went down to the basement and dug out some neat 78 rpm records including titles I've never heard of like The Village of Christmas Pie. Sounds like my kind of place.

In December 21 - Christmas Music, Terry at Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi has vivid memories of many different types of Christmas music. He also recalls his mother calling White Christmas "that new Christmas song."

Lisa asks: Can you pronounce: "Svim na Zemlji mir veselje"? as she presents Heavenly music and "little stars" posted at 100 Years in America. No worries - just try "Peace and Joy to all" and enjoy the beautiful rendition of this classic Croatian Christmas favorite.

Finally, a Christmas album that I absolutely despised has become an old comforting friend again in Please Don't Play That Christmas Album Again! at Destination: Austin Family.

Check back tomorrow for more submissions on the next topic: Christmas Grab Bag (basically come up with your own topic!)

2 comments:

Lori Thornton said...

We all know what you mean when you say album. A lot of mine are on cassette instead of on CD. I have cassette and CD on some of my favorites that I've been able to find the CD for. I don't have any Christmas 8-tracks. [grin]

Thomas MacEntee said...

Well, I don't have 8 tracks (or reel-to-reel lol!) but I made the transition last year to digital.

I reviewed my 800+ CD collection and determined which ones I wanted copied to MP3 format or WMA format.

Then if I only wanted one or two tracks on certain out-of-print CDs, I'd see if I could find the tracks on iTunes or Rhapsody and sell the CD on ebay for a killing.

So, out of 11,000 songs on my external hard drive, we have 1300 Christmas songs. You can never have too many versions of "Baby, It's Cold Outside."