What are you favorite Christmas carols? I feel there are good remakes out there but we keep hearing the crappy versions all the time. Share your favorites!
There's so much terrible, terrible christmas music. I am, in many ways, a total scrooge, but it comes out the worst in regards to xmas tunes. Here are some I love, however. though the last one does make me a bit Euphoric and have me reaching for my not-actually-a-fedora.
I absolutely love the Vince Guaraldi Trio. It is comfort food for the ears.
I can't bring myself to make fun of those guys. If the atheism circlejerk had been around when I was in my late teens/early 20s I'd have so joined in. I can sort of understand some of the nuttier things that come out of tumblr for the same reason; that never would have been my scene, but they have the same unwillingness to maintain the kind of smirking distance from the things they care about everyone has to on pain of looking ridiculous to everyone else.though the last one does make me a bit Euphoric and have me reaching for my not-actually-a-fedora.
I mean, obviously I sympathize. Hell, I hung around on /r/trueathiesm for a while, until I realized I didn't care about 99% of the posts. It's true what you say about circlejerking and people who are intensely focused on one issue. I'm on Tumblr because there's a huge trans community on tumblr. most of them are the nicest people you'd ever meet, but occasionally one washes up who is trying to tell you that cishets (cisgendered heterosexual people, usually men as far as I can tell) are all, to a person, actively trying to destroy the lives of trans people. Like, okay, so there's some shit, and life's tough as a minority (esp. if you are a non passing trans woman of Colour, where you chance of being murdered is cited usually at around 1 in 8), but the average person gives literally no fucks about trans people, or really anyone but themselves. But then, circlejerks also develop around topics like athiesm, or the murder of trans women, or of black men, or Missing and murdered aboriginal women (in Canada), or Social Justice in general because people don't want to engage with the topic. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, etc, right?. They don't want to now how bad it is, or they don't want to acknowledge culpability, or they don't want their lives to change. Or, in the case of athiesm, some people just don't engage with religion at all and don't care, and are uncomfortable that you care - they have the same reaction to athiests as the do to bible thumpers. All that said, that song can be a bit much - "i'd rather break bread with Dawkins than Desmond Tutu to be honest", for example. There's lots of reasons to have a problem with Desmond Tutu, including his culpability in the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa through denying accessibility / making accessibility difficult to In and out condoms, but he'd still be a super interesting dude to talk to - more so than Dawkins, IMO.
This one is a classic here in Ireland. Because I grew up abroad I didn't hear it until Christmas 2011. Most of my Irish friends are sick of it, but I absolutely love it! Fairytale of New York - The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl It's refreshing, because it's actually quite a sad song. It revolves around an argument between two former lovers about their lost dreams and misspent youth.
I make a point of listening to this several times every year at about this time. Mostly when I am drunk. Absolutely love it. I also make it a point to watch Wayne Wang's movie Smoke which turns into a Xmas movie when the final credits start to roll. With Tom Wait's You're Innocent When You Dream, which is now a Xmas song for me. I can't believe no one has posted Christmas in Hollis yet.*
Smoke is such a great movie - it's one of those that I stumbled upon on Netflix and both me and my boyfriend absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something to watch.
Jingle Bell Jazz! Also, like kleinbl00, I have a bunch of old holiday music. My Oma gifted me her old vinyl and much of it was old German Christmas albums. My favorite is a classical Christmas album all played on hand bells. -awesome. Truly.
This stuff isn't really "Chrsitmas" or carols or anything, but when I hear them I always think about the season. The first is literally referring to Christmas, the second is more just because it refers to the themes of "giving/helping/caring". They are of course, the bosstones, because I literally listen to only one band.