What is your Favourite Christmas Carol?

[avocadoandchill]

I like the three ships one.

Oh Come All Ye Faithful or Hark The Herald Angels Sing.

Both make me rather emotional

See amid the winter snow
in the bleak midwinter
god rest ye merry gentlemen
o come o come Immanuel
i forgot about shepherds in the field abiding

Oh holy night

My favourite is a bit of an obscure one. It's The Charterhouse Carol.

In no particular order

In the bleak midwinter
Canterbury Carol
Oh Holy night
Carol of the bells
Hark the herald

1. Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, when I was a little girl I used to look at the sky from my bedroom window and think the lines,”Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by” referred to the grumbly little mining town in the North East where I grew up. Whenever I hear the carol I am 8 years old again and feeling genuine wonder.
2. Silent Night
3. Adeste Fidelis, my first year at grammar school! Who knew Latin was real? You could sing a familiar tune using those strange words and know what it meant!

Ding Dong Merrily on High - because it’s so jolly.

Once in Royal David's City - as first carol in A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s on Christmas Eve it always marks the beginning of Christmas for me.

I want to play them for my DC. I too have happy memories of hearing them as a child

Silent Night

I always wonder why no one on Desert island Discs ever picks a Christmas song.
I would!!!
If I can have two I'd have White Christmas as well...

Carol of the Bells
O holy night, it’s giving me goosebumps just thinking about it.

and In Dulci Jubilo in any incarnation including Mike Oldfield.

Sorry to be boring and predictable but another vote for In The Bleak Midwinter.
Beautiful words.

The Little Drummer Boy was ruined for me when I learned that Brady and Hindley had it playing on the tape when they tortured and murdered Lesley Ann Downey. I turn it off if it is playing it makes me cry.

The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came
O Holy Night
God Rest ye Merry Gentleman

Same

Coventry Carol is a stunner as is Midwinter, as long as the latter is the Chilcott version.

Do yourselves and listen to Carol of the Bells in Ukrainian (original). It's beautiful.

I agree, Christmas begins at 3pm on the 24th December, on radio 4 :)

Oh Come All Ye Faithful - I love the way it gradually develops in to the most glorious, rousing song with different harmonies. It's magnificent.

The Sussex Carol is my all time favourite but I love so many others:
O, Little Town of Bethlehem
Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
Good Christian Men Rejoice
Christians Awake
Good King Wenceslas
The Zither Carol ….
And many, many more.

It’s when I wrap the presents. That first carol is always so beautiful - kudos to the choristers that always carry it off perfectly every year, that is pressure!

Can't beat Silent Night for me.

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day...obscure but lovely and uplifting. The version from King's College Choir is sublime.

I was about to volunteer the George C. Scott version.

Silent Night

I've narrowed it down to two - O Holy Night and The Wexford Carol.

I have a couple of friends who used to sing in that choir (as men, not boys) and they said that to try to reduce the pressure the boy who does the solo isn’t chosen until seconds before.

in theory it could be any of the trebles, though in practice they all know it’s between about three of them who are the best soloists. The choirmaster points to The One just before the service begins.

Carol of the bells
The holly and the ivy
Oh come oh ye faithful
O Christmas tree
Once in royal David's city
The first noel