*now playing in the grooveshark playlist*

Here they are.  Most of these songs have been sung thousands of times and recorded by hundreds of artists.  But these are the best of the best, occasionally accompanied by my own personal recollections.  For good measure, there’s a Top 5 Christmas albums and movies list, too.  Enjoy.

Merry Christmas, 2009 – Travis Atria

Top 10 Christmas Songs of All Time

1. O Holy Night – Nat King Cole

Composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847.  Legend has it that on December 24, 1906, Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor, broadcasted himself playing “O Holy Night” on the violin.  There’s a good chance that it is the first song ever played on radio.  Cole’s version, however, is the best . . . haunting and unspeakably beautiful.

I remember being a kid in Christmas Eve mass, listening to a church organ the size of a two-story building and a female soloist playing/singing this song and feeling like time had stopped.  Every time they got to the chorus of “Fall on your knees,” my dad would say “Ouch!” in mock pain.  Little kids like that stuff.

2. The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole

Damn straight he gets the top two slots.  This one was written in 1944 by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells.  If you have the audacity to write a song called “The Christmas Song,” it had better live up to the name.  Somehow, this one does.  The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song early in 1946.  As usual, no one sings it like Nat King Cole.  The man could fart into a microphone and it would sound like the voice of God.

We’d listen to Cole’s Christmas album every year as we decorated the house.  I think this is why he is my favorite singer.  His voice makes me unbearably happy and sad at the same time.

3. Christmastime is Here – Vince Guaraldi Trio

One of the greatest songs from one of the greatest Christmas albums ever made.  Check out the interview with Jerry Granelli to hear more about it from the horse’s mouth, as it were.  I have watched “A Charlie Brown Christmas” every year for my entire life and listen to this album pretty much nonstop every December.  There’s just something about the warmth of the recording and the warmth of the animation in the cartoon that makes the whole thing magical.

4. Winter Wonderland – Johnny Mathis

Written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and Richard Smith.  Mathis, with an orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle, does it like no one else.  This is another album we’d listen to while decorating the house as little kids, so I associate it with my happiest childhood memories.  The orchestration is phenomenal.  And, it doesn’t hurt that the moment this song comes on, with the strings and bells, I am six years old again, hoping for a Gameboy.

5. Jingle Bells – Frank Sinatra

From his 1957 Christmas album.  No one makes Christmas swing like ol’ Blue Eyes.  He has the ability to make Christmas music romantic in a way that few others have ever captured.  Another great track off of this album is the offbeat “Mistletoe and Holly.”  It isn’t exactly a standard, but Sinatra sings it like it is one.  Same goes for “The Christmas Waltz.”  Good thing he took some time off from chasing dames and broads to make this album.

6. It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas – Bing Crosby

This song was released on his Merry Christmas album in 1945, which is the best-selling Christmas album in history.  Something about Bing Crosby just sounds so old-timey in all the right ways.  A lot of people would pick “Mele Kalikimaka” as the best Crosby Christmas song, but it is on this one that he really shines with the help of the Andrews Sisters.  For some reason, the line “Take a look in the five-and-ten” makes me happy.  It’s just so goddamned quaint.

7. Happy Xmas (War is Over) / Wonderful Christmas Time – John Lennon / Paul McCartney

It’s not often that Lennon and McCartney wrote songs on the same subject, but when they did (“Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane,” for example), you could really get a clear view into the differences between them as songwriters.  Nowhere is that more evident than in their Christmas songs.

Lennon’s 1971 offering is, at heart, an anti-war song.  It is somber and serious and was created to go along with an ad campaign he and Yoko Ono started in 1969, where they rented billboards in eleven cities around the world that read, “War Is Over (If You Want It) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko.”  Interestingly, the song’s melody is eerily similar to an old folk song about a horse called “Stewball” (look it up).

McCartney’s song, released in 1979, is upbeat, happy and a little schmaltzy but in that good McCartney way.  The B-side to “Wonderful Christmas Time” was called “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae,” for the record.  Oh, Paul.

8. Santa Claus is Back in Town – Elvis Presley

From his 1957 Christmas album.  A lot of people prefer his version of “Blue Christmas,” but this song has got to be one of Elvis’ greatest vocal performances.  It is raw, dirty, sexual, and the song is pure rock ‘n’ roll.  You don’t get that often from Christmas music.  Interestingly, the album caused some controversy when “White Christmas” writer, Irving Berlin, demanded that radio stations not play Elvis’ version of “White Christmas.”  He thought it was a “profane parody” of his holiday classic.

9. Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Jackson 5

From their 1970 Christmas album.  The Jackson 5 had a knack for taking songs that weren’t supposed to be funky and making them so funky that your eyes water.  They did the same thing with “Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah.”  It’s easy to forget how phenomenal Michael Jackson’s voice was during this period.  The kid was twelve years old, for crying out loud.  This song just barely beat out another Motown classic, the Temptations’ version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” for inclusion on the list.  Give that one honorable mention.

10. Merry Christmas, Baby – Otis Redding

Written by Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore, this song has been covered by just about everyone.  But, no one did it better than Redding.  Where most versions are slow and bluesy, Redding’s has that steam-train driving beat and raw power of his Stax days.  I hadn’t heard this version of the song until two years ago.  When I did hear it, I cursed the creators of every lousy Christmas compilation CD I’ve ever bought.  I mean, come on, you’re going to put “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” on every compilation, but not this one?  I felt cheated.  I’m putting it on the list so that you don’t have to feel cheated too.

Quick Hits:
Top 5 Christmas Albums

1. Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song

2. Johnny Mathis – Merry Christmas

3. The Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas

4. Frank Sinatra – A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra

5. Bing Crosby – Merry Christmas

Top 5 Christmas movies

1. A Charlie Brown Christmas

2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

3. Pee-Wee’s Christmas Special

4. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

5. The Muppets’ Christmas Carol