My husband challenged me to come with the best twelve original Christmas songs released in the past fifty years.* This just MY list — he would change a few of these, for instance. And it doesn’t include any traditional carols or standards. That list would be FAR too long to post! But here ya go: my favorite new Christmas songs.
What songs would make your list?
- You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Neil Diamond. No matter what I am feeling, this song always makes me smile.
- Follow the Shepherd Home by Mindy Smith.
- December Child by Gretchen Peters.
- Wandering Pilgrim by Twila Paris.
- Let It Fall by Over The Rhine (It was a tough choice deciding between this song, My Father’s Body, Mary’s Waltz, or White Horse, all by the same artist.)
- Nothing But a Child by Kathy Mattea. Actually, this entire album belongs on my list.
- Who Comes This Night by James Taylor. (My favorite cover of this song is the one done by Billy McLaughlin’s group Simple Gifts.)
- Celebrate Me Home by Kenny Loggins. I’ve been belting this one for decades when I was far from home for the holidays.
- God Is With Us by Casting Crowns. (I wanted to also add Somewhere in Your Silent Night by Casting Crowns to this list, but since I just discovered it this year, I’m not certain it will have staying power.)
- Straw Against the Chill by Kathy Mattea. This feels like a love letter from the divine to me.
- Love is Christmas by Sara Bareilles. This song literally never fails to move me to tears.
- I Wonder As I Wander by Keri Noble. Yes, I know this is an old carol, but Keri added a whole new section that makes it a much more interesting and complex song, so I’m counting it. Plus, this is my all-time favorite Christmas song, so there’s no way I’m not including it.
*Actually, he asked me to chose the best FIVE original songs, and I failed miserably. I negotiated for another seven. It was still brutal, so I posted the runners up in a separate entry.
December 29, 2018 at 9:32 pm |
I sure did miss your/our Christmas music this year. At Mom & Dad’s, the only Christmas music we had available was some radio or online station that they could stream through their TV. It was all the same old (mostly pop) standards, over and over. Not just the same songs, but the same old classic covers of them. You know, Frank Sinatra, Burl Ives, etc.
It was nice that someone there was able to find an all-music (no commercials or talk), all-Christmas source. But I so longed for the wonderful music that you play for us, and our own playlists with so many outstanding songs, many of which we discovered through you.
I did hear one beautiful and original song on that station, though. It was a classic, too, but apparently a practically unknown and seldom-played one, because it was new to me. I didn’t catch the name of the song, but it was by the Supremes from 1965, so it should be easy to find.
December 29, 2018 at 9:46 pm |
P.S. I agree, it’s an impossible call, but one of my top contenders from Kathy Mattea is Songs of the Morning.
Another top contender for me is Simple Gifts’ cover of Breath of Heaven. With her pure childlike voice, Carn was born to sing that song.