December Daily: Christmas carols

fox - Top five Christmas carols

Advent yesterday, Christmas today.

Of the regular, familiar carols, O Come, All Ye Faithful (Chanticleer) is my favorite. I've told here before the very fond memory of going on a Christmas shopping excursion with my friend and her cousin, and we started singing this in the car, split immediately into harmony, went through all the verses, and then with no discussion went off all together into Latin.

Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes / Angels We Have Heard On High (Bruce Cockburn) -- the dancing version

Brightest and Best / Shepherd's Star (Jean Ritchie, rather tremulously) -- I have so many versions of this, but this is the first recording of it I ever heard, on Thistle & Shamrock sometime in the '80s. I love the gentle scolding about the futility of bringing rich gifts.

Exultation (the Revels) -- Just remember what I said about music that sounds like it was made by a nostril.

The Holly and the Ivy (Kate Rusby)




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