Top Twenty Christmas Tunes

Before I delete them I thought I'd report the top twenty most played Christmas songs on my iPod this year. Despite having a Christmas playlist of 434 songs I tended to listen to the 'easy listening' songs at home on the stereo and the pop songs on the move, so my iPod reflects this. So, in descending order...

Fairytale Of New York - Kirsty MacColl & The Pogues
Merry Xmas Everybody - SLADE
Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) - The Darkness
Stop The Cavalry - Jona Lewie
In Dulci Jubilo - Mike Oldfield
Il Est Ne, Le Divin Enfant - Siouxsie & The Banshees
Sleigh Ride - the Spice Girls
Maybe This Christmas - Leigh Nash
Once In David's Royal City - Sufjan Stevens
Someday At Christmas - The Jackson 5
Listen The Snow Is Falling - John & Yoko
The Christmas Song - Marvin Gaye
We Three Kings - Sufjan Stevens
O Come O Come Emmanuel - Sufjan Stevens
New Year - Sugababes
A Marshmallow World - Brenda Lee
Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris De Burgh
Christmas Alphabet - Cliff Richard
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love

Listening on the iPod is a bit of a pick'n'mix and you don't know what might pop up next when it's on shuffle (which mine virtually always is). That list might be statistically accurate but it doesn't reflect what I think I've heard. Where's the wondrous 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day' by Wizzard? Now, that's a song I've heard with new ears this year, the lovely conceit of 'the Snowman brings the snow' implying that the Snowman brings it rather than it's here and he's then made of it. A small thing, but I've never really heard it that way before. If you see what I mean.

The more sentimental songs are in the 'easy' category, with Bing and Rosemary and Dean and Nat. My new favourite song in that category is 'Christmas Eve In Fairy Land' by Gracie Fields, a lovely little ditty from way back in the mists of time which she sings quite daintily. Another new favourite is 'Earth And Sky' by Nancy LaMott, a calypso-tinged song that drips so much happiness that I can happily forgive having children singing along to the chorus. I've listened to the songs from 'White Christmas' several times, both those from the soundtrack album (with Peggy Lee substituting for Rosemary Clooney because of contractual issues) and Rosemary's solo versions of the songs.

So many Christmas songs and so many memories and thoughts associated with them. I ration myself very carefully. A few days left to enjoy them and then the CDs will be bundled away again and the tracks deleted from iPod, until 1 December 2008. Now that's forward planning.