Atlas Insider
Atlas Insider: That Stocking
Seeing the New Ancestral Christmas Stocking Kit resurface this week really takes me back.
It reminds me that Kay and I have been at this knitting thing for a while now. We met online in 2002, twenty years ago. (The italics of astonishment.) What started as a pen pal correspondence has led to many adventures and schemes and unlikely things happening.
In the case of that New Ancestral Christmas Stocking, I recall knitting one in a 24-hour time period because we were scheduled to photograph it in Grundy County, Tennessee, on a June day where we were supposed to fake up a holiday scene. Our fearless photographer Gale Zucker and her assistant Hannah built a roaring fire in a fireplace that was not really all that great, and the resulting conflagration drew the attention of neighbors who thought the house was on fire.
Gale got the shot, of course.
The thin arm of my son David is captured forever, reaching up to snag the pile of candy we bought at the Grundy County CVS.
A Giveaway!
This week’s giveaway will set you up for generations of glory: we’re giving away the New Ancestral Christmas Stocking PDF pattern to ten fantastically lucky knitters. Yes, TEN!
How to enter?
Two steps:
Step 1: Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Snippets, right here. If you’re already subscribed, you’re set.
Step 2: If this post has got you humming a holiday tune, #sorrynotsorry. What is your favorite holiday song? Let us know in the comments.
Deadline for entries: Sunday, August 21, 11:59 PM Central time. We’ll draw ten—count ’em TEN!—random winners from the entries. Winners will be notified by email.
And Finally . . .
Our New Ancestral Christmas Stocking is based on the Christmas stocking my Great-aunt Elizabeth knitted for me. That pattern is available here, for free, if you’re feeling like a 1945 stocking is your thing. This one is knitted flat, not in the round, with intarsia, so it’s just a whole different deal.
The Christmas Waltz!
Ohhhh… good one.
There’s an old version by jazz singer Nancy Wilson that I just adore.
I love Jingle Bells! Old and simple …
I love Christmas novelty songs and my favorite is Santa’s Coming in a Whirly Bird by Gene Autry.
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” — the Barenaked Ladies and Sarah MacLachlan version!
Ok, hear me out – my favorite Christmas song is technically “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” but very specifically the version played by the Hershey’s Kiss handbell choir on my favorite Christmas commercial. It’s the best.
For decades Santa arrived by parachute in our town. Just last year they decided to have helicopter landings from now on instead. Story I heard was that the original parachuting Santa had been a paratrooper in WWII and wanted an excuse to jump again
I still love singing “Jingle Bells” as I wrap Christmas presents and in second place who doesn’t love Johnny Mathis singing Chestnuts Roasting By an Open
We are dual religion family so I am going to root for Adam Sandler’s Chanukkah Song!
My favorite I think is o’ come, o’ come Emmanuel
A really old one “Silver Bells”. And live the hymn “In the Bleak Mid- Winter”
Aunt Elizabeth was a blessing!
Favorite Christmas song: O Holy Night. Love. It. Everytime.
Couldn’t agree more. Love Oh Holy Night
Me too! O Holy Night. Very moving.
Ditto!! Brings me to tears every time <3
I love to hear junior school children singing an enthusiastic, but not particularly note perfect, rendition of Ding Dong Merrily On High
Let it Snow!!
I ❤️ White Christmas! The song and the movie❣️
I love André Bocelli and Mary J Blige singing what Child is this? I put it on repeat! Love this sweet stocking!
Silent Night!
Silent Night
Anything off the James Taylor Christmas album.
I have that one and totally agree with you!
It is so hard to choose —Silent Night
Carol of the Bells (or bell?). I just love listening to it!
Rockin Around the Christmas Tree and Have yourself a merry little Christmas; these two songs give a Christmas boost when I’m working away on projects for either customers or my own family.
Joy to the World. My wish is that each and everyone of us remembers to spread joy every day.
Having worked in retail I kind of hate all Christmas songs, so can I pick a poem instead? If so then it’s ‘the night before Christmas’.
Fav. song……I’ve a couple, but Winters Night is a fav for not just Christmas but all winter long.
I have always loved Nat King Cole’s “A Christmas Song” but my heart really pumps when Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” comes on the radio.
Drummer Boy
Hat King Cole’s “I’m the Happiest Christmas Tree”
Let it snow!
I’ll Be Home For Christmas!!
Mariah Carey’ “ All I Want for Christmas is You”
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. And while living in Florida it is a dream.
Silent Night
My favorite Christmas songs are Little Drimmer Boy and I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.
Joy to the World
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
favorite holiday song, no hesitation w/ that answer “Little Drummer Boy”
My favorite is “O Holy Night”
White Christmas
Me too! All of these and more – the one I’m currently listening to is always my favorite.
Favorite Christmas song that’s a tough one.
I’m gonna go with I’m Dreaming of s White Christmas, because I love the snow. It’s so pretty and so peaceful.
River by Joni Mitchell, the loveliest of melancholy holiday songs!
Santa Baby sung by Eartha Kitt
That’s the best version in my humble opinion
I second that, both my favorite sone and my favorite version.
I start listening to Christmas music in September as I finish up my canning. From Thanksgiving to The first of January it’s every day. Then I start to taper off and by February I’m ready to put it away until next September. But I might or might not be caught listening to Christmas music on any given day between February and September if the mood strikes me. Favorite – too many to list. But I love ACapella Christmas music. So songs by Straight No Chaser and Pentatonix are always at the top of my list.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is my favorite.
A nonsensical song I heard in Spain for Christmas which goes “Pero mira como beben los peces en el río….” (Oh, behold, how fish do drink in the river “. EXTREMELY catchy, let me tell you). Check the YouTube link if you don’t believe me: https://youtu.be/yfpBMrJZt1Q.
Gene Autry’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Little Drummer Boy – I remember my younger brother singing it in a Christmas program one year way back when!
There are so many Christmas and holiday songs I love, but “I Wonder As I Wander” comes to mind today. I’m always struck by the “poor ornery people” line.
Since I work in a school I change my ringtone to Michael Buble’s rendition of Let it Snow as soon as there is a possibility of a snow day!!!!!
Carol of the Bells
Noel. Love the stockings! Can we ever have enough! So fun to knit. My first one kept on growing (stretching) and every year hangs down about three feet. Later ones have gotten better.
Do You Hear What I Hear?
I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas
A hard choice! But I will go with “The Christmas Song”. . . and now I’m ready to break into song . . .Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire. . .
What Child is This?
Silent Night!!! The whole world should just stop and sing for a while!
Joni Mitchell’s River
My favorite holiday song is the David Bowie/Bing Crosby duet of the Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth. Maybe it’s time for new stockings on our mantle this year!
Baby it’s Cold Outside
Frosty the Snowman
Normally I read the comments before I answer but I put in my answer because I wanted to go with the first thing that came to my mind. But I do love a lot of the other choices to
Silent Night!
My grandchildren love the song and sloths them to sleep!
Sleigh Ride!
The Holly and the Ivy!
I’ll Be Home for Christmas. —really churns up sweet memories for me
O Holy Night. My daughter sings it for me. Love it. I still have and use my hand knit Christmas stocking that is at least 62 years old. Need to make them for my grandchildren now!
“It’s beginning a lot to look like Christmas!”
I’m dreaming of a White Christmas will always be my favorite.
You come from a long line of great knitters!
Gotta be “White Christmas”.
Oh wow, that takes me back!! I had that book, but I didn’t knit the sock because I wasn’t skilled enough back then- although I think I could do it these days! And I actually took a photography class with Gale back in 2006 or 2007 or so. I didnt even have a proper camera back then, but she taught a lot of great principles and techniques that I still use today.
As for holiday music? Gotta go with Mariah. I just have to.
I love “white Christmas”
Good King Wenceslas!
O Holy Night came to mind immediately. I am a lapsed Catholic with a spiritual core who always believed more in Christ and the Holy Family than the rules and people of the church. I looked up the lyrics and found this wonderful verse which I don’t remember singing as a child,
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
And in his name all oppression shall cease,
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we;
Then I looked at youtube versions to see if I just didn’t remember properly. Seems that the verse is not included in many of the pop artist renditions of the song but I did find one… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofQNawqhho
Love and peace to all,
Barbara
There are a lot of us recovering Catholics. Thanks for the You Tube link.
Thank you, Barbara!
Oh Holy Night is my favorite also but your answer with the inclusion of that beautiful verse is better than anything I would have written.
Amen to that Barbara
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Merry Christmas Darling by the Carpenters
My favorite Christmas song is Ave Maria
Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas is my favorite album . Not sure I can choose a favorite song from it! My 94 year old mother has knit Christmas stockings for well over 50 extended family members. I’ve now inherited the task of adding the names in duplicate stitch.
Love that album, and his voice, too!
Thanks, Aunt Elizabeth. Recently I declared it Xmas in July and blasted my favorite: Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”.
Silent night
Hard to choose one, but I have always loved the peace I feel listening to Silent Night.
Favorite song? The Lowly Beasts. I love all versions, but the one by Peter, Paul and Mary is my favorite. Have I told my age here?
Anything off the first A Very Special Christmas album (yes, album.) Love them all!!
Noel.
White Christmas
White Christmas, partly because I fear that we may never have any again. (
Baby it’s cold outside but by the group she and him they flip the premise where the girl is singing baby it’s cold outside part!
Dreaming of a White Christmas
Angels We Have Heard on High. Gloooooooooria!!
In the Bleak Midwinter – especially the line ‘what shall I give him? I will give my heart”
I also love The Little Drummer boy – I think the best version is by Bing Crosby and David Bowie
So hard to choose…but I think River by Joni Mitchell tops my list. (Also have always enjoyed the complexity of Carol of the Bells!)
Santa Baby, hands down. But that Christmas album by John Denver and the Muppets has seen me through many a blue holiday.
My favorite goes back to when I was in high school and our choir would present a Christmas program marching in to the auditorium singing “Good Christian Men Rejoice”. We had a large school and it took them a long time to process so over and over again that beautiful song filled the air.
Silver bells is the best holiday song! I’m also a huge fan of “baby it’s cold outside,” which was written more as a feminist anthem, although not seen as that as much in the past few years.
“Do you hear what I hear?”
Not my favorite, but for the past couple of days I’ve been humming Jingle Bells Santa smells Easter’s on the way, oh what fun it is to ride in Gramma’s Chevrolet! HEY!!
Oh Holy Night
Just one favorite?!? Joy to the World…a timeless message and a hopeful melody!
“Do You Hear What I Hear,” or really any Christmas song performed by Pink Martini on the “Joy to the World” album.
Every Christmas I have to listen to Joan Baez’s album, Noel. I can’t pick one song, I love the album from start to finish. I also love any Christmas Carol sung by the Vienna Boys Choir.
Any that Andy Williams sang would be my favorites!
My favorite holiday tune is “I’ll be home for Christmas.”
Do you hear what I hear?
My favorite winter song – I sing at Christmas – is My Favorite Things from the Sound of Music.
Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano. This was the 1st song I heard in Spanish on an English radio station ! Been my fav ever since!
Oh, so many favorite Christmas songs! Perhaps “Twelve Days of Christmas”…
It’s a tie between “Christmas Everywhere” and “Feliz Navidad”.
The Huron Christmas Carol
I have a love/hate relationship with Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.
The Holly and the Ivy
O Holy Night is my favorite
Bing Crosby’s. White Christmas
O Holy Night , the Nat King Cole version. The choir sounds like angels to me.
All i want for Christmas is you
I love all Christmas music but for easy listening I love Chris Botti’s Christmas album. I also love “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” sung by Nat King Cole.
Gosh, sooo hard to choose. But I might go with “Snow Angel” by Over The Rhine” and any Christmas song ever by The Trapp Family Singers. “Bring Your Torches Jeanette, Isabella” by them comes immediately to mind.
So hard to choose, perhaps Silent Night … or Santa Baby!
Joy to the World
The Christmas song by Nat King Cole!❤️
Memmmmmmmoriessssss! What’s a photo shoot without concerned neighbors gathering outside and a smoked full cottage??!!
“Mary, Did You Know”, by Natalie Cole and The London Symphony Orchestra. Gives me goosebumps!
My favorite song is It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.
Love Christmas stockings. My mom made us all one when we were kids, still have mine.
Sleigh Ride is a classic that I love to hear at Christmas time.
White Christmas
The spiritual “ Sweet little Jesus boy”.
Silent night sung to candle light at the end of the Christmas Eve service in my childhood church.
White Christmas
Glittery by Kacey Musgraves
Favorite Christmas song is by Casting Crowns and it’s called “While You Were Sleeping “. Not your traditional one but it’s my favorite.
“Sleigh Ride” always gets me in the spirit, but if you hear a lady singing “Last Christmas” out loud, and out of tune in the grocery store, it’s me. I just can’t help myself!
It’s in Every One of Us from the John Denver and the Muppets Christmas album
Favorite? When? Depends on my mood! Silly: Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer. Nostalgic: I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Frisky: Santa Baby (Eartha Kitt, of course!)
My favorite is “Song for a Winter’s Night” by Gordon Lightfoot. When my community choir used to sing it, I got chills.
For Unto Us A Child Is Born from Handel’s Messiash
I Wanna Hippopotamus For Christmas—isn’t that everyone’s?
O Holy Night
Anything from Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon…a classic!
White Winter Hymnal – I am not sure what the lyrics mean, but the song itself is so lovely to my ears.
O Holy Night
Little Drummer Boy
What a great question! Good News, an 18th century French carol that’s one of the viola pieces I’m slowly learning to play. The French, German and Belgian favourites my in-laws love to sing. To Drive the Cold Winter Away, Lorena McKennit singing.
Jingle Bells
The ENTIRE red Andy Williams Christmas album! (Dating myself – CD)
Oh! Holy Night, always.
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” in a hot summer way, red geraniums and white hydrangeas and luscious green foliage all around.
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” but only the Johnny Cash version. It’s a very hopeful song. Johnny really makes you FEEL it.
“Grandma Got Run over By a Reindeer” when I feel silly about holiday rituals….
Sleigh Ride – wonderful memories of high school band learning it with our fantastic band director. Lots of laughs and good times.
Andrea Bocelli singing God Bless Us, Every One
Favorite Little Drummer Boy.
The Christmas Song with Nat King Cole
All of them except for Alabama singing Christmas in Dixie. I have to leave the room if that comes on.
Silent night. Cute story, my grandson asks me to sing this to him at bedtime.
Hallelujah chorus
Last Christmas by Wham!
Joy to the World
Sooooooooo many favorite Christmas songs!!!! My favorite all time, never to be topped has to be Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song” (pause for swoon). Several vie for second spot…. Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt , My Favorite Things by The Carpenters, and Silent Night by literally anyone with awesome vocal chords! How on earth am I going to fit this KAL into the knitting schedule????
The Holly and the Ivy
Drummer Boy
O Holy Night is my true favorite. I love remembering my dad singing a few bars. The French version is heavenly.
I don’t have a favourite – I love them all. Sometimes I play them in the summer.
Deck the Halls!
I look forward to hearing Good King Wenceslas every holiday season.
I’ve always had a thing for Silver Bells!
Carol of the Bells
Aaron Neville’s O holy Night
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – all-time favorite, followed by the Hallelujah Chorus.
Silent Night, although it’s really tough to choose!
HARK THE HERSLD ANGELS SING
I’ve been struggling with the heel. Maybe there is a solution in this book!
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, if I’m forced to only pick one!
Silent Night ❤️
Let it Snow, Let it Snow
It is totally irreverent but Bob Rivers’ I am Santa Claus album – a favorite in weird Austin where I used to live.
Little Drummer Boy
Silent Night
Winter Wonderland
My favorites are the songs that bring tears to my eyes.
1. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
2. I’ll Be Home for Christmas
3. Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle
Frank, Bing, and Pavarotti
“What Child Is This”, because I love the minor key of the original “Greensleeves” melody. For me it captures the mystery of the season.
Love the Charlie Brown Christmas Album…something about hearing those young voices brings back so many memories of Christmases when our 4 boys were young.
O Holy Night sung by someone other than me !
We Three Kings
Nothing says Christmas to me like “Jingle Bell Rock”.
I think the only reason I loved going to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve was for the music. (I’d use the standing room only crowd as an excuse to stand at the back of the church since the incense was overwhelming and a migraine trigger and sardine can crowds make me sweaty and claustrophobic.) I’m a heathen but I love traditional Christmas carols, especially at the military base churches when Army brass band ensembles would be up on the altar or in the choir loft playing. That said, my favorite Christmas carols have always been Silent Night (in German or English) and What Child is This? with only a single acoustic guitar accompaniment. (PS- I have the book so I already have the stocking pattern. May download Aunt Elizabeth’s pattern just for fun. The intarsia motifs would look cute on a hat, mitten or kid’s ugly Christmas sweater.)
My favorite is Mary did you know.
O Holy Night! Love the Celine Dion version.
Little Drummer Boy because it was my Dad’s favorite
My favorite Christmas song is Mary did you know
I love most Christmas music…but it really doesn’t feel like Christmas until I’ve listened to Bruce Springsteen’s version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
“Lo, how a rose e’er blooming”
All I Want for Christmas is You!
My favorite holiday song for as long as I can remember is I’ll be home for Christmas.
My husband worked on off-shore rigs and I would be humming this song to myself or singing it to the children way before it was Christmas.
“I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.”
Of course, I live in Arizona, so it’s not possible for us!
O Holy Night
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow… not sure if that is the name of the song… lol.
Favourite Christmas song is O Holy Night
I love so many Christmas songs, it’s hard to pick just one. Nat King Cole “The Christmas Song” is one of my top favorites.
White Christmas!
I grew up singing in choirs, so I can pick no favorites; I love singing them all. Words-wise, though, there’s “Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John” emphasizing the importance of commas.
To sing? Oh, Holy Night. To hear? Mary, did you know?
My favorite is “The Holly and the Ivy.”
I’d love a copy of the pattern. I have several people who need more than the dollar store stockings with glitter glue names. We lost a bunch of stuff in moves over the years (and exes who threw things out), so this would be a lovely way to make new stockings for my family.
Up on the Housetop!
Mele Kalikimaka!
I always like “Christmas Candles” especially in barbershop harmony.
In spite of being a not-at-all-religious sort of person, my favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night. It’s so beautiful, both music and lyrics – I get chills.
As a proud Canadian and lover of The Band, I tell everyone they must listen to Christmas Must Be Tonight by The Band.
Good King Wenceslas!
Silent night, my husband hums it when he puts the baby to sleep
The Holly and the Ivy or the Coventry Carol are my favorites— I like a lot of the late medieval/Renaissance carols. Possibly because they are never played in stores, so I haven’t had to listed to them hundreds of times on repeat every December (I work retail).
Let it Snow reminds me that winter time is the time to be able to enjoy all the cozy home knits!
Have to go with Mariah Carey, All I Want For Christmas! There are too many good choices but this one combines the love of the season with loved ones. Love the idea of a knitted Christmas stocking. So far I’ve only done them in needlepoint.
There are just too many good carols or songs to choose from, but What Child is This? is my top choice.
For Unto Us a Child is Born, from the oratorio “Messiah”
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
My new favorite is Last Christmas by George Michael. It’s been in my head all week as I’m knitting a mitten advent garland for my folks. Can’t explain it really.
My real, real fave is the Ella and Lois Christmas album. My hubby queues it for me first thing every Christmas morning.
White christmas
Grandma got run over by a reindeer!
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire).
I play in a community band and I love to play the “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” medley. It goes from “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and “Cindy Lou Who” to the race across the sky to “Domu Doray”; all the emotions and excitement in a few minutes.
Little Drummer Boy and Carol of the Bells
Boys to Men– “Let It Snow”
I’ll be home for Christmas
My favorite Christmas song is White Christmas. BTW – I am currently working on a Fair Isle Christmas stocking.
Anything and everything on the album The Gathering, a collaboration of Lauralynn Dossett, Rhiannon Giddens, Mike Compton, and Joe Newberry.
Oh Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel. But I have a lot of friends that would enjoy this handmade stocking, especially their grandchildren!
Santa baby!
I ❤️ Silver Bells and a host of other “ancestral” tunes!!
Oh my word, feeling all kinds of nostalgia these days as we go through my mom’s lovingly curated collection of treasures after her recent passing. Haven’t even come to her Christmas collectibles yet. It was her favorite holiday. For favorite songs, it’s a toss up between O Holy Night (reminds me of my father; it was his favorite) and the Bowie/Crosby duet version of Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy. I remember how astonished our entire household was when it aired. It felt like a cosmic collision of generations, and we were all agog at what we had not only witnessed, but thoroughly enjoyed–on a soul level, dare I say? Thanks so much for another fantastic giveaway!
Silver Bells
Tough choice between Little Drummer Boy and What Child is This
The Friendly Beasts!
Winter Wonderland ⛄️
I have lots of favourites, but if pushed I would choose Mary did you know? by Mark Lowry and Buddy Green. I also like Peterbilt Sleigh by The Oak Ridge Boys.
It’s hard to pick just one. The first song to pop in my mind was, White Christmas sung by Bing Crosby.
O Holy Night for the win. Nat King Cole version. ❤️
Silent Night… Every time I hear it, I remember past years kneeling in church and holding a candle as the lights dim on Christmas Eve. I’m usually not singing, but listening to the words and music with tears in my eyes.
I’ll be Home for Christmas.
Angels We Have Heard on High!
I also love the David Bowie/Bing Crosby duet of the Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth. I think it may be because I have not heard it zillions of times in malls, grocery stores, and every other retail establishment on the planet. I think my favorite though is anything they are playing during Midnight Mass at church because that is my favorite part of Christmas and our church is actually a Cathedral with amazingly talented musicians.
Fairytale of New York by The Pogues.
Bruce Springsteen’s Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town…gotta love Clarence on the sax!!
Christmas is Coming, Vince Guaraldi (or most any song from the Charlie Brown Christmas album)
O Holy Night by anyone but especially Aaron Neville’s version.
“Christmas Morning” by Peter Mayer (Peter Mayer from Minnesota, not the other guy)
https://www.petermayer.net/_files/ugd/21f828_daa23f370aa04403b3e90f8dcc39a17f.pdf
So many songs, Silent Night. My family dance to All I Want for Christmas is You 🙂
All I want for Christmas is you. Mostly because it’s one of my favorite parts of the movie Love Actually.
The Holly and the Ivy or Have a Holly Jolly Christmas
Silent Night still the best for invoking the Christmas mood.
My favorite song has always been Joy to the World, because it’s easy to sing in harmony, and I’m an alto. I’ve knit a couple dozen stockings, from simple to complicated patterns, for people and cats, family and charity. My husband’s family tradition uses a 1940s pattern by Grace Ennis, and I inherited that task from my MIL.
Joni Mitchell’s River.
I’m not sure if it’s my favorite but the Xmas song that I cannot stop singing all year long is Last Christmas by Wham! It’s just so darn peppy and who can resist those fantastic 80’s lyrics?!
Lovely pattern. I love the carol “ O come o come Emmanuel”!
My favorite Christmas song has always been and always will be “O, Holy Night”
White Christmas! Bing gets me every time.
Our two favorite holiday CDs are the Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas and a Chanukah one called Festival of Light.
O Holy Night by John Berry and the Carpenters Christmas album in its entirety!
Angels We Have Heard On High
Little drummer boy
That’s a tough question – there are so many wonderful Christmas songs – religious or non-religious – I guess I have to flip a coin between O Holy Night and Silent Night
Hey Ann! My Great Grandma knit me a stocking very similar to yours – yes it is knit flat and the designs are cross stitched on
Fave old school Xmas song: Hark the Herald Angels Sing (ideally sung by a choir)
Fave modern Xmas song: Fairytale of New York – The Pogues & Kirsty McColl. I can only listen to this one for two weeks pre Xmas, no other time of the year!
Also, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer rates highly with my kids
Silver Bells
The Huron Carol. Do you have this in the USA, or is it only in Canada?
Rockin around the Christmas Tree!
Jingle Bells! Always!!
I love “Santa Baby”, especially sung by Eartha Kitt. And favorite winter time song is Baby It’s Cold Outside
But there are also so many beautiful traditional songs…. I just wish they didn’t start playing them so early in the Fall, as I am nearly tired of them by Christmas. “O Holy Night” is always great!
The First Nowell. I love Christmas carols.
The Christmas Song by Nate King Cole
Too many to choose… for fun it’s Jingle Bells. For sentimental it’s O Tannenbaum, we sang it in German for our Christmas program at church when I was a kid. Actually anything we sang back then brings tears to my eyes.
Baby it’s cold outside…no question
O Holy Night and …
Merry Christmas from the Family ♀️
“O Christmas Tree “ – I love Christmas Trees !!!!!
Joy to the world. It was the first Christmas carol I learned in English when we came to Canada as new immigrants.
Jose Feliciano’s Feliz Navidad! It’s festive and upbeat and joyful! And easy to singalong with/to (a grammar thing)
Its a Hollywood jolly christmas
Love them all!
Purple Snow Flakes always sets the mood!
For fun .. Christmas at Ground Zero by Weird Al. For beauty .. White Christmas by the one and only Bing Crosby. For festive .. The Twelve Days of Christmas .. by anyone.
Kenny Loggins’ “Celebrate Me Home”
“I’ll be Home For Christmas”, always makes me think of the holidays that our service men and women miss when serving our country.
Frosty the Snowman…..
Silent Night
O Holy Night
From my childhood… I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus
I love every Christmas song with the exception of “Dominic the Monkey”. but my all time favorite has the be “Joy to the World”
White Christmas!
O Holy Night
Once in Royal David’s City—best with a boy treble singing verse 1. Then there’s always Let It Snow
I’m not sure if it’s my favorite, the one that came immediately to mind is Silent Night
The Muppets version of Twelve Days of Christmas!
This is the year I will make Christmas stockings for us! (The dogs got theirs 8 years ago….clearly my priorities are in order ). Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt and 5 Pound Box of Money by Pearl Bailey – we all need a money tree!! “you can have the branch, the trunk, and the root. All I want is a little bit of the fruit!”
Rocking around the Christmas tree and separately and Xmas song that Burl Ives sings!
I’m not much for carols, but I’ll gladly listen to any Christmas song that Nat King Cole sang.
Oh Come Oh Come Emanuel
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
My favorite secular Christmas song is Silver Bells. Religious is Silent Night or What Child is This? I’ve made ONE of these stockings for one of my 4 kids, and now have 7 grandchildren that I think I need to get going on the rest of these!!!!
I have always loved “We Need a Little Christmas!” from the musical Auntie Mame.
Any song from Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas!
As a non-believer, it always surprises just how much I enjoy Christmas carols–especially when sung by a children’s choir. Favorite, ironically, is O Come All Ye Faithful. As a mother, I can get on board with joyfully adoring a newborn!
My favorite Christmas song is Come All Ye Faithful
“It is Beginning to Look Like Christmas!”
Carol of the Bells!
I saw three ships come sailing in
Carol of the Bells
O Tannenbaum! However, I’ll take O Christmas Tree, if it’s the Aretha Franklin rendition.
Silent Night
Two songs from the Bing Crosby White Christmas Album – Mele Kalikimaka and Christmas in Killarney. That was my family’s favorite holiday album growing up and when I hear either of those songs it takes me back. My sisters and I sing Mele Kalikimaka to each other every year!
Thank you for all the years of MDK, so glad you started this great adventure and invited the rest of us to come along! Favorite Christmas song, Silent Night.
Oh little town of Bethlehem
White Christmas
A song my friend wrote “Christmas Lights”.PS, I really like the pattern for my pup’s first Christmas!
‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’….. as a crafter Christmas definitely starts in July and flows right thru January. Always trying to keep the spirit alive….
As I sit in AC no particular holiday song comes to mind, but perhaps “it’s genetic,” as they say in A Chorus Line, or as the lame joke says, there are no good Chanukah songs bec all the Jews wrote Christmas songs. Or, perhaps they didn’t join payola?
For I did plan to knit the Christmas stockings in your first book for friends’ kids, but alas I never did.
White Christmas. Probably because I have lived mostly in southern states.
I love Hallelujah.
Carol of the Bells
I’ll be Home for Christmas
Silver Bells – takes my back to my grade 6 Recorder club everytime I hear it – we played it for the school Christmas concert that year.
O Holy Night. Andy Williams singing any of the rest on his Christmas shows.
My favorite is December
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!
I like “Baby it’s cold outside”. Even though the content is rather problematic these days (“say, what’s in this drink?”). The video for the Tom Jones/Cerys Matthews version offsets it a bit though.
Hallelujah Chorus
I love Mary, did you know.
Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song”
I love old patterns, thanks for noting this reference again. My shining holiday moment was taking a Latvian holiday stocking class at our local art museum, made it in black and red! My favorite holiday song is “Oh Christmas Tree”.
Silent Night
Christmas Time’s A’Comin’ by Sammy Kershaw
Good King Winceslas
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…..
Have never had chestnuts but that song always makes me feel cozy and ready for the holidays.
Feliz Navidad
I have always loved “The Little Drummer Boy”. I listened to it as a small child to present.
Fondly remember listening to old 45 rpms–Yogi Yorgesson’s “I Yuss Go Nuts at Christmas” and “Yingle Bells.” Both very corny and throw-backs–like the stocking!
The Little Drummer Boy
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
Silver Bells
Do you see what I see? Or The Little Drummer Boy
I put the radio on the Christmas music channel from the first day until the last day of carols – can’t get enough. Same with Christmas movies. I like them ALL but “Merry Christmas Darling” by The Carpenters is definitely a favorite pop song.
Oh, this is tough…I have so many favorites! Today’s top song is ‘Mary, Did You Know?’.
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” at the highest possible volume, and on repeat!
It’s Beginning to look a Lot Like Christmas!
Great giveaway. Frosty the Snowman is one I sing to my grandsons. I’d love to knit them each a stocking.
White Christmas is my favorite. We watch the movie every year too!!
Good King Wenceslas
I’ve always enjoyed Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
Silver Bells
White Christmas sung by Bing Crosby is all I need… It’s a family classic now that my last name is White.
Have to go with “Silent Night”. I have lovely memories of standing by my mother in church and singing this hymn with her.
I like Peace On Earth/The Little Drummer Boy with Bing Crosby and David Bowie
White Christmas
“O Come All Ye Faithful”. Still my favorite and can still make me tear up periodically
White Christmas
The first few shakes of bells at the beginning of Sleigh Ride always make me smile! Festive as can be!
I love Christmas songs that make me laugh. Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby”
never fails!
Little Drummer Boy
Pretty much any Elvis Christmas song. He was the back drop for our annual peanut butter making parties. Lots of fun and hilarious memories tied to Elvis Christmas songs.
Let it Snow!
favorite carols- Silent Night and O Holy Night….. and i love the old Burl Ives Christmas album which was already ancient when i was a kid.
soft spot for some of the truly dumb ones- I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and Dominic the Donkey. Problem
is they stick
in your head for hours!
All is Well
Definitely “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
—if only in my dreams. It takes me back. Way back. Thanks for asking!
Not very traditional, but my favorite is, ‘Santa, Baby.’
Garth Brook’s version of Go Tell It on the Mountain is my favorite, but it’s so hard to choose. I would listen to Christmas music year round if my family would let me. That’s what headphones are for!
I am drawn to Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant performed by Annie Lennox.
My favorite Christmas song is “O Holy Night”. I remember my mother singing it when I was a small child.
Favorite holiday song is Mary Did You Know with Little Drummer Boy and Do You Hear What I Hear tied for second.
#sorrynot sorry
I adore most of the old Christmas carols, but the one that pops into my head and makes me do a happy dance when the first flakes arrive is, ‘Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!’ Oh dear, it may have already taken up residence in my head until spring…
Definitely O Holy Night!
Little drummer boy
Felix navidad
#sorrynotsorry
Do You Hear What I Hear?
I can’t hear Silver Bells without laughing! It reminds me and my mother of a very enthusiastic music teacher I had in school. Picks up my spirits every time.
I have knit that old stocking pattern, for a friend who wanted to welcome a foster child with a stocking to match those her grandmother had made for her kids!
Favorite carol is a very old one – In Praise of Christmas or To Drive the Cold Winter Away.
All of them…it is so hard to choose, but Winter Wonderland
O Holy Night is my favorite Christmas song
I am a Christmas music fanatic. We have a rule in my house, b/c my husband is NOT a big fan…..No Christmas Music Before Thanksgiving. So when the local radio stations start playing Xmas music in mid November, I’m surreptitiously listening to it when alone in the car.
All that to say that there is no way I can pick a favorite, but there is a version of The Wexford Carol that can be found on YouTube with Allison Krauss and Yoyo Ma that is heartbreakingly beautiful.
I’ll Be Home For Christmas!! There’s nothing like the excitement of loved ones coming home for the holidays 🙂
It is sooo hard to pick a favourite Yule time Carol. I have to go first to Bruce Cockburn’s, “Huron Carol”, sung in Huron with the original (1642) lyrics by Jean de Brébeuf. After that, while I love them all, I have to name, “Out of the East they came riding”. Christmas is my favourite time of year and I start making little things to put in stockings and presents on Boxing Day. Obsessed? Me? Maybe.
I love them all even though I’m Jewish because 50% or more of them were written by Jews! Cracks me up!
My fave is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!
I want to knit these for my non Jewish friends!
My favorite Christmas song is The Seven Joys of Mary, recorded in Cherokee County, NC, in 1933. Words and piano music can be found in a collection of Ten Christmas Carols from the Southern Appalachian Mountains by John Jacob Niles. All ten pieces in the collection are wonderful.
Any song from Chanticleer’s Christmas albums (male a cappella choir – fabulous!)
White Christmas by Bing Crosby
I love most holiday songs; I don’t have a single favorite.
Our family has hand knit stockings, including one for the cats! But yours is so sweet, I’d knit one more.
I LOVE Christmas music!!! James Taylor’s Christmas album is one of my favorites and so is anything by Straight No Chaser
My favorite is Good King Wenceslas.
Jingle Bells. I feel like I am 8 years old again, singing at top of my lungs with the anticipation of Christmas thrilling me.
Bing Crosby/David Bowie’s Drummer Boy
My favorite is white Christmas….
Let it be Christmas by Alan Jackson. I keep it on my phone at all times – it makes me so happy whenever I hear it.
My favorite is Oh Holy Night. My mother always enjoyed the fun “Dominic the Donkey”.
Hard question, I have a few favorites, but going with Nat King Cole’s classic, “The Christmas Song.” “O Holy Night” rates high up there, as does “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” always chokes me up!
Favorite holiday song… What child is this
Dean Martin’s It’s a Marshmallow World!
Favorite “romantic” Christmas Songs are “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole. Favorite religious – Probably Silent Night.
My favorite is I’ll be home for Christmas. Brings back memories of my childhood.
Is it really time to think about Christmas? We are sweltering through August here…
But I digress from the main question which was what is my favourite holiday tune. I love the melodies and harmonies that John Rutter has spun over the years. It is hard to choose a fave but since you asked, I will say it is his “Angel’s Carol”.
Once in Royal David’s City, sung by King College Choir. It gives me goosebumps!
25 years ago my son sang a solo in his school pageant. Whenever I hear Jinglebell Rock it brings a smile to my heart.
My favorite Christmas song is “O Holy Night”. I love this stocking as it looks like Christmas and is big enough to put lots of things in it. The pattern is awesome.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas ❣️
I’ll be home for Christmas… Always brings a year to my eye. I’m gonna try the “original” and hope for 3 wishes from Aunt Elizabeth.;-)
The classics…Silent Night!
Mary, Did You Know? and What Child Is This
My favorite: I’ll Be Home for Christmas
It will have deeper meaning this year, since some of my family has moved long distance and I won’t see them until then!
Angels We Have Heard On High
There’s a rendition of “Mary, Did You Know?” by a Salvatorian priest that I’d snagged off a (now defunct) website maybe 20 years ago. He’s since redone the recording, but it’s the original version that appeals to me for the accompaniment arrangment/background singers in addition to the priest’s voice.
White Christmas
ALL the Bing Crosby Christmas songs, solos or duets, just gimme that Bing!
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
Silent Night
My favorite is a tie between The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole and White Christmas. Bonus selection is Mary’s Boy Child by Harry Belafonte!
My favorite is Oh Holy Night. My mother sang it at midnight mass for years and gave everyone the chills by the time she finished. She had such a beautiful voice. She passed this May at 94 years old.
“Oh Holy Night”- gets me every time!
Carol of the Bells – though I really think ALL Christmas carols are awesome!
I have so many Christmas favorites but I think white Christmas is number one.
Let It Snow!
Eartha Kitt singing “Santa Baby!”
My favorite Christmas album is Cyndi Lauper’s, every song is a winner!
Favorite Christmas song: Silent Night, Holy Night
Lulaje Jezuniu
White Christmas
White Christmas
Loreena McKennitt’s album To Drive the Cold Winter Away. I crank it up to put me in the zone for the beginnings of hols gifts.
Oh, Holy Night
Oh, Holy Night
I really love Silver Bells. I have a stocking that was knit for me for my first Christmas! I am 62 years young!
“Angels We Have Heard On High” always has a special place in my heart.
Oh Holy Night – can give me the chills
I (& my husband) love that Hershey Kiss commercial too!! Perfect.
#sorrynotsorry White Christmas
I am usually humming “Let It Snow!”
All I want for Christmas (is you) #sorrynotsorry Mariah Carey. Who can resist?!
Silent Night
Since it’s not Christmas until Hans Grüber falls off Nakatomi Tower, I’m going with Ode to Joy.
Just one Christmas song? Oohhh….. Mary Did you Know is one I love. Also, the original Santa Baby by Eartha Kit. She has a Voice!
Joni Mitchell – River
Joy to the World!
Let it Snow!
Plus, we are preparing for our Christmas musical celebration at church. Humming all kinds of tunes.
Peanuts Christmas song!
God rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York
My favorite holiday song is White Christmas by Bing Crosby!
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
My parents home was always so magical at Christmas.
Jingle bells
O Holy Night.
Too many good choices for Christmas music.
Little drummer boy
My favorite is the Wexford Carol for the tune, and IN the Bleak MidWinter for the lyrics.
Perry Como singing “Ave Maria” on his Christmas special.
love simple happy songs jingle bells
So many , but a couple of favorites, Silent Night sung byBarbara Streisand and Hallelujah Chorus sung by Johnny Mathis
White Christmas! Love the song and the movie. ❄️
White Christmas
For me the sentimentalist, it’s Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song” and for me the musician, it’s Dwight Yaokam’s “Run Run Rudolf.” The one that marks the beginning of the season for is always “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Yeah, I like Christmas music.
I love Eartha Kitt’s version of Santa Baby.
We celebrate a lot of holidays, so there are many songs; however, choosing one is a conundrum. I love Irving Berlin because my grandfather hung around with him for a bit (or so I’m told). Every year we watch as many holiday films as we can: Rudolph, White Christmas, Home Alone, It’s a Wonderful Life, Scrooge, Elf, and so on. I’d say in honor of my grandfather’s association with Irving Berlin, White Christmas is an all time favorite song.
Nothing Rhymes with Christmas by Ana Gasteyer
James Taylor’s Go Tell it on the Mountain!
So difficult to choose a favorite song. I guess my choice is O Holy Night.