The Zemzelett Holiday Playlist

While I’m not a fan of the stress and the cold weather and the awkward greetings from strangers that the holiday season brings, I do love me some Christmas tunes. They’re the one thing I enjoy about Christmas nowadays, because Lord knows it ain’t peace and good will. (If you happen to know where I can find those, please let me know. Seriously.) But anyway! Christmas songs. Love ‘em. I’ll list my favorites below and try to embed YouTube videos to go with ‘em. Feel free to listen to them and read my thoughts on each one. Or don’t, you meanies! Either way, here they are, in no particular order:

“Sleigh Ride”: Apparently this thing wasn’t even written as a Christmas song, but whatever. When I was a kid growing up in the tropics, this made me imagine one of those postcard-perfect Christmas family scenes where the kids jump out of bed on Christmas morning while still in their jammies, run up to the  window to see the snow falling outside and go “wow”, and then huddle around the Christmas tree to unwrap their presents. Now that I’m a grown man living in Canada, I go “Tsk!” whenever I see snow outside my window, and I don’t even receive so much as a fruitcake anymore. Either way, this song still gives me the warm fuzzies inside. My favorite version is by the Boston Pops Orchestra with John Williams. Harry Connick Jr. works too.

“Carol of the Bells”:  This carol was apparently based off a Ukrainian folk song called “Shchedryk”. People always say this song gives them images of a serial killer dressed up as Santa… not that I can blame them. Me, I think of the version from Home Alone composed by John Williams. It’s the perfect music for Christmas-themed movies whenever you want to build up to the climax. Speaking of Home Alone, it is, to nobody’s surprise, one of my favorite holiday movies (another one being Jingle All The Way… so sue me).

The Home Alone Theme: It’s very easy to associate John Williams with Christmas because he composes the definitive versions of all the memorable holiday tunes (most of them, naturally, from Home Alone), not to mention that the guy looks like Santa Claus. On a related note, I always thought Short Round’s theme from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Hedwig’s theme from the Harry Potter movies (both also by Williams) sounded Christmassy.

“Heto Na Naman”: I love Ryan Cayabyab’s compositions, especially the a cappella ones, and this one is no exception. I wish they’d sing this at Filipino Christmas mass, but unfortunately most choir members are middle-aged women with less vocal range than a broken kazoo and less harmony than drunks at a karaoke bar. (I know they mean well, but come on. That’s no excuse for not trying!)

“Kumukutikutitap”: Another composition by Cayabyab (if I’m not mistaken), but the most well-known version is by Joey Albert, who now lives here in Vancouver. I like both versions just fine. The title translates to “sparkling”. If memory serves me correctly, they used this song as a toothpaste ad jingle back in the ’90s. Makes sense to me, except for the ironic fact that the song also sings about candy.

“O Holy Night”: This is the solemn Christmas song of choice. Very moving when sung properly by a children’s choir, but again, unfortunately we get the, uh… less impressive version, courtesy of our well-meaning local choir. (I want to say “tormented souls screaming in agony”, but that’s just mean.) Again, my favorite version is from Home Alone.

“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”: Sure, it’s a preachy song made by hippies for hippies, but it’s got that depressing sound to it that I really like listening to for some reason. For all its preachiness, it does have a very relevant message. It’s the song of choice for Catholic charities whenever they display starving African children on television. Make of that what you will.

And there you have it. If you work holidays at the mall, you’re probably sick of most of these songs being played on an endless loop on the PA. Sucks to be you. Anyway, ciao for now. Gotta batten down the hatches if we’re to survive another round of the holidays!