I loved gregmce‘s recent series of posts about the Seven Christmas Songs that he loves. So I started compiling a list in my own head to see if I could do as well as he did – could I slim down my 1400+ collection of Christmas songs to seven? Well, no, I couldn’t. But I got it down to nine! I was impressed – I figured I’d have at least 12.

My other big issue is that the music that I love is, well, not always what others love. So finding examples on YouTube like he did – not so much luck. But I’ll do my best.

The first song I picked to focus on illustrates my love for the King’s College Choir. I suspect that my love of boys’ choirs and the like is due to seeing The Box of Delights and a PBS special on the King’s College Choir on Christmas Eve at an impressionable age. I wore out my dad’s audio tape of Christmas Eve at Kings (but not before ripping the songs from it that I can’t find anywhere else!) My last.fm Christmas account shows King’s College Choir as my most played group, which is partly due to my owning so many of their Christmas albums.

My favorite piece that they do (and I have several favorites) is “Remember O Thou Man.” Of course, YouTube doesn’t have that, nor does Last.fm. (Indeed, it’s one of the songs I “rescued” from the Christmas Eve at Kings album.) But I found a nice, rather upbeat, version on YouTube if you’ve not heard the tune before.

In addition to “Remember O Thou Man,” I recommend the King’s College Choir doing “Alleluya” and “The Sans Day Carol.” I’ll talk more about “The Sans Day Carol” in another post.