It’s like Throwback Thursday all December as Christmas tunes are played in every street corner. With many radio stations playing them around the clock, Christmas carols make me stop and reminisce all the good holiday times that I had. They bring me back to the time when our Christmases won’t be complete without our mom’s freshly baked muffins and siblings playing around and fighting over the shiny gift boxes under the Christmas tree.
Be it a small family gathering or a glamorous celebration, you need a festive and inspiring playlist to keep your guests into the holiday mood. Chances are most of the yuletide songs that you can remember were already on your list. But still to help you pick the best ones, here is a list of Billboard’s top Christmas hits of all time that you can play to stir up the yuletide spirit at your home.
All I Want for Christmas
Topping the list is All I Want for Christmas as performed by Mariah Carey. Released to the public way back 1994, the best selling holiday song will surely up the beat in your place. Aside from Carey’s world class rendition of the song, the well played synthesizers, bell chimes and back-up vocals will stir up the Christmas spirit in every one of us.
Rockin Around the Christmas Tree
Brenda Lee’s Rockin Around the Christmas Tree was released in the late 1950s. More than 20 million copies of the album were bought when the song hit its 50th year, a decade ago. Both country music as well as rock and roll music lovers will enjoy the song as it features several instruments that are commonly used in the mentioned genres such as drums, sax, piano and bass. Rockin Around the Christmas Tree became more popular when it was used as a background song for the 1979 movie Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas and the 1990 comedy film Home Alone.
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Performed by Andy Williams, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year reflects how we celebrate the yuletide season. It is mostly played in gatherings as the song is about the festivities and activities that bond families and friends during the Christmas season such as children sledding, marshmallow roasting and Christmas singing in the cold weather. The tune was used as the 2009 and 2012 Christmas Seals theme song.
The Christmas Song
Commonly known for its first line, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, was performed by Nat King Cole and initially released in 1946. To make it more suitable for the holiday season, a string section was added to the tune in the latter part of the year, which resulted to the song topping the music charts. Several versions of the song were made through the years, but it was the original one which was added in 1974 to the Grammy Hall of Fame.
A Holly Jolly Christmas
Popularized in the Christmas television program Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1964, A Holly Jolly Christmas helped performer Burl Ives became popular in the music industry. A new rendition of the song with a section of acoustic guitar was released in 1965. This classic song was chosen to be in several music charts including the 1998 Billboard Adult Contemporary list.
