My contribution to last year's (2005 Christmas) thread can be found here:
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showp...9&postcount=42
The entire thread was quite good and is worth reviewing:
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51030
Here was the 2004 Christmas music thread:
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...ight=christmas
I'll have to take a look at what I said in these threads and update my post from last year. I've added another 20 titles (or so) to my Christmas music colleciton this year, so there may be some good ones in there that are worth talking about.
In fact, I did my first listening session of the season the other day! I was quite impressed with a 3 disc collection of the Glenn Miller Orchestra called "In the (Christmas) Mood". All 3 discs were excellent, or what I would rate as solid 8/10 overall.
My favorite was "In the Nutcracker Mood" which is a big band swing rendition of the Nutcracker Suite. I'd give it a 9/10 actually. Sonics are excellent, and it swings. The other 2 discs (called "In the Christmas Mood" and "In the Christmas Mood II") were "nice" but not as special. I'd give the first one a solid 8/10, while II would get a 7/10 only because there was a lot of sameness. Nutcracker was the real highlight. All of this is, of course, based on the premise that you're an old fart like me who still enjoys listening to "
when the music was music" types of music!
As a precautionary note, while listening to Christmas music in big band style is kind of fun because it's so different, this isn't at all the "traditional" way of presenting such material (i.e., it wouldn't fit very well into a Christmas music starter kit). See some of my recomendations (like Burl Ives, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, and the like, in the first link provided above) if you're looking for the best of the "standards".
