Advent/Christmas music

Stolen from Deb...

1. What are your favorite Advent/Christmas hymns?
My absolute favorite is "God on His Birthday"; everything else I love is old and traditional. Others that spring to mind: "O Come, All Ye Faithful," "Good King Wenceslas," and "The angel Gabriel from heaven came...".

2. Which are your least favorite?
I hate, loathe, detest, and despise "Away in a Manger." Always have. Don't care much for "The Little Drummer Boy," either.

3. Which secular seasonal songs make you want to run screaming into traffic?
Most of them. "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is just plain evil; what idiot decided to enshrine not crying as being "good"? "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" irritates me, but it doesn't make me mad. I much prefer old/traditional/religious music at Christmas. New or quirky arrangements are fine; the Miserable Offenders did some really neat stuff, and see below for favorite CDs. Most of the secular winter songs are just cloying, to me.

4. Do you play Christmas music around the house and in the car? What are your favorite holiday CDs?
Yes. My favorites right now are by Bruce Cockburn and John Fahey, respectively. I'm going to try to restrain myself until it actually is Advent, though. (I'm in a folk/gospel/bluegrass groove right now.)

My, I'm blogging a lot. What am I procrastinating from? Don't ask.