Christmas Songs and Carols

What are the Top 20 Christmas Songs?

 How many can you name?

Are any of your favorites on the list?

According to ASCAP, these are the most-performed holiday songs from 2000 to 2005:

1. "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
2. "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"
3. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" 
(This is my favorite! The version I like best is Amy Grant's)4. "Winter Wonderland"
5. "White Christmas"
6. "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"
7. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
8. "Jingle Bell Rock"
9. "I'll Be Home for Christmas"
10. "Little Drummer Boy"
11. "Sleigh Ride"
12. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" 
(This is another favorite, the version by Andy Williams)
13. "Silver Bells"
14. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
15. "Feliz Navidad"
16. "Blue Christmas"
17. "Frosty the Snowman"
18. "A Holly Jolly Christmas"
19. "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
20. "Here Comes Santa Claus"

I was surprised that more traditional carols weren't on the list. But I guess they said songs and not carols?!
So I decided to look up some of the most popular carols and found some interesting info.

Christmas carols are based on Christian lyrics and relate, in the main, to the Nativity. Christmas carols were introduced in to church services by St Francis of Assisi in the 12th century. As for the word carols, "carol" is a derivative of the French word caroller, the interpretation of which means dancing around in a circle. Carol and carols, eventually came to mean not only to dance but included music and lyrics - hence Christmas Caroling.

The joyous themes for many traditional Christmas carols were banned in England by the staunch Protestant Oliver Cromwell and many of the very old Christmas carols and songs were subsequently lost for all time. Christmas carols were only fully popularised again during the Victorian era when they again expressed joyful and merry themes in their carol lyrics as opposed to the normal, more sombre, Christian lyrics found in hymns. As religious observances in the United States and England were closely linked the popularity of Christmas carols grew in both countries in the 19th century. Today Christmas songs and carols are also fast becoming a tradition.

In this Top 10 we'll consider only those Christmas songs that fall solidly within the carol tradition of being religious in nature.
10. "O Come, O Come Emmanuel"
9. "What Child Is This?" 8. "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"
7. "Away In A Manger"
6. "The First Noel"
5. "Angels We Have Heard On High"  (This is my favorite!)
4. "O Holy Night"
3. "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"
2. "Joy To The World"
1. "Silent Night"

History behind the #1 carol:
Tradition holds that Joseph Mohr, the parish priest at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria, wrote the words to "Silent Night" and had Franz Gruber, the church choir director, write the music for it and then performed it for the very first time all on Christmas Eve 1818. The song was written for and performed on the guitar because, as the story goes, the church organ was out of commission. Other accounts report that Mohr actually wrote the words in 1816. Some sources, including music historian Joel Whitburn in his Pop Memories 1890 - 1954, claim that "Silent Night" is the most recorded song in history.