o frabjous day! books, recipes & other things

Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime, Where we’re working in a mine for our robot overlords. Did I say overlords? I meant protectors. Jonathan Coulton released this song as part of his Thing a Week project, where he wrote and recorded a song each week for a year. It’s funny, with a hint of pathos,…

Gaily they ring, while people sing; Songs of good cheer, Christmas is here Hayley Westenra is a New Zealand singer, and this track was from her 2009 Christmas album, Winter Magic. Carol of the Bells was composed in 1904, and Wikipedia says helpfully that it’s based on a folk chant known in Ukrainian as “Shchedryk”.…

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea Another track from Sufjan Stevens’ collection of Christmas music, included in the 2010 mix CD. More of a general hymn, I think, rather than a specifically Christmassy song.

Joyful, all ye nations rise Join the triumph of the skies Acapella group Straight No Chaser recorded this medley of Hark The Herald Angels Sing and Angels We Have Heard On High, and I included it on the 2010 Christmas mix.

The sleigh bells are in time ringing true; How we cling each Noel to that snowflake’s hope in hell that it won’t end This is an enjoyably crazy song from The Darkness that I used as the first song in the 2010 mix.

This is my winter song, December never felt so wrong; Cause you’re not where you belong, inside my arms This was written and recorded by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson that I included on the 2009 mix. Wikipedia rather amusingly says that it became a very minor hit in Canada in 2008. When you look…

And when the night is falling, down the sky at midnight; Another year is stalling, far away a goodbye, good night I really like The Weepies’ style of gentle folk, and included All That I Want on my 2009 Christmas mix CD. It’s a track from their first album, Happiness.

Once in royal David’s city, stood a lowly cattle shed; Where a mother laid her Baby, in a manger for His bed Sufjan Stevens has recorded a great deal of Christmas music, and I included this track on the 2008 mix. I think this was also the first version I’d heard of this song –…

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow; In the bleak midwinter, long ago. This version by Sarah McLachlan was another song on the 2008 Christmas mix CD. Wikipedia helpfully advises that the song is based on a poem by Christina Rossetti written before 1872, which then appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906…