A Baby Changes Everything (Faith Hill)
Deck The Halls (Mannheim Steamroller)
O Holy Night (John Berry)
Christmas Eve Sarajevo (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
Carol of the Bells (David Foster)
Mary Did You Know (Kenny Rogers/Wynonna)
Little Drummer Boy (Bing Crosby/David Bowie)
O Come All Ye Faithful (Nat King Cole)
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day (Casting Crowns)
The Christmas Shoes (Newsong)
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Kenny G)
The Christmas Song (Al Jarreau)
Do You Hear What I Hear? (Carrie Underwood)
Ave Maria is not Christmas Music. It's not even expressly religious. It's a prayer said in an epic poem.
This was last year's list
1) Ave Maria (Connie Francis, Pavarotti)
2) Oh Holy Night (Nat King Cole or Andy Williams)
3) Winter Wonderland (Johnny Mathis, Dean Martin, Williams Brothers, Kenny G)
4) The First Noel (Nat King Cole or Andy Williams)
5) Silent Night (Nat King Cole)
6) It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Andy Williams) [Probably could go higher on the list, but it's been exploited too much by corporations]
7) Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Frank Sinatra)
8) O Come All Ye Faithful (Frank Sinatra)
9) Jingle Bell Rock (Bobby Helms)
10) Toss up between The Chipmunk Song (Alvin & Chipmunks) and All I Want for Christmas (Mariah Carey).
Rounding out the Top 10 for 2014:
1) What Child Is This? (Johnny Mathis)
2) Ave Maria (Connie Francis, Pavarotti, Celine Dion in that order)
3) Winter Wonderland (Perry Como)
4) O Little Town of Bethlehem (Nat King Cole)
5) Happy Holidays (Andy Williams)
6) Away in a Manger (Nat King Cole)
7) Hark! The Herald Angel Sing (Nat King Cole)
8) The First Noel (Nat King Cole)
9) Silent Night (Nat King Cole)
10) Let it Snow (Dean Martin, Mathis)
Honorable - Jingle Bell Rock
Nat King Cole dominates the list, just an awesome overall voice.
Not expressly religious????? Are you nuts?
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and in the hour of our death. Amen.
Not Christmas music???? Again what are you talking about? Of course it can be used at other times than Advent or Christmas, but it is a text based on Elizabeth's greeting of a pregnant Mary.
I don't care for it.
All Christmas music not about donkeys or sung by fast food sucks.
Only during enhanced interrogations.
It is awful
Store in town was playing it before Halloween this year
I don't care for it.
Wrong sir.
Ave Maria was taken from "Hymn to the Virgin" by Sir Walter Scott in the context of Schubert's Opus 52. It's a song Ellen Douglas sings as a prayer to the virigin mary.
What the words of Ave Maria translate from is
"Ave Maria! maiden mild!
Listen to a maiden's prayer!
Thou canst hear though from the wild;
Thou canst save amid despair.
Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,
Though banish'd, outcast and reviled –
Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer;
Mother, hear a suppliant child!
Ave Maria"
Not the Hail Mary incantation you listed above.
Now it's a song about praying, but in and of itself, it's not expressly religious, as it's about a prayer of a character, it doesn't necessarily reflect true religious intent.
And of course when we are talking about those versions being sung at Christmas, we are talking about the "Hail Mary" prayer that is paired with the Schubert tune. And it is obviously a religious & appropriately Advent/Christmas song.
But even if you want to go to the Lady of the Lake poem of Scott, then once again it is religious - the prayer is invoking the aid of the Virgin Mary.
Your trying to correct Sav on the inclusion of the Ave Maria is silly.