Tag Archives: Christmas

My 2011 Christmas Playlist

If you’re like me and just started to get into the Christmas musically (shopping and other stuff should have started already. If not, well don’t worry you still have time), this post is for you – or at least for your consideration.

While driving to my university today, a friend who carpools with me suggested that for the rest of the week I put Christmas music in the car. So I started thinking… what’s a decent length playlist full of Christmas music that I can listen to over and over again, at least till a bit after December 25th. So here it goes.

1 – All I Want For Christmas – Michael Bublé

This beats the original by a long mile. And it’s an awesome opener for the playlist.

2 – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing – Carrie Underwood

An uptempo with a great vocal to back it up. You cannot but feel Christmasy happy listening to this.

3 – Silent Night – Josh Groban

A classic by one of this generation’s best male vocalists.

4 – Joy To The World – David Archuleta

A nice rendition of this song by a young singer.

5 – Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Lady Antebellum

This classic song isn’t about Christmas per se but you can’t but listen to it during the season.

6 – What Child Is This – Carrie Underwood

This is chilling and haunting.

7 – Peppermint Winter – Owl City

“What’s December without Christmas Eve?” – so true.

8 – Blue Christmas – Andrea Bocelli &  Reba McEntire

A great version of this timeless Christmas classic.

9 – Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful) – Celine Dion

Like her or not, she can sing – especially when it comes to songs like this. Make sure you check out her version.

10 – O Holy Night – Carrie Underwood

My favorite version of this song. Ever.

11 – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Glee 

I’m not the biggest fan of Glee. In fact, I think the show royally sucks. But every now and then, they release their versions of songs and it just works. This is one of them.

12 – Bilayli Berdani – Majida El Roumi

One of the few Lebanese chants that reminds me of my childhood – of my mother singing it to me during Christmas. I couldn’t even find a YouTube version for it.

13 – The First Noel – Carrie Underwood

Because there’s no better way to end this playlist than with her impeccable falsetto singing “born is the King of Israel.”

 

Bonus Track – because it’s Christmas and just one more track isn’t a bad thing:

Jesus, Take The Wheel – Carrie Underwood

 

Merry Christmas From Apple – The iPhone 4S Siri Santa Claus Ad

Apple has launched another ad for the iPhone 4S’ Siri – and this time, it’s all about Christmas and Santa.

Having used Siri for the past month, I can attest to its functionality – everything mentioned in the video (apart from the location part since that’s only functional in the United States at this point) fully works and more often than not without a hitch.

So if you’re not into the holiday spirit yet, check out Santa and his 3.7 billion appointments for New Year’s Eve. Perhaps that should take some load off your shoulders.

A Social Network Christmas: If Joseph & Mary Had Facebook

A priest friend of mine shared this video with me the other day, whereby a “modernized” look at Christmas is tackled. Since this is the age of social media and networking, it was only a matter of time before stuff like these arise and I have to say, the video is quite interesting: Joseph and Mary changing their relationship status, Mary announcing via a Facebook status that she is pregnant, their friends being outraged by the whole pregnancy…. Even Facebook Places is used to check in Nazareth or Bethlehem.

Christmas is in 18 days. Time to get in the mood right?

PS: since the following video has been shared with me by a priest, then I suppose it has clergy approval. If any of you feel offended in any way by anything that’s present in this video, take it with them.