The Best and Worst Christmas Music

National Review Online asked several of its contributors to name the Christmas music without which the season is not complete and music that makes them want to run. They got quite an array of responses.

The Oracle's answers: I have not heard a presentation of Handel's Messiah this year, and that failing has made a difficult holiday season worse. I am going to find a cd today as my present to myself.

The best Christmas carol: "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." Modern hymnals don't include all of the verses, which is a shame. This is a Christmas song that includes nearly everything that anyone needs to know about Christian belief.

Honorable mention: any of Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas cd's.

Worst music? Among traditional Christmas carols, "Away in a Manger." The song is pure sentimentality, without any redeeming content. Among modern songs, what was Paul McCarthy thinking when he recorded that hideous "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime?"