My Top 10 Christmas Songs: Soundtrack to the Holidays

Granted, the fact that many department stores start blaring Christmas music shortly after Halloween irritates me, and I usually shy away from mainstream top hits music, but I'm a sucker for Christmas songs. Whenever I think of Christmas music, I always have an adjoining favorite holiday moment, usually from my childhood in northern Indiana. Christmas songs and carols are a soundtrack to my holidays past, present and future. I've put together a list of my top 10 favorite Christmas songs and the memories they evoke.

10. "Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer," by Elmo and Patsy. A child of the 1980s, when this song was first performed, I have strong recollections of gathering with my 10 cousins and two sisters to serenade my grandmother. At the time, I thought this was hilarious, but looking back, Granny must have been a little mortified by the songs morbid lyrics.

9. "Oh, Tannenbaum," the German version of "Oh Christmas Tree." Nothing like 30 high school students bellowing out a German Christmas carol. Every year in German class, we took a break from German grammar and speaking lessons to sing Christmas carols, this was my favorite German class activity.

8. "Silent Night," an American classic. Whenever I think of this song, I think of watching Christmas movies with my family. I think it was included in every Christmas movie ever made.

7. "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," first preformed by John Frederick Coots in 1934. My mom would start singing this to us in early Autumn hoping we would be on best behavior through Christmas.

6. "The Twelve Days of Christmas," written in the 20th century. I still remember the day in second grade when my teacher tried to teach this song and its strange words and phrases to my class with not so great results.

5. "Deck the halls," origins date back to the 16th century. My favorite memory of this song is the variations my sisters and I used to develop together in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

4. "The Christmas Song," written by vocalists Mel Torme and Bob Wells. I remember listening to this while decorating the Christmas tree and thinking I wished I had chestnuts to roast over an open fire. I'm not quite sure how that works, but this song was a Christmas tree decorating standard in my house.

3. "Blue Christmas," by Elvis Presley. My first introduction to Elvis, until I grew up a bit, I thought he was simply a Christmas song writer. Oh, the simplicity of childhood.

2. "Over the River and Through the Woods," unattributed. Any drive around the holiday season to my either of my grandmother's home was always accompanied by a roaring version of this tune by my sisters and I. How did my mother survive?

1. "All I Want for Christmas is You," Mariah Carey. While the rest of my list has favored oldies and classics, my sister's love for this song made it top the list. To this day, she'll still put it on and dance around the house when we all make the trip back to Indiana for Christmas, pressing the repeat button constantly. She always gets me to grudgingly join in for a dance party. Hearing it on the radio always makes me smile thinking of our impromptu dance sessions.