Christmas Song Bracket Challenge

The Second Round is now closed.  We have our Sweet Sixteen and things are starting to get real. We had TWO TIES!  As per the rules of the Bracket, any ties are decided by a cancer survivor.  This round, we turned to Konkrete Kathy, Sister Cement, the Asphalt Angel herself to advance our deadlocks.   We also had several songs advancing to the Third Round for the first time ever.   Here are the results of Round 2: We have a winner for the non-gendered translation:  God Rest Ye Merry Gentlethem.   And firm agreement to the person who called out the Mannheim Steamroller version.  That is one of the recordings that spurred my love of the wide variety of Christmas music.  This bracket would not exist without those cheesy but wonderful arrangements.  Thank you, Chip - we truly are all in this together. Secular victory in a battle of giants. "Ding fries are done."  "CotB is very anxiety-inducing for musicians to perform. Inst...

   Click here to vote in Round 2 The second round is underway!  Click below to cast your vote  for the best Christmas song in each matchup. If you don't know one of the choices, we encourage you to look it up! This round will close on  Tuesday, December 9 at 8am EST .  Results will be announced shortly after, and the new round will begin.   Please share this link and encourage others to do the same!!!   Interesting matchups in Round 2: The winners of the first round Angel and Crooner matchups face off:  Angels We Have Heard on High  vs  Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Sound and Silence Revisited:   Jingle Bells  vs  Silent Night Can they both lose?  It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas vs  All I Want for Christmas is You The Peanuts Bowl: Linus and Lucy vs Christmas Time is Here   Click here to vote in Round 2

The First Round is now closed!  Results and commentary are below.   First , my yearly disclaimer:  I am an unabashed music snob.  I may trash-talk one of your favorites.  But this is all in good fun, so  please  fire back at me.  There's no banter like music geek banter.  Second , a response to several comments: The bracket is seeded randomly*.  This can lead to some wild first-round matchups (e.g. Hark the Herald vs. Angels we Have Heard ).  But without this element of randomness, I really think we'd see the later rounds look the same year after year after year.  I am thrilled that we've yet to have a repeat champion.  Replayability matters.   * I did shift two matchups manually this year because the random draw led to repeats of last year's first round.  And yes, I will continue to do everything in my power to try to get Hooray for Santa Claus  into the second round.  But other than that , ...

The 2025 Christmas Song Bracket Challenge is now underway!  Please click the link below to vote!   https://forms.gle/ECiekMxx9ryMVWhq5 And as always,  please share with others  who might enjoy the process. Voting closes on Dec 3! FYI - the matchups were assigned randomly by number draw.  This is not a "seeded" bracket.  This sometimes leads to huge first-round matchups, but also sometimes allows an underdog to advance far.  Most importantly, it creates more variation year-to-year, otherwise we would likely have the same Final Four over and over.

Greetings all, The Christmas Song Bracket Tournament is almost here.  That means we need your help once again! As a refresher, here's how it works: I n the coming days  we will post a link to a Google Form with all the first round matchups.  Simply select your choice in each head-to-head.  Use whatever criteria is most important to you - best lyrics, best music, best vibes, best time signature (where my 6/8 peeps at?), best potential for a gratuitous Picardy third, nostalgia, comfort, whatever.   Add  your  comments  on the matchups - why you chose a particular song, what that song means to you, a favorite arrangement/recording, etc.  Yes, this is to help me come up with content for the winner announcement posts - it's not easy to write something new about these songs year after year, so share your (appropriate) thoughts and I'll post them here! Every few days , we will announce the winners of the previous round, provide a little co...

   And the winner of the 2024 Christmas Song Bracket Challenge is.... Silent Night!! When I started doing this bracket challenge, one of my biggest worries was that the same song would win every year and it would get stale.  I can't tell you how much I love that we've done this four times and have yet to have the same winner twice.   This year I was not in a great place mentally when it came time to do the grunt work needed to get things prepared.  I considered just letting the whole thing go.  But reading everyone's comments and seeing such great participation absolutely brought a smile to my face and helped me find some of the joy I had been missing.  Several people in the comments thanked me for doing the bracket again this year - but this wouldn't be what it is without you  taking part and giving it life.   I look forward to spending this time with you all again next year.   I would be remiss to not include the followi...