Christmas Song Bracket Challenge

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...

 The Fifth Round is now closed!  We are down to the final matchup.. Take a look at the results below.  Link to vote in the finals is also below. Up until the last couple days, Have Yourself was in the lead.  Whoever our late voters were, you pushed Silent Night into the final round.   Carol of the Bells had no need for such late vote heroics, winning comfortably. So here we are.  After a month of debates and decisions, it comes down to two classics once again.  Sacred vs secular.  A potential repeat champion vs a newcomer.  Major vs minor.  Frantic vs serene.  Not sure you could find two more different choices.   And now it's up to you.  Thank you for participating this year - more people were involved this year than ever before - we consistently had 60 voters in the last few rounds.  I loved reading your comments.  Every year I am self-conscious about restarting this silly activity because it sounds so...

 Click here to vote in Round 5 The 5th 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 Saturday, December 21 at 8pm EST .  Results will be announced shortly after, and the final round will begin.   Please share this link and encourage others to do the same!!!   Click here to vote in Round  5

The Fourth Round is now closed!  We are down to the Final Four. Carol of the Bells is still on a mission to become the bracket's first two-time winner.  But the rest of the songs in the Final Four are hungry for their first championship.   Take a look at the results below, and check back soon for the release of Semifinal voting. OK everyone - I did a little research here.  Apparently, the original lyrics (never actually recorded) to HYaMLC were...rather   depressing. Forget our little jokes about passive-aggression...this truly puts the song in a new light.  Have yourself a merry little Christmas. It may be your last. Next year we may all be living in the past. Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Pop that champagne cork. Next year we may all be living in New York. No good times like the olden days. Happy golden days of yore. Faithful friends who were dear to us. Will be near to us no more. But at least we all will be together. If the Lord allows. ...

Click here to vote in Round 4 The 4th 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 18 at 8pm EST .  Results will be announced shortly after, and the new round will begin.   Please share this link and encourage others to do the same!!!   We're down to some epic matchups in the bracket - O Come All Ye Faithful vs Silent Night ; O Come O Come Emmanuel vs Carol of the Bells .  But also, the upstart Feliz Navidad is looking to defy all the odds and reach its first Final Four.  And lastly, a classic sacred/secular battle between O Holy Night and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas . Click here to vote in Round  4