For winter wonderland, I always thought it was list'nin'. In the lane snow is glist'nin'. When it snows ain't it thrillin'. Though your nose gets a chillin'. Just tryin to keep it real. ;)
Then there are the versions that the characters in the comic strip Pogo (you youngsters can ask your parents) used to sing: "Deck us all with Boston Charlie. . ." [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Itb89w18Ug] and "Good King Sauerkraut look out! On his feets uneven. . ." [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/458/what-are-the-lyrics-to-walt-kellys-classic-carol-deck-us-all-with-boston-charlie]. Too obscure for a jet punk quiz, but lots of fun to sing, especially if you can find someone to ask "What's snoo?"
I've always known it so your comments made me look it up. First appeared in a Bob Hope movie in 1950 and first recorded by Bing Crosby in the same year. True to the comments it first charted in the UK in 2009, a cover by Sir Terry Wogan and Aled Jones.
Should add All I Want for Christmas Is You since it achieved a feat this week and made it to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, 25 years after it's original release thanks to streaming and only the second Christmas song ever to do so (the first being the absolutely dreadful Chipmunk Song aka Christmas Don't Be Late, more than 60 years ago). Say what you will but Mariah has given us a modern day Christmas classic.
The Carey song is popular, but on the other hand it's hardly fair to consider its Billboard achievement as proof of that. Billboard just didn't count songs that met "recurrent" criteria, keeping Christmas songs off the chart entirely. They changed the rules about the criteria too keep up with more and more people switching to streaming... which also probably props up Christmas songs since people can just ask for Christmas music from Alexa and then every Christmas standard will play and Bing Crosby's grandchildren can make 0.3 cents.
As an Englishman, just reading the words “I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus” makes me want to weep. Unfortunately even in the UK now Christmas has become a hollow shell, a parody almost. Nobody is in doubt that the whole exercise is in the name of buying and consuming as much as possible, and horrid jingly American Christmas songs epitomise what is wrong with the modern world.
"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" dates back to 1952 - over 70 years ago. It was written by Tommie Connor, an Englishman from Bloomsbury, London. The first singer to have a hit with the song was American Jimmy Boyd.
As does that santa claus is coming to town. Can you not hear that it is just shrieked out of tune? Not quite as bad as "ring my bell" but getting that way. Ugh.
Interesting too that the three songs which are genuine Christmas Carols all scored in the bottom four and are fighting it out for relegation.
Oh, and for the Americans out there, "relegation" is a sort of sports purge where the sh**e teams get demoted and, usually replaced by something "better".
So that's the Carolina Panthers becoming an NCAAF team, and Georgia Bulldogs (or whomever it is that wins the national championship even if they aren't as good as Georgia) getting promoted to NFL.
20/20
From angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold
Peace on the earth, goodwill to men, from heav'n's all gracious king
The world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angels sing.
Still through the cloven skies they come with peaceful wings unfurl
And still their heavenly music floats, O'er all the weary world.
Above its sad and lowly plains they bend on hovering wing
And ever o'er its Babel sounds the blessed angels sing.
O ye, beneath life's crushing load, whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow
Look now for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing
O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing.
For lo the days are hastening on, by prophets seen of old
When with the ever circling years shall come the time foretold
When the new heaven and earth shall own the prince of peace their King
And the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.
As does that santa claus is coming to town. Can you not hear that it is just shrieked out of tune? Not quite as bad as "ring my bell" but getting that way. Ugh.
Interesting too that the three songs which are genuine Christmas Carols all scored in the bottom four and are fighting it out for relegation.
So that's the Carolina Panthers becoming an NCAAF team, and Georgia Bulldogs (or whomever it is that wins the national championship even if they aren't as good as Georgia) getting promoted to NFL.