The Most Important Christmas Music

I am not afraid to admit that my Christmas music tastes have not evolved much since 1999.  The most important Christmas albums to me are the one's my dad had us listen to while we were doing all the traditional holiday things (setting up the tree, ripping open presents, eating silver dollar pancakes...).  The second most important album is the Hanson album I bought with the funds used to set up my savings account, because that's what I was really saving for.  It should be obvious I have intense feelings about such, so I will share my favorite Christmas songs, in order of awesomeness, with great excitement and exaggeration.
1.  THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS SONG EVER AND DON'T YOU DARE DISAGREE WITH ME!!!

I have fond memories of trying to blast to play this song as loudly as possible in my projection booth, in that past life I had the movie theatre.  Oh, it's amazing to listen to every time.  And I recommend watching the video simply for the kittens.  Kittens.

2.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned my intense love of Hanson as a teenager.  I know, a they had that long hair, and their music was really poppy.... That's why I love them!  At the height of their awesome-ness, they released a Christmas album that is altogether amazing, here's a sweet selection from a TV special that I totally tuned into in 1997:

Oh, that hair.  Love it so much!  In the course of searching for videos I found this adorable song about a Christmas sweater Hanson did more recently: http://youtu.be/C8QqWYwwioQ

3.  Andy Williams sang the best versions of Christmas songs ever!  I get a little sad listening to them now though, because he died this year.  Fortunately, his recordings live on.

It wasn't until today that I realized I like the singing/smiling/no-microphone way of delivering songs.

4.  It's difficult to decide whether I like Manheim Steamroller or GRP more.  I'm going to list GRP first, because their album is hardest to find, thus, more worthwhile to share here.  I'm not a jazz fan, but this whole album just speaks to me.

The video I chose is probably the cheesiest on there (but watch it, there's a shadow and snow dancing segment that is amazing), but I definitely recommend looking through the rest of the playlist here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxX4bntdCXE&feature=share&list=PL5DC6145345724C65.
And if you ever find a digital version of Szaksci playing "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" let me know (the CD the listen to is scratched for the intro to that song and it's amazing!).

5.  Finally, Manheim Steamroller.  Because what would Christmas be without them?

I couldn't find a video of this song that made much sense (but there was an awesome YouTube effort composed almost entirely of pictures of Air Supply).  But GrooveShark is pretty cool.

So there's a hefty dose of Christmas cheer for you.