The Five Best Religious Christmas Songs of All Time

Nancy of Montclair, New Jersey writes asking why I didn't include any religious songs on my best Christmas songs list, so, since Christmas actually continues up to the Feast of the Epiphany next Thursday, I feel obligated to produce a remedy to that.

It's hard picking favorite religious songs, because there are so many different recordings of them, and there are seemingly fewer songs to choose from. So I'll choose five of them, because five is probably as representative of religious Christmas songs as ten is of secular ones, and pinpoint a few of my favorite recordings of them. So here I go:

"O Come All Ye Faithful." This is my favorite religious Christmas song ever. The first time I heard it was on a Christmas record my parents had; Danny Kaye sang it. Kaye, of course, is better remembered for his comedy than his singing, but he still did a good job on this song.

"The Little Drummer Boy." People always put this song down for its sentimentality and its one clumsy lyric - "The ox and lamb kept time" - but I've always found it endearing that a poor boy with no material gift to give the Son of God, Himself born poor, the gift of music. (Full disclosure requires me to admit that my sister hates it.) The Harry Simeone Chroale recording is the gold standard, but be sure to check out Bob Seger's cover from the eighties.

"Silent Night." It's as peaceful as the moment it celebrates, mother child sleeping silently. I'm partial to Stevie Nicks's cover. Those of you familiar what Simon and Garfunkel's "7 O'clock News" version should be aware that their recording is not a Christmas record, but social commentary.

"Go Tell It On the Mountain." This song puts the "spirit" in "spiritual." Not a Christmas song, you say? The key lyric is "Go tell it on the mountain, Jesus Christ is born." As Linus Van Pelt told Charlie Brown, that's what Christmas is all about.

"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." This is one of the most powerful carols ever written, and certainly one that belongs in the Christmas canon.

This should pretty much give you an idea of what I look for in a religious Christmas song. :-)