Least favorite

Because somebody lately asked me and one song and one song only sprang to mind, I've been asking others when I think to: "What's your least favorite holiday song?" My answer was Jingle Bells. That's true for many others, it seems. But that's not really fair; I just dislike recorded versions of the song. I like to sing it myself, I love to hear kids singing it, and the arrangement played by the Hardin-Simmons Cowboy Band is an excellent one. The second one to be named would probably be the Russian carol of the bells, whatever it's called, although even with that, detesting recordings of it, I found it fun to sing. In fact, when it comes to songs of the season, sacred or secular, other than for cantatas and oratorios, which are not always easy to hear in live performance, I just plain don't like recordings. But I do like to sing and to hear others sing and play. Any recorded "seasonal" music played in the house at this time of year is baroque or Renaissance instrumental or choral music. It seems to go well with the smell of evergreens and baking. And we try very hard not to be exposed to stores playing the stuff we don't like to hear and not to listen to radio stations likely to be broadcasting it.