My least favorite: "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?" John Barry OHMSS What was he thinking? Does anyone else here think it was a joke?
The film's second half takes place in Switzerland at Christmastime, and the song was fine as source music within the film. But on the album it's a different matter. I imagine that it was obligatory in some way to include it.
Nevertheless, the film itself has a very Christmastime feeling... the skiing sequences (especially the nighttime ski chase), the village winter festival, the avalanche, the bob-sled sequence. Barry's use of Moog synthesizers, tambourine and orchestra gives the OHMSS and Bond themes very much a Christmas-like quality.
KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE: A bard sings in the wintery snow of "A Maiden That Is Makeless [Matchless]."
Somebody mentioned THE HEROES OF TELEMARK above. By coincidence one of the original heroes, demolitions expert Birger Stromshiem, just died at the age of 101. He considered the movie version of the raid, complete with girls and gunfights, to be -- surprise! -- Hollywood hokum.
I seem to recall Donaggio's Botte di Natale has some Christmas music. I've never seen the film but the synopsis on imdb mentions a Christmas angle so perhaps this qualifies as a Christmas western.
I suppose technically Holiday Inn which features many holidays, thus the title, is not a Christmas movie. It does include the first appearance of White Christmas. Sorrowful Jones, which is a Bob Hope remake of Little Miss Marker includes Silver Bells. Is Sorrowful Jones a Christmas movie?
My mistake Silver Bells is from The Lemon Drop Kid with Hope.
Been a bit since I watched it but doesn't San Francisco with Gable, Tracy, and Jeanette MacDonald include Ave Maria sung at Christmas time in Spencer's church?
KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE: A bard sings in the wintery snow of "A Maiden That Is Makeless [Matchless]."
Yes! That was an absolutely magical moment on the FSM disc, one of those cues which automatically compel you to hit "repeat" on the remote.
Let's not forget TARAS BULBA: "The Sleigh Ride" and the two source Christmas carols ("Come Ye Shepherds" and the Carol of the Bells) sung by the two Bulba brothers and their fellow Polish students beneath Natalia's balcony window (all starting at 26:17 in the video below).
It wasn't marketed as one but The Oranges has quite a bit of Christmas music (it probably helps that the film is set between Thanksgiving and Christmas).
You may know that Gabriel's Oboe in recent years has become a Xmas classic. It's not a Christmas song, but you can hear it quite often in Christmas concerts, due to its solemn and religious mood.
Not a film, but a VERY odd place for Jingle Bells to pop up -- Shostakovich's incidental music to King Lear. He uses the melody as one of the 'Songs of the Fool'.
Good call, and a nice bit of cultcha! My memory was telling me it was also used in the film score but it appears not.
JAWS THE REVENGE is set at Christmas and features some carol renditions by a high-school band (complete with berating leader) and a guy singing a Christmas song acapella in a taxi cab.
