We're just days away from Christmas and I'm still fine tuning my Celtic Christmas playlist.  It is tough finding good Celtic music for Christmas.  I've spent the last few weeks listening to Celtic Christmas albums of all shapes and sizes.  I've also been listening to classic Christmas songs, and I think I see the problem–there's not enough upbeat Celtic Christmas music.

When you flip on the latest Christmas station on TV or the radio, there's a lot of upbeat Christmas music.  Yes, I prefer the ballads too.  But I also like a nice mix of upbeat music in my playlist, interspersed with beautiful ballads.  Yet, most of the Celtic Christmas albums are pretty mellow.

The perfect Celtic Christmas song is “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl.  It starts off ballady with a great story.  Then it moves along with a great rhythm and continues with great imagery.

“Christmas in Killarney” by Bing Crosby is another good one.  It's more obviously more Irish American than Irish, but ah the imagery.  It's fun to sing too.  I've been learning that one this year.

That said, I am thrilled with this year's Celtic Christmas show of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.  To my mind, this has some of the Celtic Christmas songs in my music library, minus those two listed above and a few other contemporary songs I'm not allowed to play on the show.

Of course, George Papavgeris brings it all together with his touching ballad “(Without You On) Christmas Day”.  That's by far one of my all time favorite Celtic Christmas songs.

So I guess the challenge I face when I finally release my own Celtic Christmas CD in a year or two is to offer enough fun upbeat songs to balance out the slow ballads.

What kind of Christmas songs do you prefer?

What's your favorite Celtic Christmas song?