With the proliferation of Christmas albums by celebrity musicians you can now enjoy traditional Christmas songs tweaked to fit any mood or musical taste.
Jazzy, bluesy, country, rock, pop, crooner, funk, acoustic, big band, solo artist, up-tempo, slowed down, operatic, folksy, etc. versions of all your favourite traditional Christmas carols are available at the click of a button.
But sometimes it is nice to hear classic carols the way they were originally intended to be be performed: by large choirs with minimal musical accompaniment.
It's a treatment especially fitting for one of my favourite Christmas carols: God Rest You (or Ye) Merry Gentlemen.
The first known publication of this traditional English Christmas carol dates to 1760, but the song may well be older than that. The song even gets a mention in Charles Dickens' holiday classic, A Christmas Carol.
A listen to a magnificent version of this classic carol - performed by the King's College Choir in the King's College Chapel in Cambridge, England - go online to: http://youtu.be/IDvEwC0wZ-I.
However if this version doesn't tickle your fancy, Loreena McKennit (http://youtu.be/CCYSITWpKIk) and the Barenaked Ladies (http://youtu.be/HGVNzgUxE-g) also do good versions.
