As we near the end of the year, I always look forward to reading news articles that are published about top happenings and such from the past 365 days.
We’ll soon publish our annual Top 10 news stories from Wells County as we recap what our staff viewed as the most newsworthy events of the year.
Chances are you’ll see the same type of articles about state, national and international events as well. There certainly is no shortage when it comes to major events happening on the state, national and international stages this year, but I digress.
On a more light-hearted note, it’s also fun to see what the year’s top Christmas songs and movies were.
CBS News recently did a story on Billboard’s top Christmas songs. Three of them were released before I was born; two of them came out before my parents were born. I’m guessing most of us could sing them without needing a copy of the lyrics.
I think I have listened to all five of these songs at least 10 times or more this year. It wouldn’t be Christmas without playing them over and over again.
Any guesses about which songs topped this year’s Hot 100 Christmas songs?
Drum roll …
No. 5: Burl Ive’s 1964 hit “A Holly Jolly Christmas”
No. 4: Wham!’s 1986 song “Last Christmas”
No. 3: Bobby Helm’s 1957 song “Jingle Bell Rock”
No. 2: Brenda Lee’s 1958 song “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
No. 1: Mariah Carey’s 1994 song “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
For a couple of weeks, however, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” topped the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the first time since the song was released almost seven decades ago. The song was streamed some 35 million times between the Friday after Thanksgiving until the following Thursday.
Each of the Top 5 songs are on the Christmas playlist that my wife and I have been listening to for the past month each time we are in the car or when we’re doing chores around the house.
I think I heard each song even more in the myriad of Christmas movies we’ve been watching these past couple of weeks.
Any guesses on this season’s top Christmas movies from Nov. 10 and Dec. 10 according to an article in Forbes?
No. 5: “Four Christmases”
No. 4: “The Santa Clause”
No. 3: “Home Alone”
No. 2: “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”
No. 1: “Elf”
I thought “A Christmas Story” — one of my favorites each year — might have made the Top 5 but instead it was No. 10 on the list Forbes published.
And in case you’re wondering … “Die Hard” did make the list, coming in at No. 13. We’ll leave the ongoing debate about whether it is a Christmas movie for another day.
My rankings would probably look a bit different for both the top movies and songs.
How about yours?
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
