Her Gift: the Carrie Underwood Christmas Rankdown (FINISHED)

[taylor]

Come, they told me, pa rum pum pum pum...



Glory, glory, glory, I'm so glad to have you here! Welcome to the Carrie Underwood Christmas Rankdown!

In 2008, Carrie Underwood's second studio album, Carnival Ride, was re-issued exclusively to Walmart with a special bonus disc, which consisted of five holiday tracks. That same year, Carrie was featured on a posthumously released Christmas Duets album from Elvis Presley, where she performed "I'll Be Home For Christmas" with his previously recorded vocals. Six years later, in 2014, Carrie was featured on Michael W. Smith's own holiday album The Spirit of Christmas, on a song called "All Is Well." Another six years later in 2020, after very high anticipation over much of the course of her career from fans and even some of the general public, Carrie has finally released her seventh studio album, My Gift: her first record of holiday music. And we're now finally going to rank it all, in celebration of the most magical and wonderful time of the year!

My Gift consists primarily of Jesus Jamz, with two duets: one with the incredible John Legend, and the other with her firstborn son, Isaiah Fisher. Three originals are offered: "Let There Be Peace," "Sweet Baby Jesus," and "Hallelujah," the John Legend collab.

Now, "O Holy Night" does now have two versions: the 2008 version from the Carnival Ride re-issue, and the 2020 edition offered on My Gift. The two versions are completely different, but I've decided to play it safe and allow both versions to ranked, based on which you prefer. As such, you will see both editions on the playlist.

There is some incredible music to be heard in this Rankdown, so while I know Christmas rankdowns (particularly a lot of more religious music at one time) isn't everyone's cup of tea, I hope you'll at least consider joining in on all the good Christmas cheer to be had!

---

Approximate Runtime: 1 hour 11 minutes

1. Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
2. O Come All Ye Faithful
3. Let There Be Peace
4. Little Drummer Boy (ft. Isaiah Fisher)
5. Sweet Baby Jesus
6. Hallelujah (with John Legend)
7. O Holy Night (2020 edition)
8. O Holy Night (2008 edition)
9. Mary, Did You Know?
10. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
11. Away In A Manger
12. Silent Night
13. The First Noel
14. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
15. Do You Hear What I Hear?
16. What Child Is This?
17. All Is Well (with Michael W. Smith)
18. I'll Be Home For Christmas (Elvis Presley ft. Carrie)
19. Favorite Time of Year

Here is an Apple Music playlist!

Due: Friday, December 18

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{Carrie Underwood Rankdown 2.0 Participants}
austin ClevelandRox tim schnetzka musicfan134 Typo fireflies lipe bboat11 Kanenrá:ke HeyHeyHey dgarcia3377 fearlessarrow George Strait Junkie Troublemaker castleoblivion26 toomuchboy brinkeronline carriefan15 Sugar Rush someguy gonecountry .indulgecountry Zeebz SHOOTER wrip samo🦕 lady𝓐fan born jamatthews83 Juanca Exclusive Az Paynter Cody Wants Out... Leo ✔ cedric Adrian C. 🍓

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{Country Tags}
Adrian C. 🍓 @annebury austin BB🌕 bboat11 bigfan101 taylor castleoblivion26 cedric Cody Wants Out... HeyHeyHey ClevelandRox g8erboi tim LBTrocks  Crimsonio Fancy fearlessarrow hydraflare .indulgecountry Leo ✔ born Kanenrá:ke The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 lady𝓐fan Mylo13 💜 RobbyFlorida someguy zaclord 🌈 SwiftlySheeran Au$tin toomuchboy @xfer schnetzka

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{Pop Tags}
13 Adrian C. 🍓 alexcuse @annebury anthony11554 @aprettyoddmusicbox austin avatar awesomecharts Az Paynter yuh yuh BB🌕 bigfan101 Linnethia Monique Private Dancer Future Captain taylor castleoblivion26 cedric charmander78 CF15 Cody Wants Out... g8erboi tim Willow Rinadoobee Breakfast  eidde Crimsonio fearlessarrow Exclusive filthy gabe @greento GrinningLikeADevil newpower ry4n hydraflare .indulgecountry @jadenlefranks Leo ✔ born Kanenrá:ke Juanca Mr. Thonk Eyes jtd Thee Stallion Fire kimberly lyhom mamooshka shootingstar16 @matthewlam @mirza Mayman MoD Mylo13 💜 Caviar Nick P @nonameneeded Normi SHOOTER RobbyFlorida samo🦕 sergejdordij @sklohiorawr stallie zaclord 🌈 SwiftlySheeran tallen2001 tanooki Au$tin thelegends Devil Marlena Nylund ✨ 𝑔𝓋 ✨ toomuchboy Trilogy Ty woods @waffle walt91 weaver wheatsquares33 willapted33 wrip YotamTS Zach

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{Christian/Holiday Tags}
castleoblivion26 g8erboi born @mirza RobbyFlorida zaclord 🌈 Au$tin toomuchboy

[taylor]

Song list without numbers!

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
O Come All Ye Faithful
Let There Be Peace
Little Drummer Boy (ft. Isaiah Fisher)
Sweet Baby Jesus
Hallelujah (with John Legend)
O Holy Night (2020 version)
O Holy Night (2008 version)
Mary, Did You Know?
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Away In A Manger
Silent Night
The First Noel
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Do You Hear What I Hear?
What Child Is This?
All Is Well (with Michael W. Smith)
I'll Be Home For Christmas (Elvis Presley ft. Carrie)
Favorite Time of Year

Preference revealer: czeckd.github.io/preference-revealer/dist/

[taylor]

Alrighty, y'all, the deadline of December 18 gives us exactly six weeks to get lists turned in! Plenty of time to consider and then send a list if you'd like! Please also let me know if you'd like to be untagged! 14887fan tagging you in this post as well since you were bummed about missing the 2.0 :) 

Now, since this is a holiday rankdown, please note that no extensions can really be given. The deadline of December 18 is meant for me to have lists in and results fully revealed by the night of Christmas Eve, so if you're gonna send a list, PLEASE mark December 18 on your calendars.

[jamatthews83]

Thanks for the tag. There's going to be some tough decisions here.

[tim]

Now that the election is almost all but behind us I'm finally feeling jolly enough to jump into Christmas music! Almost all of these songs will be first time listens for me so I'm hoping to find a few that I can add to my holiday playlists for years to come. Oh, speaking of playlists the one for Apple Music doesn't have any songs in it

[taylor]

And while I'm here...I'd like to offer a HUGE thank-you to born who provided these incredible graphics! It's very much appreciated! (Hoping you'll also submit a list as the deadline gets much closer  ;)  )

[taylor]

Nov 6, 2020 11:08:56 GMT -5 tim said:

Now that the election is almost all but behind us I'm finally feeling jolly enough to jump into Christmas music! Almost all of these songs will be first time listens for me so I'm hoping to find a few that I can add to my holiday playlists for years to come. Oh, speaking of playlists the one for Apple Music doesn't have any songs in it

Are you sure? It shows them all for me, and plays them all. I've tested it a couple times now.

[tim]

Nov 6, 2020 11:11:26 GMT -5 taylor said:

Are you sure? It shows them all for me, and plays them all. I've tested it a couple times now.

I've clicked on it multiple times but it just comes up as an empty playlist. Maybe the link to the playlist is incorrect?

[taylor]

Nov 6, 2020 11:14:22 GMT -5 tim said:

Nov 6, 2020 11:11:26 GMT -5 taylor said:

Are you sure? It shows them all for me, and plays them all. I've tested it a couple times now.

I've clicked on it multiple times but it just comes up as an empty playlist. Maybe the link to the playlist is incorrect?

I just clicked it again, and when I pressed play, the music started playing, so it can't be the link. Maybe it's because you don't follow me? I know I had a couple similar problems at first when I first got Apple Music and tried to access bboat11's New September Releases playlist. Once I followed him, I was able to add it.

[tim]

Nov 6, 2020 11:19:34 GMT -5 taylor said:

I just clicked it again, and when I pressed play, the music started playing, so it can't be the link. Maybe it's because you don't follow me? I know I had a couple similar problems at first when I first got Apple Music and tried to access bboat11 's New September Releases playlist. Once I followed him, I was able to add it.

It's definitely the link. Here's an example from the Alan Jackson Christmas playlist:

music.apple.com/library/playlist/p.pmrAGN6I241M8Y

music.apple.com/us/playlist/alan-jackson-christmas-rankdown/pl.u-leyldWPsjpBqdN

The first link is in in my own personal library; if you go to Share Playlist > Copy Link you'll be able to retrieve the link to post here to make it visible for others.

[taylor]

Nov 6, 2020 11:27:46 GMT -5 tim said:

Nov 6, 2020 11:19:34 GMT -5 taylor said:

I just clicked it again, and when I pressed play, the music started playing, so it can't be the link. Maybe it's because you don't follow me? I know I had a couple similar problems at first when I first got Apple Music and tried to access bboat11 's New September Releases playlist. Once I followed him, I was able to add it.

It's definitely the link. Here's an example from the Alan Jackson Christmas playlist:

music.apple.com/library/playlist/p.pmrAGN6I241M8Y

music.apple.com/us/playlist/alan-jackson-christmas-rankdown/pl.u-leyldWPsjpBqdN

The first link is in in my own personal library; if you go to Share Playlist > Copy Link you'll be able to retrieve the link to post here to make it visible for others.

LMAO NOW I see what was going on! It's fixed 

[tim]

Nov 6, 2020 11:32:40 GMT -5 taylor said:

LMAO NOW I see what was going on! It's fixed 

Yup I can see it now! And thanks for making us Apple Music users a playlist as I personally don't like the user interface of Spotify (plus the sound quality is actually a bit lower compared to Apple).

[tim]

I'm not sure what the opinion is regarding this, but I'd personally like to rank both versions of "O Holy Night" separately as they were recorded 10 years apart. In Martina's Christmas rankdown, for example, we ranked different versions of the same song and I'd consider this a different situation compared to the Shania Twain album series where there may be a country/pop version of a recording.

[bboat11]

Nov 8, 2020 0:14:06 GMT -5 tim said:

I'm not sure what the opinion is regarding this, but I'd personally like to rank both versions of "O Holy Night" separately as they were recorded 10 years apart. In Martina's Christmas rankdown, for example, we ranked different versions of the same song and I'd consider this a different situation compared to the Shania Twain album series where there may be a country/pop version of a recording.

I could get behind that idea too. Listening to both, they are VERY different from each other.

With Martina I had multiple versions of a couple songs mostly because some of them she had her own version as well as a collaboration with somebody else. Basically the same thing as Alan having his own "There's A New Kid In Town" in his Christmas rankdown as well as the newer duet version on Chris Young's album. Although there was one song ("Winter Wonderland") which is on both of Martina's albums, and I included them both because they are so different from each other.

I would say "O Holy Night" for Carrie is closer to that situation than for example choosing to exclude the acoustic version of "Heartbeat" from the Storyteller rankdown, lol.

[taylor]

Nov 8, 2020 0:14:06 GMT -5 tim said:

I'm not sure what the opinion is regarding this, but I'd personally like to rank both versions of "O Holy Night" separately as they were recorded 10 years apart. In Martina's Christmas rankdown, for example, we ranked different versions of the same song and I'd consider this a different situation compared to the Shania Twain album series where there may be a country/pop version of a recording.

Nov 8, 2020 4:40:05 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Nov 8, 2020 0:14:06 GMT -5 tim said:

I'm not sure what the opinion is regarding this, but I'd personally like to rank both versions of "O Holy Night" separately as they were recorded 10 years apart. In Martina's Christmas rankdown, for example, we ranked different versions of the same song and I'd consider this a different situation compared to the Shania Twain album series where there may be a country/pop version of a recording.

I could get behind that idea too. Listening to both, they are VERY different from each other.

With Martina I had multiple versions of a couple songs mostly because some of them she had her own version as well as a collaboration with somebody else. Basically the same thing as Alan having his own "There's A New Kid In Town" in his Christmas rankdown as well as the newer duet version on Chris Young's album. Although there was one song ("Winter Wonderland") which is on both of Martina's albums, and I included them both because they are so different from each other.

I would say "O Holy Night" for Carrie is closer to that situation than for example choosing to exclude the acoustic version of "Heartbeat" from the Storyteller rankdown, lol.

Well, to be quite frank, I was gonna just exclude the 2008 version of "O Holy Night" altogether since we have a new version on My Gift. But then I realized...there might be people who prefer one version over the other, which is why I took the Shania Twain album series approach and put both in there with the option to choose which one you like better and rank it accordingly. I personally think that the 2020 version blows 2008 completely out of the water, and I personally don't wanna rank 2008 because of that lol. Then again...since they are so different, they'd probably wind up cancelling each other out when people send in their ranks, causing it to wind up in the middle or something. So if it's something y'all wanna do, I'd be open to ranking both versions!

[tim]

Nov 8, 2020 15:22:09 GMT -5 taylor said:

Then again...since they are so different, they'd probably wind up cancelling each other out when people send in their ranks, causing it to wind up in the middle or something.

There’s only one way to find out!

[schnetzka]

I'll definitely be doing this but I think I'll wait until it's closer to December to really decide my ordering. There's so much Christmas music to listen to so prioritizing Carrie's will take some practice lol.

[dgarcia3377]

I'm working on one list first, then I'll work on this one

[bboat11]

Oooo taylor you definitely should add "Favorite Time of Year" to the list!!!! This jam's got more groove to it than her entire new album!

[taylor]

Nov 12, 2020 19:56:22 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Oooo taylor you definitely should add "Favorite Time of Year" to the list!!!! This jam's got more groove to it than her entire new album!

Only if someone can find a way to bring it out of the exclusivity of Amazon Music. tim has also already sent his list so Tim if it's added I hope you wouldn't mind adding it in

[bboat11]

Nov 12, 2020 20:14:46 GMT -5 taylor said:

Nov 12, 2020 19:56:22 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Oooo taylor you definitely should add "Favorite Time of Year" to the list!!!! This jam's got more groove to it than her entire new album!

Only if someone can find a way to bring it out of the exclusivity of Amazon Music. tim has also already sent his list so Tim if it's added I hope you wouldn't mind adding it in

tim won't mind ;)

And I just bought the song on Amazon. I can send it to a guy I know ;)

[taylor]

Nov 12, 2020 20:20:35 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Nov 12, 2020 20:14:46 GMT -5 taylor said:

Only if someone can find a way to bring it out of the exclusivity of Amazon Music. tim has also already sent his list so Tim if it's added I hope you wouldn't mind adding it in

tim won't mind

And I just bought the song on Amazon. I can send it to a guy I know

Once a link is available I'll update the OP!  ;)

[castleoblivion26]

castleoblivion20.wixsite.com/music

Go to my website and Carrie's new song is available to listen right at the top of the page!

[taylor]

Nov 12, 2020 22:02:11 GMT -5 castleoblivion26 said:

castleoblivion20.wixsite.com/music

Go to my website and Carrie's new song is available to listen right at the top of the page!

Thanks so much!!! 

Alrighty, with that I have updated the playlist to include "Favorite Time of Year" as well as an update to the "O Holy Night" editions. I've listened to them both back-to-back a number of times and have decided after all that they are indeed different enough to rank separately! (Luckily for tim he braced for that  :kii: )

Due date is 5 weeks from tomorrow; still plenty of time!

[taylor]

Alright, it's time for an official reminder y'all. We're now four weeks away from the December 18 deadline for this! I know the bulk of you won't participate until after Thanksgiving night, but remember that December 18 is a deadline with no extensions, so I'd get on it as soon as you can. You definitely won't be disappointed, there's some incredible vocals to be experienced and plenty of Christmas cheer to go around!

Lists Received:
1. taylor
2. 14887fan
tim I have your list but without "Favorite Time of Year" just as a reminder :) 

Due: Friday, December 18

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{Carrie Underwood Rankdown 2.0 Participants}
austin ClevelandRox tim schnetzka musicfan134 Typo fireflies lipe bboat11 Kanenrá:ke HeyHeyHey dgarcia3377 fearlessarrow George Strait Junkie Troublemaker castleoblivion26 toomuchboy brinkeronline carriefan15 Sugar Rush someguy gonecountry .indulgecountry Zeebz SHOOTER wrip samo🦕 lady𝓐fan born jamatthews83 Juanca Exclusive Az Paynter Cody Wants Out... Leo ✔ cedric Adrian C. 🍓

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{Country Tags}
Adrian C. 🍓 @annebury austin BB🌕 bboat11 bigfan101 taylor castleoblivion26 cedric Cody Wants Out... HeyHeyHey ClevelandRox g8erboi tim LBTrocks Crimsonio Fancy fearlessarrow hydraflare .indulgecountry Leo ✔ born Kanenrá:ke The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷 lady𝓐fan Mylo13 💜 RobbyFlorida someguy zaclord 🌈 SwiftlySheeran Au$tin toomuchboy @xfer schnetzka

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{Pop Tags}
13 Adrian C. 🍓 alexcuse @annebury anthony11554 @aprettyoddmusicbox austin avatar awesomecharts Az Paynter yuh yuh BB🌕 bigfan101 Linnethia Monique Private Dancer Future Captain taylor castleoblivion26 cedric charmander78 CF15 Cody Wants Out... g8erboi tim Willow Rinadoobee Breakfast  eidde Crimsonio fearlessarrow Exclusive filthy gabe @greento GrinningLikeADevil newpower ry4n hydraflare .indulgecountry @jadenlefranks Leo ✔ born Kanenrá:ke Juanca Mr. Thonk Eyes jtd Thee Stallion Fire kimberly lyhom mamooshka shootingstar16 @matthewlam @mirza Mayman MoD Mylo13 💜 Caviar Nick P @nonameneeded Normi SHOOTER RobbyFlorida samo🦕 sergejdordij @sklohiorawr stallie zaclord 🌈 SwiftlySheeran tallen2001 tanooki Au$tin thelegends Devil Marlena Nylund ✨ 𝑔𝓋 ✨ toomuchboy Trilogy Ty woods @waffle walt91 weaver wheatsquares33 willapted33 wrip YotamTS Zach

SPOILER: Click to show

{Christian/Holiday Tags}
castleoblivion26 g8erboi born @mirza RobbyFlorida zaclord 🌈 Au$tin toomuchboy

[tim]

Nov 21, 2020 8:13:16 GMT -5 taylor said:

tim I have your list but without "Favorite Time of Year" just as a reminder  

I haven't forgotten! I just had listened to too much Christmas music at once and needed a little break lol...I'll probably come back around to it sometime this weekend

[someguy]

I will do this soon. Still can't believe that there is already a re-release bonus track when I just bought the album. >

[bboat11]

Nov 21, 2020 12:46:15 GMT -5 tim said:

Nov 21, 2020 8:13:16 GMT -5 taylor said:

tim I have your list but without "Favorite Time of Year" just as a reminder  

I haven't forgotten! I just had listened to too much Christmas music at once and needed a little break lol...I'll probably come back around to it sometime this weekend

[musicfan134]

Keep reminding me...I'll do this at some point before Dec 18.

[taylor]

It's time for a reminder! But first, let's get to a new page...