9. "Silver Bells" The Radio City Christmas Spectacular Version
This is the quintessential New York City Christmas song (sorry "A New York City Christmas"), and, working in this city every day, it's hard not to think of the lyrics, "City sidewalks, busy sidewalks" when you're shoving past store-friendly tourists and Salvation Army Santas clogging the walkways. I also always thought the line, "Strings of streetlights, even stoplights/blink a bright red and green" was fairly clever, since red and green are traditional Christmas colors. The reason I chose the Radio City version is because when I first saw the show as a kid, I remember thinking how appropriate this song choice was, given my Manhattan surroundings. Just hearing it on the radio every year (though it's usually not this version, which is accompanied by a full orchestra and, of course, those prancing Rockettes) reminds me of the first time I heard it, sitting in the theater at Radio City Music Hall and impatiently waiting for Christmas to arrive.